Editing Town (section)

=== Sweden ===
{{See also|Stad (Sweden)|Köping}}
[[File:Övre Finngränd 7 Sta Maria 29 Visby Gotland.jpg|thumbnail|View towards [[Visby Cathedral|St Mary's Cathedral]] in [[Visby]], Sweden. Visby is one of the most well-preserved former [[Hanseatic League|Hanseatic]] cities in Sweden and a [[UNESCO]] [[World Heritage Site]]. Today it is the seat of [[Gotland Municipality]].]]

The Swedish language does not differentiate between towns and cities in the English sense of the words; both words are commonly translated as {{lang|sv|stad}}, a term which has no legal significance today. The term {{lang|sv|tätort}} is used for an [[Urban areas in Sweden|urban area]] or a locality, which however is a statistical rather than an administrative concept and encompasses densely settled villages with only 200 inhabitants as well as the major cities. The word ''[[köping]]'' corresponds to an English ''[[market town]]'' ''(chipping)'' or German ''[[wikt:Markt|Markt]]'' but is mainly of historical significance, as the term is not used today and only survives in some [[toponym]]s. Some towns with names ending in {{Lang|sv|-köping}} are cities with over 100,000 inhabitants today, e.g. [[Linköping]].

Before 1971, 132 larger [[Municipality|municipalities]] in Sweden enjoyed special royal charters as {{Lang|sv|[[Stad (Sweden)|stad]]}} instead of ''[[kommun]]'' (which is similar to a US [[county (United States)|county]]). However, since 1971 all municipalities are officially defined as {{lang|sv|kommun}}, thus making no legal difference between, for instance, [[Stockholm]] and a small countryside municipality. Every urban area that was a {{lang|sv|stad}} before 1971 is still often referred to as a {{lang|sv|stad}} in daily speech. Since the 1980s, 14 of these municipalities have branded themselves as {{lang|sv|stad}} again, although this has no legal or administrative significance, as they still have to refer to themselves as {{lang|sv|kommun}} in all legal documentation.

For statistical purposes, [[Statistics Sweden]] officially defines a {{lang|sv|stad}} as an urban area of at least 10,000 inhabitants. Since 2017 it also defines a {{lang|sv|storstad}} (literally 'big town') as a municipality with a population of at least 200,000 of which at least 200,000 are in its largest {{lang|sv|tätort}}.<ref>[https://skr.se/tjanster/kommunerlandsting/faktakommunerochlandsting/kommungruppsindelning.2051.html Kommungruppsindelning], Sveriges Kommuner och Regioner 2017. Retrieved 16 May 2020</ref> This means that [[Stockholm]], [[Gothenburg]] and [[Malmö]] are {{lang|sv|storstäder}}, i.e. 'major cities', while [[Uppsala]], with a population of approximately 230,000 in the municipality, which covers an unusually large area, almost three times larger than the combined land area of the municipalities of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, is not. The largest contiguous urban area within Uppsala municipality has a population of well below 200,000, while the population of both Malmö municipality, with a land area only 1/14 the size of Uppsala municipality, and Malmö {{lang|sv|tätort}}, i.e. contiguous urban area, is well over 300,000, and the population of the [[Metropolitan Malmö|Malmö Metropolitan Area]], with a land area only slightly larger than Uppsala Municipality, is well over 700,000. A difference in the size and population of the urban area between Uppsala and the smallest {{lang|sv|storstad}} in Sweden, Malmö, is the reason Statistics Sweden changed the definition of {{lang|sv|storstad}} in 2017.<ref>[https://unt.se/nyheter/uppsala/beskedet-uppsala-blir-ingen-storstad-4451151.aspx Uppsala blir ingen storstad], Upsala Nya Tidning. Retrieved 16 May 2020</ref>