The population of Askersund

I've been telling people back home and friends who are not familiar with Sweden and Askersund just how peaceful, quiet and SMALL this town is. The town centre area is certainly not that large, perhaps about the size of Holland Village and that is where we live. But the total area size of the municipal of Askersund is probably more like 5 or 6 times larger than that. A lot of it is made up of forest and farmland and more than 50% of the residents live outside of the town centre area.

Yesterday as I was looking through the Askersund municipal website (out of curiosity lah), I saw that they have posted the latest population statistics for Sweden by the Swedish Statistics Bureau. And here are the the statistical numbers in terms of population movement for the town of Askersund as of the first half of 2008.

Total population: 11 401
Births: 49
Deaths: 78 (what did I tell you about this place being like a retirement home?)
Total actual immigration (incl. foreigners and those from other parts of Sweden: 39

That's right, people, the municipal of Askersund has shown a rapid increase in population increase, coming in at 3rd highest population rise within the province of Örebro. Yes! We're 3rd! Hurrah!

Sure the number of deaths is pretty close to twice that of births but even with that we still managed a population increase of 39 in real numbers. Alright! And I can proudly say that I make up part of that 39!

And here I was wondering if I would ever make my mark when I came here. But not only am I part of that special 39...I have managed to make an even bigger mark on Askersund. Within the statistics, it does state the number of immigrants from outside of Sweden for every municipality in Sweden. And in the province of Örebro within which Askersund is located, unfortunately, my tiny town is last in terms of foreign immigrants moving in.

And the total number of foreigners moving into Askersund in the past 6 months? One.

Yup yup!! Yours truly has really put Askersund on the map when it comes to foreigners. I am THE ONLY FOREIGNER to have moved to Askersund in the 1st 6 months of 2008. How proud I am. Oh how so very proud I am....