# Flen Municipality

Flen Municipality (Flens kommun) is a municipality in central Södermanland County in southeast Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Flen.
The present municipality was formed in 1971 through the amalgamation of the City of Flen (instituted in 1949), the market town (köping) Malmköping and the surrounding countryside, including a southeastern portion of the former Oppunda hundred that was split between Flen and Nyköping municipalities. It also includes all of the former Villåttinge hundred.

## Geography

Flen Municipality is a lowland inland municipality that falls to 19 metres (62 ft) above sea level on the lakes of Långhalsen and Torpfjärden in the southeastern area. The highest peak is at 103 metres (338 ft) on the tripoint between Flen, Gnesta and Strängnäs municipalities.

## Localities

Figures from Statistics Sweden, 2004.
* Flen 6,107
* Malmköping 2,006
* Hälleforsnäs 1,737
* Sparreholm 799
* Skebokvarn 225
* Mellösa 549
* Bettna 410
* Vadsbro 118
Of these places, Malmköping, located about 15 km north of Flen, surpasses Flen as a tourism attraction due to its two annual markets. The traditions of markets in Malmköping goes back centuries, as Malmköping got market town rights (became a köping) already in 1785.

## Elections

The following results are since the 1972 municipal reform onwards.

### Riksdag

| Year | Turnout | Votes | V | S | MP | C | L | KD | M | SD | NyD | Left | Right |
| 1973 | 93.5 | 11,513 | 3.2 | 49.4 | | 26.8 | 8.0 | 1.8 | 10.6 | | | 52.6 | 45.4 |
| 1976 | 93.1 | 11,658 | 2.8 | 49.2 | | 26.9 | 8.1 | 1.6 | 11.3 | | | 52.0 | 46.3 |
| 1979 | 92.3 | 11,747 | 3.5 | 49.5 | | 21.9 | 8.5 | 1.5 | 14.6 | | | 53.0 | 45.0 |
| 1982 | 93.2 | 11,762 | 4.0 | 52.1 | 1.6 | 18.5 | 4.4 | 1.6 | 17.5 | | | 56.1 | 40.4 |
| 1985 | 91.2 | 11,499 | 4.2 | 51.9 | 1.8 | 15.3 | 10.6 | | 15.4 | | | 56.1 | 41.3 |
| 1988 | 87.3 | 10,821 | 5.0 | 50.2 | 5.2 | 14.3 | 9.3 | 2.3 | 13.2 | | | 60.4 | 36.8 |
| 1991 | 87.0 | 10,765 | 4.1 | 45.4 | 3.1 | 11.8 | 7.0 | 6.4 | 15.6 | | 6.1 | 49.5 | 40.8 |
| 1994 | 87.7 | 10,924 | 6.1 | 52.1 | 5.0 | 9.2 | 5.1 | 3.6 | 17.1 | | 0.7 | 63.2 | 35.0 |
| 1998 | 81.4 | 9,924 | 12.1 | 43.3 | 4.9 | 6.8 | 2.7 | 11.2 | 17.6 | | | 60.3 | 38.3 |
| 2002 | 80.3 | 9,724 | 7.5 | 48.1 | 4.5 | 7.5 | 9.2 | 8.6 | 12.1 | 1.0 | | 60.1 | 37.4 |
| 2006 | 81.9 | 9,911 | 5.4 | 46.5 | 4.3 | 8.7 | 4.9 | 5.6 | 20.2 | 2.7 | | 56.2 | 39.4 |
| 2010 | 84.7 | 10,271 | 5.5 | 38.7 | 5.9 | 8.2 | 4.8 | 4.9 | 24.2 | 6.9 | | 50.1 | 42.3 |
| 2014 | 85.4 | 10,136 | 5.5 | 36.2 | 4.9 | 7.5 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 18.6 | 17.8 | | 46.6 | 33.0 |
| 2018 | 86.0 | 10,118 | 6.2 | 33.0 | 3.5 | 8.3 | 3.2 | 5.6 | 16.9 | 21.2 | | 51.7 | 46.9 |

## Demographics

This is a demographic table based on Flen Municipality's electoral districts in the 2022 Swedish general election sourced from SVT's election platform, in turn taken from SCB official statistics.
Flen is a poor municipality by lower Svealand standards. As of 2022 it was a rather segregated municipality with very high levels of ethnic minority populations concentrated south of the railway, while people of Swedish background are in a sizeable majority in the outer parts of town and in the countryside. Every district was beneath the median income of its southern neighbour Nyköping. In total there were 16,271 inhabitants with 11,959 Swedish citizen adults eligible to vote. The political demographics were 50.4 % for the left bloc and 48.4 % for the right bloc, with the left dominating the town and the right sizeably winning the villages and countryside. No district reached 35% college graduates and unemployment was high throughout much of the municipality. Indicators are in percentage points except population totals and income.
| Location | Residents | Citizen adults | Left vote | Right vote | Employed | Swedish parents | Foreign heritage | Income SEK | Degree |
| Location | | | % | % | | | | | |
| Bettna | 1,502 | 1,199 | 42.2 | 56.5 | 82 | 88 | 12 | 24,876 | 30 |
| Flens C | 1,359 | 877 | 64.8 | 34.2 | 63 | 52 | 48 | 18,802 | 25 |
| Flens N | 1,479 | 1,197 | 51.0 | 48.0 | 80 | 79 | 21 | 24,872 | 30 |
| Flens S | 1,554 | 893 | 68.5 | 27.5 | 50 | 26 | 74 | 14,764 | 19 |
| Flens V | 1,218 | 965 | 57.1 | 42.3 | 71 | 63 | 37 | 20,676 | 26 |
| Flens Ö | 1,284 | 963 | 47.3 | 50.4 | 74 | 66 | 34 | 23,164 | 31 |
| Helgesta-Hyltinge | 1,558 | 1,289 | 46.3 | 52.6 | 82 | 85 | 15 | 23,559 | 34 |
| Hälleforsnäs | 1,684 | 1,160 | 53.2 | 45.9 | 63 | 64 | 36 | 19,390 | 23 |
| Malmköping V | 1,546 | 1,104 | 42.4 | 56.6 | 68 | 73 | 27 | 20,273 | 23 |
| Malmköping Ö | 1,796 | 1,303 | 47.0 | 51.2 | 77 | 84 | 16 | 22,908 | 30 |
| Mellösa | 1,291 | 1,009 | 47.5 | 51.6 | 83 | 89 | 11 | 25,069 | 34 |
| Source: SVT ||||||||||