Hyvinkää (; ,ää ) is a city and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Uusimaa region, approximately north of the capital Helsinki. The city was chartered in 1960. The population of Hyvinkää is (). Its neighboring municipalities are Riihimäki and Hausjärvi in the north, Mäntsälä in the east, Tuusula and Nurmijärvi in the south, and Vihti and Loppi in the west.
Highways (such as Tampere Highway (E12) and Hanko Highway) and rail connections make it one of the suburban commuter centers of Greater Helsinki. The city planning has had an emphasis on recreational facilities.
Some of the more well-known buildings in Hyvinkää are, among others, the church (1961, Aarno Ruusuvuori) of Hyvinkää and the manor house of Kytäjä. The Finnish Railway Museum is located in Hyvinkää.
Hyvinkää is also home to Konecranes, which specializes in the manufacture and service of cranes, and KONE Elevators, the world's third-largest elevator company who manufacture, install and service elevators and escalators.
The workshop of Ruokangas Guitars, the leading Finnish electric guitar maker, was located at Wanha Villatehdas, Hyvinkää until 2011.
Hyvinkää is known among Scandinavian golf enthusiasts due to Kytäjä Golf, located in the village of Kytäjä located in the countryside of Hyvinkää. It offers two courses designed by Tom McBroom: South East Course opened in August 2003, and North West Course in August 2004.
History
In the 16th century there was a tavern in the area now known as Hyvinkäänkylä (literally "the village of Hyvinkää"), which lies approximately halfway between Helsinki and Hämeenlinna. It was mentioned the first time in 1495 as Höffinga. The first tax catalogues also marked the existence of some houses in the area around the same time. During the 16th century there was also a mine close to current-day Kytäjä village.
Hyvinkää village gradually grew in the latter half of the 19th century, though it was the construction of the railway network through Finland, beginning in 1861, that marked the starting point for the town's rapid growth. Hyvinkää, who still belonged to the Nurmijärvi parish at that time, resigned in 1917 as its own parishioner.
The construction of Finland's first stretch of railroad, the Helsinki–Hämeenlinna line, determined the location of the present city centre and the railway station of Hyvinkää is one of the few original stations still in use. From Hyvinkää the railway also branches off to the port of Hanko. The Hanko–Hyvinkää Railroad was the first private railroad in Finland, founded in 1862, and acquired by the Finnish State RR Co. in 1875. In the early 20th century, the station village in Hyvinkää was an intermediate stopping point for many emigrants leaving by ship from Hanko for a new life in North America.
The air quality of Hyvinkää was considered healthy due to dense pine forests, and in the 1880s a group of physicians from Helsinki opened a sanatorium for patients seeking rest and recuperation.
Industrialization brought a wool factory to Hyvinkää in 1892 – the Donner family's Hyvinge Yllespinneri. The factory ceased operation in the 1990s, but the red-brick halls still remain. The building has found several new uses, including an exhibition centre and a theater.
Hyvinkää Airfield served as the country's main airport for a short time after the second World War while Helsinki-Malmi Airport was under the control of the Allied Powers. There is now a motorsports centre near the airfield.
Hyvinkää's population grew quickly following the Second World War. It became home to many Finnish Karelian refugees after Karelia was handed out to Soviet Union by the Moscow Peace Treaty. Nowadays Hyvinkää is the sixth biggest town by inhabitants of Uusimaa.
Demographics
Population
The city of Hyvinkää has inhabitants, making it the most populous municipality in Finland. The city of Hyvinkää is part of the Helsinki region, which is the largest urban area in Finland with inhabitants. In Hyvinkää, 7.2% of the population has a foreign background, which is below the national average.
Languages
Hyvinkää is a monolingual Finnish-speaking municipality. The majority of the population - people or - speak Finnish as their first language. In Hyvinkää, people, or of the population, speak Swedish. 7.2% of the population of Hyvinkää have a mother tongue other than Finnish or Swedish. As English and Swedish are compulsory school subjects, functional bilingualism or trilingualism acquired through language studies is not uncommon.
At least 30 different languages are spoken in Hyvinkää. The most common foreign languages are Estonian (1.2%), Russian (1.0%), Albanian (0.6%) and Arabic (0.5%).