Умео: город науки, культуры и истории Северной Швеции

Situated on the Ume River, Umeå is the largest locality in Norrland and the thirteenth largest in Sweden, with a wider municipal population of 130,224 inhabitants in 2020. as of 2018, Umeå was gaining around 1000 inhabitants per year and the municipality plans for having 200 000 inhabitants by 2050. The projection of municipality size in 2050 has, however, been questioned as an overestimation in an independent study. Umeå is a university town and centre of education, technical and medical research in northern Sweden. The two universities located in the city, Umeå University and one of the 3 main branches of SLU, host around 40,000 enrolled students, which corresponds to around 30% of the total population. CRISPR gene editing was developed by researchers, headed by Emmanuelle Charpentier at Umeå University, being awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Umeå was the European Capital of Culture during 2014, along with Riga in Latvia. Umeå is certified by the EarthCheck Sustainable Destinations program. Consulates from ten countries can be found in Umeå (2021): Denmark (from 1848), Finland (from 1921), France (from 1989), Iceland (from 2002), Italy (from 2012), Latvia (1939–1940; again from 2014), Lithuania (from 2012), Norway (from 1963), and the Republic of Seychelles (from 2001). Umeå has been the home of Rally Sweden since 2022.

People have lived in the Umeå river valley for at least three thousand years. The oldest rock carvings near Umeå, ten kilometers west of the city at Norrforsen, are from about 3,000 BCE. The coast came to be permanently settled by Germanic peoples moving upwards on the Bothnian Bay by boat, hence the Germanic names of towns and villages on the Westrobothnian coast. Southern Westrobothnia (Umeå and Skellefteå) has been a permanent Germanic settlement since at least the 14th century, but probably since the Viking ages or earlier. Umeå in its first form was a parish with a wooden church and trade post located in the section of town now known as Backen (or Kyrkbacken). Its location near the coast and on a river was probably one of the reasons that people chose to settle there. For the next couple of centuries, Umeå was a place consisting of scattered parishes, where merchandise originating with the Sami people was traded, and was the last inhabited place before the northern wilderness took over. However, no real city was built at the location selected by the king, and it lost its town privileges in the 1590s. In 1638, it had about 40 houses. In 1874 the town improved the plans for its structure after it became a government requirement. Umeå had already started making these changes when on 25 June 1888, a fire devastated the eastern parts of Umeå and at least 2,300 of the 3,000 inhabitants became homeless. In the restoration following the fire, almost 3,000 silver birch trees were planted along wide avenues to prevent future fires from spreading. For this reason Umeå is sometimes known as "Björkarnas Stad", the "City of Birches". The name of the Umeå ice hockey team, Björklöven, means "The Birch Leaves".

Umeå is situated on the inlet of the Gulf of Bothnia at the mouth of the Ume River, in the south of Västerbotten. Umeå is about north of Stockholm and about south of the Arctic Circle. It is the largest city north of the Stockholm Uppsala region, and is sometimes referred to as the regional centre of northern Sweden. The nearby community of Holmsund serves as its port. From here a ferry line connects it with the neighbouring city of Vaasa (Swedish: Vasa) in Finland. The near connections to Finland affects the population of the city – several Sweden Finns live in Umeå.

Umeå has a subarctic climate (Dfc), bordering on a humid continental climate (Dfb) with short and fairly warm summers. Winters are lengthy and freezing but usually milder than in areas at the same latitude with a more continental climate. Average January temperature is about , July is Considering its proximity to a major water body and its latitude, summers are warmer than would be expected. The record high of was recorded on 23 July 2014, during a very warm summer in Sweden. The record low of was recorded on 15 February 1978.

The population of Umeå has grown consistently since the 1960s, when the university was built. In part because of the university, the town has attracted many residents from outside of Sweden, as well as students from other regions of Sweden. As of 2015, 10.4% of the population in the municipality of Umeå were foreign born. The largest national origin group is from Finland, followed by Iraq, Iran and Somalia. In April 2017 the Jewish association in Umeå closed after receiving multiple threats from neo Nazis, allegedly associated with the Nordic Resistance Movement.

The road infrastructure includes two European highways (E4 and E12) which pass the city. The local bus system is centred at Vasaplan in the city centre, and has multiple routes travelling throughout the city. About from the city centre is Umeå Airport. It is the 7th largest airport in Sweden by number of passengers, with 844,932 passengers in 2010. Umeå is located along the Blue Highway, which is an international tourist route from Mo i Rana, Norway to Pudozh, Russia via Finland.

The Opera of northern Sweden, the Norrland Opera, is based in the city, as is the English language non profit Umeå Theatre Company and the Museum of Contemporary Art and Visual Culture. The annual Umeå Jazz Festival is one of the larger Scandinavian festivals for modern jazz. Well known metal bands from Umeå include Cult of Luna, Gotham City, Hollow, Meshuggah, Mexicoma, Nocturnal Rites and Persuader. During the 1990s, the influence of Umeå hardcore punk bands such as Final Exit, Step Forward, Refused, Abhinanda, Shield and Doughnuts and the local labels Desperate Fight Records and Busted Heads Records led to the growth of Umeå's hardcore scene. Independent record label Ny Våg is headquartered in Umeå, and have released records of Umeå artists such as AC4, Masshysteri and Invasionen. In 2009 the town was designated European Capital of Culture for 2014, along with Riga. Umea is also the host city of the FIA World Rally Championship's Rally Sweden. In 2021 it was announced that Rally Sweden would relocate to the northern Swedish city of Umeå after being held in the province of Värmland since its foundation. The primary reason for its relocation was that Umeå is considered a more snow safe region

Umeå University has about 37,000 students and 4,200 staff. The establishment of the university in the mid 1960s led to a population expansion from about 50,000 inhabitants to today's 121,032. The expansion continues, with about 1100 new inhabitants every year, and has made Umeå a modern, somewhat intellectual city to add to the traditional basis of heavy industry for cities along the coast of northern Sweden (Norrland). In 1951 the university's library was recognised as important for northern Sweden. The library is given a copy of every new book printed in Sweden. The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences or Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet is a university in Sweden. Although its head office is located in Uppsala (Ultuna), the university has several campuses in different parts of Sweden, including Umeå. Unlike other government run universities in Sweden, it is funded through the budget for the Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation. The university hospital serves the entire region of northern Sweden.