Kirkkonummi (Swedish: Kyrkslätt) is a Finnish municipality
located in the Helsinki region, Uusimaa on the coast of the Gulf of
Finland. To the east, Kirkkonummi is bordered by Espoo. The other
neighboring municipalities are Vihti, Siuntio and Inkoo. There is
some common land border with Inkoo in the archipelago, otherwise the
common border consists of the sea. The municipality is home to
39,983 people and covers an area of 1,017.01 square kilometers, of
which 27.35 square kilometers are water bodies. The population
density is 109.2 inhabitants per square kilometer. The municipality
is bilingual. The majority of 76.0 per cent of the population speak
Finnish and 16.9 per cent Swedish.
The name of the
municipality probably comes from the 700-year-old Kirkkonummi
church, which is located on a hill in the municipal center.
Kirkkonummi is part of the Helsinki region, ie the Helsinki
metropolitan area. The distance from the municipal center to the
center of Helsinki is more than 30 kilometers, only 20 kilometers
from the eastern border of the municipality. The driving time from
the municipal center to the center of Helsinki is about 30 minutes.
The improvement of main road 51 into a motorway between the
Kivenlahti and Munkinmäki junctions has been completed. Train and
bus connections to the Helsinki metropolitan area are also good. The
journey to the center of Helsinki takes 30–45 minutes by both train
and bus. Kirkkonummi belongs to the Helsinki Region Transport
Consortium. The majority of residents work in the metropolitan area.
The largest population centers in the municipality are
Kirkkonummi church village (municipal center), Gesterby, Masala,
Veikkola (northernmost center), Kantvik (near the sea) and the
Upinniemi garrison by the sea. In addition to these, Kirkkonummi has
dozens of small villages.
Kirkkonummi is the second largest
municipality in Finland after Lake Nurmijärvi, which does not use
the name city. However, according to the statistical grouping of
municipalities, Kirkkonummi is an urban municipality, as its largest
agglomeration, ie the center of Kirkkonummi, has about 20,000
inhabitants (31 December 2018).