A list of islands of Bothnian Bay would include 4,001 islands if an island is defined as an area of land more than 20 square metres (220 sq ft) that is surrounded by water.[1]
Bothnian Bay (Swedish: Bottenviken, Finnish: Perämeri) is divided between northern Sweden and Finland.[1]
The north of the bay contains a large archipelago area.[2]
The largest island is Hailuoto, further south on the Finnish side.[2]
In the winter the larger islands may be accessed via ice roads. Some of them are inhabited or have seasonal fishing villages used by people from the mainland.[1]
Swedish islands
The Swedish islands in the north of the bay may be grouped into the Piteå, Luleå, Kalix and Haparanda archipelagos.[3]
Many of the islands are uninhabited and in a natural state.[4]
There are other islands along the Swedish coast to the south of the archipelago area.
In the portion of the bay that belongs to Finland the majority of islands lie in the section between Tornio on the Swedish border and the large island of Hailuoto offshore from Oulu, although there are many small islands along the coast to the south.
The Bothnian Bay National Park in the Finnish section (Finnish: Perämeren kansallispuisto, Swedish: Bottenvikens nationalpark), established in 1991, is located in the archipelago offshore from Tornio and Kemi. It covers 157 square kilometres (61 sq mi) of which about 2.5 square kilometres (0.97 sq mi) is land.[8]
Tornio municipality
Islands in the Tornio municipality beside the Swedish municipality of Haparanda include:
