Kuopio

Kuopio is a city and a municipality located in the region of Northern Savonia, Finland. A population of 110,999 makes it the eighth biggest city in the country. The city has a total area of 2,317.24 square kilometres (894.69 sq mi), of which 719.85 km² (277.94 sq mi) is water and half forest. The population density is only 69/km² (180/sq mi), but the city's urban areas are populated very densely (urban area: 1 617.6 /km²), nationally second only to capital Helsinki (urban area: 1,690.0/km²). The population of the entire Kuopio region is 119,472.

The town of Nilsiä joined Kuopio at the beginning of the year 2013 and Kuopio’s population surpassed the 100,000 mark.

Name

There are several explanations behind the name Kuopio. The first is that in the 16th century, a certain influential person named Kauhanen in Tavinsalmi changed his name to Skopa and the people's pronunciation was Coopia and finally Cuopio. The second explanation is that it comes from the verb kuopia, meaning "paw", as when a horse paws the ground with its hoof. A third theory is that it came from a certain Karelian man's name Prokopij, from Ruokolahti in the Middle Ages. This is the most probable explanation, supported by the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland.

1503 Kuopio

1503 Kuopio (1938 XD) is a main-belt asteroid discovered on December 15, 1938, by Yrjö Väisälä at Turku.

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