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Ranua
Ranua
Municipality
	Ranuan kunta; Ranua kommun
	Ranua Church
	Coat of arms
	Location of Ranua in Finland
	Coordinates: 65°56′N 026°31′E / 65.933°N 26.517°E
Country	Finland
Region	Lapland
Sub-region	Rovaniemi
Charter	1917
Government
• Municipal manager	Tuomas Aikkila
Area (2018-01-01)
• Total	3,694.79 km2 (1,426.57 sq mi)
• Land	3,454.17 km2 (1,333.66 sq mi)
• Water	241.09 km2 (93.09 sq mi)
• Rank	14th largest in Finland
Population (2024-10-31)
• Total	3,571
• Rank	202nd largest in Finland
• Density	1.03/km2 (2.7/sq mi)
Population by native language
• Finnish	98.1% (official)
• Swedish	0.2%
• Others	1.7%
Population by age
• 0 to 14	17.5%
• 15 to 64	52.8%
• 65 or older	29.7%
Time zone	UTC+02:00 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+03:00 (EEST)
Website	www.ranua.fi/en

Ranua is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Lapland. The municipality has a population of 3,571 (31 October 2024)^[2] and covers an area of 3,694.79 square kilometres (1,426.57 sq mi) of which 241.09 km² (93.09 sq mi) is water.^[1] The population density is 1.03 inhabitants per square kilometre (2.7/sq mi).

The municipality is unilingually Finnish.

Geography

Neighbouring municipalities are Ii, Simo, Tervola, Rovaniemi, Posio and Pudasjärvi.

Villages

Villages within the municipality of Ranua are inclusive of:

Nature of Ranua

There are 569 lakes in Ranua.^[5] The biggest of them are lake Ranuanjärvi and lake Simojärvi. There are also quite many rapids and natural salmon living in the rapids.

History

Ranua was originally the name of a farm established in the 18th century. It gets its name from the lake Ranuanjärvi, which was first mentioned in 1553. Its name is likely of Tavastian origin, as ranu- toponyms are rare and mainly found in Tavastia.^[6]

The parish of Ranua was formed from parts of Simo, Pudasjärvi and Rovaniemen maalaiskunta in 1899. The area became a separate municipality in 1917. A part of it was given to the newly formed Posio municipality in 1926. It is the only municipality in Lapland where the dialect is a Northern Ostrobothnian one, albeit with some influence from the Kainuu dialects, which are a subset of Savonian dialects.^[7]

Tourism

Perhaps the most well known attraction is the Ranua Zoo, the northernmost zoo in the world,^[8] which has many arctic animals, including the polar bear, which is the mascot of the zoo. Ranua Zoo is the only place where you can see a living polar bear in Finland.

Other notable attractions within the municipality of Ranua are inclusive of the Saukkojärvi Local History and School Museum located in the village of Saukkojärvi, Finland, the Hillamarkkinat, Poro Island and the Church of Ranua.