Ylläsjärvi Village

Ylläsjärvi village is located in the area of two municipalities: Kolari and Kittilä. Both municipality centres (town halls) are located about 40 km by road from Ylläsjärvi. Ylläsjärvi is a small village (350 inhabitants) and is located in Western Lapland, 150 km north of the Arctic Circle. Village Ylläsjärvi has a lively community with both young and older active inhabitants. The most active group is about 20-30 people and seasonally cottage owners participate in the activities. The village covers about 50km2 and is surrounded by very sparsely populated area. Yet, Ylläsjärvi is a very international village with tens of thousands yearly visitors. We are located next to Pallas-Yllästunturi national park and 40 minutes to Kittilä airport, Kolari railwaysstation and the border of Sweden. The air is clean, pure nature products and clean spring waters available. Winters are cold and snowy, the midnight sun during summer and an autumn full of colors. Our harsh nature is our strength and the main driver for people to visit, work and live here.

Tourism is the main livelihood, but it is still very seasonal and not offering all year round jobs. The Village also has traditional reindeer herding, small-scale nature based product making and remote workers that would like to move here. We have about 700 cottages around the village that are mainly owned by people out-of-village. The village does not have public transportation but the technology and other smart solutions (e.g. MaaS) could help solving the needs locally. We have taken part in Ylläs Around and YlläsTiketti - MaaS pilot projects few years ago. MaaS is a new concept aiming to provide consumers with flexible, efficient, user-oriented and ecological mobility services covering multiple modes of transport on a one-stop-shop principle. MaaS could offer multimodal route planners and different services under one fare and on the same ticket. In 2020 was built the wide fiber broadband network mainly funded by EAFRD, voluntary work and private funding. The budget was over 900 000 euros. The village was selected village of the year in Lapland in 2020.
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Tourism is our main livelihood but it is still very seasonal and not offering all year round jobs

Country

Finland

Type

remote, sparsely populated areas

Degree of urbanization

rural

population of 350

Check out the village strategy:

The development plan for the village and environment

Village Solutions

Ylläjärvi Activity and Sportspark

The village built through EU-funding in 2011 an activity and sports park. After the initial investment, the park has been further developed to become the most popular beach and playground for children in the municipality. New features are a pump track and downhill biking, a piknik park and a cultural, environmental art trail. In the Park you will find also toys for children, outdoor gym facilities, a rowing boat, cable slide, swings, a fireplace and for sports activities an artificial sandgrass field. The solution is an example of self-commitment to provide wellbeing to local inhabitants and visitors.

Living | People | Services
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