Vilhelmina

Housing

Vilhelmina Bostäder (VIBO), a municipal company, is the biggest property manager and agency for rented flats in Vilhelmina. VIBO manages and rents out about 700 flats. If you want to join the housing list or find more information, go to VIBO's website.

Language groups in the locality

There are many different language groups in the municipality, including Somali, Tigrinya, Tamil, Burmese, Dari, Arabic, Amharic, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Persian and English.

Associations and organisations

Vilhelmina has the Church of Sweden, the Pentecostal Church, Vilhelmina Free Congregation, the Mission Covenant Church, the Salvation Army and the Islamic League. The Islamic League runs a Koranic school and has a mosque near the "Trissen" residential area. Vilhelmina has a strong cultural tradition and varied offering of theatre, music, art etc. More information about Vilhelmina's cultural offering is available on the Wilmakultur website. The sports offering is also large. Within the population centre is an Astroturf pitch, an indoor ice rink, a sports centre, skiing facility, indoor swimming pool bowling alley, riding school, judo centre, gym and much more. There are also a number of downhill skiing facilities in the municipality.

What is available in the immediate area

In central Vilhelmina are several shops, two of which are big supermarkets, as well as a pharmacy and a municipal office. Folkets Hus (a community centre) is also in central Vilhelmina and includes an indoor swimming pool, a bowling alley, a café and restaurant,a cinema and a library with books, magazines and internet access. In the centre are also two second-hand shops selling inexpensive furniture, household goods and clothes. The Employment Service, the Tax Agency and the Social Insurance Agency are also represented in the population centre.

Childcare

Vilhelmina municipality has 10 municipal preschools, one parent cooperative and a privately run preschool. To look after pupils in years 1 to 5 before and after school there are also four municipal recreation centres and Prästkragen, an independent recreation centre run by the Chirch of Sweden. Fritidsgården is a recreation centre for young people between the age of 13 and 20, open in the afternoons and evenings.

Comprehensive and upper secondary schools

There are comprehensive schools in several parts of our large municipality. One is independent and the rest are municipal. In the population centre, the year 1-6 school is Volgsjöskolan and the year 7-9 school is Hembergsskolan. Vilhelmina's only independent comprehensive school is Strandskolan. It is run by Vilhelmina Free Congregation and has classes from preschool until year 9.

Upper secondary education, including special needs upper secondary education, is offered Malgomajskolan, a municipal upper secondary school. It has eight national programmes as well as the introductory programme.

Education opportunities

Education and training programmes are all held at Vilhelmina Lärcentrum. They arrange adult education programmes and company training programmes as well as distance learning programmes with Umeå University and other higher education institutions.

Health and medical care

Vilhelmina has a medical care centre, an obstetric centre, a paediatric centre and national dental health care services. The nearest general hospital is in Lycksele, about 120 km away. To Umeå and its university hospital it is about 240 km.

Interpreter assistance

There is the possibility of having an interpreter in all contacts with public authorities.

Public transport

There are bus lines to all communities in the county, see Länstrafiken's website for timetables and other information. During the summer there is a train that runs through VIlhelmina along Inlandsbanan, an inland railway line that extends from Kristinehamn in the south to Gällivare in the north. There are two weekly bus connections to Stockholm, with Lapplandspilen.

Vilhelmina Airport is about 120 km from the population centre and has direct flights to Stockholm Arlanda.

Work and entrepreneurship

Vilhelmina has a well developed community of small businesses, and tourism is a sector of strong growth. A labour shortage is forecast, particularly in nursing and care. Surrounding communities and municipalities are within commuting distance as there is a good bus network.