What makes a northern Swedish town of 1,000 a great place to live?
The small town of Sorsele in Swedish Lapland has been rated as the best small town in Sweden for local amenities by a new study.
Property and housing magazine Hem & Hyra looked at the total number of service points, including grocery stores, pharmacies, schools, ATMs, and petrol stations, and measured which towns had the highest number of facilities per capita.
Sorsele, a town otherwise known for its hiking and skiing opportunities, came top of all 2,011 "urban areas" in the country. It's the main town in the municipality of the same name, home to part of the huge Vindelfjällens Nature Reserve.
It boasts a high school, three grocery stores, doctor's office, and a branch of the alcohol monopoly Systembolaget. All in all, it counts 17.1 amenities per 1,000 residents, more than anywhere else in Sweden.
Also available in Sorsele (but not included as service points for the purpose of the study) are a hardware store, bakery, florist, and grill restaurant, but no dentist and no bank after its last bank branch closed in May of this year.
"We are pretty good but some parts are missing. We have no clothes shop. But we have just enough," Kjell Öjeryd, the chairman of the municipal board, told the magazine.
A total of 1,113 people lived in Sorsele at the end of 2020, according to Statistics Sweden.
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Property and housing magazine Hem & Hyra looked at the total number of service points, including grocery stores, pharmacies, schools, ATMs, and petrol stations, and measured which towns had the highest number of facilities per capita.
Sorsele, a town otherwise known for its hiking and skiing opportunities, came top of all 2,011 "urban areas" in the country. It's the main town in the municipality of the same name, home to part of the huge Vindelfjällens Nature Reserve.
It boasts a high school, three grocery stores, doctor's office, and a branch of the alcohol monopoly Systembolaget. All in all, it counts 17.1 amenities per 1,000 residents, more than anywhere else in Sweden.
Also available in Sorsele (but not included as service points for the purpose of the study) are a hardware store, bakery, florist, and grill restaurant, but no dentist and no bank after its last bank branch closed in May of this year.
"We are pretty good but some parts are missing. We have no clothes shop. But we have just enough," Kjell Öjeryd, the chairman of the municipal board, told the magazine.
A total of 1,113 people lived in Sorsele at the end of 2020, according to Statistics Sweden.
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