Halmstads Kommun

The coastline of Halmstads Kommun is about 40 kilometres long and consists of a string of kilometres of sandy beaches, which are only interrupted by some rocky headlands. From west to east the municipality extends up to 40 kilometres deep into the wooded inland and borders on the municipality Ljungby Kommun in the province Kronoberg which already belongs to Småland.

The most popular and well visited beach is the well-known Tylösand Havsbad. The beach to the west of the central town and provincial capital Halmstad has been awarded since years with the Blue Flag and is flanked by hotels, restaurants and bars.

The landscape immediately behind the coastline is relatively flat for the first ten kilometres and consists mainly of agricultural land, which is interrupted by individual pieces of forest. But shortly after the eastern city limits of Halmstad, nature is increasingly turning into a rocky and hilly landscape with dense forests.

Sights and nature around Halmstad

While the coastal landscape has undergone major changes in the course of recent history due to human influences, the landscape of the hinterland has not changed for centuries. Partly unspoilt nature, whose individual characteristics are presented to the visitors with the help of more than fifty nature reserves.

One of the most famous nature reserves is the Naturreservat Danska Fall, which attracts many visitors because of its dramatic waterfalls. The densely wooded inland is also broken up by around 130 small lakes, all less than one square kilometre in size, which are both good fishing grounds and bathing places for those who prefer a secluded forest lake to the long open sandy beaches on the coast.

As a coastal region, the area of today's Halmstad municipality is an ancient settlement area in which a large number of artefacts, some of which are thousands of years old, have been preserved. One of the oldest of these is the 5,000 year old Tolarps Gånggrift, the largest Neolithic stone chamber grave in the south of Halland or Påarps Gravfält located directly on the coast as the largest Iron Age burial ground in Halland.

The most famous evidence of the recent past can be found in the central town of Halmstad. These include Halmstad Castle on the banks of the river Nissan, dating from the early 17th century, or the open-air museum Hallandsgården on the outskirts of Halmstad with a dozen historical buildings.

Halmstads Kommun in figures

With an area of 1,030 square kilometres, Halmstads Kommun is only the second largest municipality in Halland, after the neighbouring municipality of Falkenberg, but with 100,000 inhabitants it is the most populous municipality in the province. With around 99 inhabitants per square kilometre, the population density is about five times the national average.

In view of the fact that 66,000 inhabitants, about two thirds of the population, live in the urban area of Halmstad, the rest of the municipal area is much less populated. The gap to the other localities is very large – the second largest town Oskarsström, for example, has only about 4,000 inhabitants, followed by Frösakull with about 2,300 inhabitants.