Borås Kommun

The entire region was dominated by the textile industry since the middle of the 19th century. Especially the central town Borås was the centre of the Swedish garment industry. After textile production was relocated in the 1970s, Borås, the second largest city in Västra Götalands Län after Gothenburg, became the Swedish fashion design metropolis.

The landscape in Borås Kommun

The landscape consists largely of hilly terrain and is characterised outside Borås by large and sparsely populated woodland areas with a large number of lakes. In fact, there are just over 250 lakes spread over the 970 square kilometres of the municipality. Åsunden, the largest lake in the region, covers almost 33 square kilometres.

There is the river Viskan, which flows through the area of the municipality on its way to the Kattegatt. Because of the large number and size of the water bodies, there are many opportunities for activities on and around the water within Borås municipality.

The extensive forests offer ample opportunities for hiking and biking. A total of 14 nature reserves preserve natural forms typical of the landscape or particularly original areas with rare plant and animal species.

Most of the nature reserves have marked trails that lead the visitor safely through the partly wilderness-like protected areas. The nature reserve Rya Åsar northwest of Borås is the largest nature reserve in the municipality, covering an area of almost 550 hectares and has a network of trails of over 20 kilometres.

Places and sights around Borås

The city is the centre for fashion, art and culture in the region. Starting with interesting museums, such as the Textile Museum, the cultural arc spans from annual fashion fairs to the well-known art museums Abecita Konstmuseum and the Borås Konstmuseum.

Within a radius of about 1.5 kilometres in the city centre of Borås alone, there are hundreds of sculptures and installations, and on the walls of many houses there are huge murals, the largest of which is about 27 metres high. Besides fashion, design and art, Borås is also known for its zoo Borås Djurpark, which is one of the largest zoos in Sweden.

The cultural history of the region is presented by the open-air museum Borås Museum in the extensive city park Ramnaparken with its historic buildings from the 18th century. A special cultural-historical treasure is the Hedareds Stavkyrka from the 16th century, which is the only remaining stave church in Sweden and is located about 15 kilometres north-west of Borås.

Borås municipality in figures

With an area of about 970 square kilometres, Borås is one of the ten largest municipalities in Västra Götalands Län. It is relatively densely populated with about 115,000 inhabitants and with an average of about 125 inhabitants per square kilometre it is about six times more densely populated than the national average.

However, due to the fact that about 65 percent of the population lives in the urban area of the central town of Borås, the surrounding area is relatively sparsely populated. The other towns within the municipality are correspondingly much less populated – Sandared, for example, the second largest town in the municipality, has only about 6,600 inhabitants, and Fristad in third place is inhabited by about 5,500 people.