Norrland
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Norrland of today
Norrland is an informal region of Sweden, not used for any administrative purpose but a very common concept in everyday language. Norrland comprises of the regions Gästrikland, Medelpad, Ångermanland, Hälsingland, Jämtland, Härjedalen, Västerbotten, Norrbotten and Lappland. This part of Sweden comprises roughly 59% of its area. Except for the coast areas, the area is sparsly populated.
The historical Norrland
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In older history, Norrland is one of the four lands of Sweden. To the west it represented the northern half of Sweden bounded to the south by Svealand and to the east it represented the northern half of Finland - which was then a part of Sweden - bounded to the south by Österland.
Provinces
The historical Norrland was made up of the following nine provinces:
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In the 20th century the northern part of Westrobothnia occasionally came to be regarded as a separate traditional province:
History
As the Swedish kingdom expanded north both on the western (Swedish) side and the eastern (Finnish) side of the Gulf of Bothnia the territories uncovered were organised into provinces. The peace treaty of 1645, Denmark and Norway ceded Jemtia and Herdalia to Sweden and which were incorporated as provinces. The later peace treaty of 1658 would see Sweden receive Skåne, Bohuslän, Trondheim, Halland and Blekinge. Upon the separation of Sweden and Finland in 1809 Norrland was split in two parts, leaving all of Ostrobothnia, and the eastern parts of Laponia and Westrobothnia to the Grand Duchy of Finland, as a part of the Russian Empire.