Kauniainen (Finland)

Kauniainen (Finnish: [ˈkɑu̯niˌɑi̯nen]; Swedish: Grankulla) is a town in Finland, located in the southern interior of the country. Kauniainen is situated in the southern part of the Uusimaa region, and it is enclaved by the City of Espoo. The population of Kauniainen is approximately 10,000. It is the 95th most populous municipality in Finland. Kauniainen is part of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, which has approximately 1.62 million inhabitants. Kauniainen was founded by a corporation in 1906, AB Grankulla, that parcelled land and created a suburb for villas; Kauniainen received the status of a market town in 1920, the Finnish name in 1949 and the title of kaupunki ("city, town") in 1972. The municipal taxation rate in Kauniainen is the lowest in Finland (%), which has made the city attractive to high-income families. This in turn makes the average income generally high, making it possible to keep the taxation rate low without compromising the service to the inhabitants. Kauniainen is a bilingual municipality with Finnish and Swedish as its official languages. The population consists of 59% Finnish speakers, 30% Swedish speakers, and 11% speakers of other languages. The dominant party in the city council has traditionally been the Swedish People's Party.