thumb|150px|Unofficial flag

thumb|150px|The three [[lands of Sweden ]]

thumb|150px|Norrland when Finland was an integrated part of Sweden.

Norrland (, , originally Norrlanden, meaning 'the Northlands') is the northernmost, largest and least populated of the three traditional lands of Sweden, consisting of nine provinces. Although Norrland does not serve any administrative purposes, it continues to exist as a historical, cultural, and geographic region; it is often referred to in everyday language, e.g., in weather forecasts. Several related Norrland dialects form a distinct subset of dialects of the Swedish language separate from those to its south.

Norrland consists of the majority of the Swedish landmass at about 60% of the land area, but only has about 12% of the country's population.

  • 40px|Gästrikland Gästrikland
  • 40px|Hälsingland Hälsingland
  • 40px|Härjedalen Härjedalen
  • 40px|Jämtland Jämtland
  • 40px|Medelpad Medelpad
  • 40px|Ångermanland Ångermanland
  • 40px|Västerbotten Västerbotten
  • 40px|Norrbotten Norrbotten
  • 40px|Lappland Lappland

Historically, Jämtland and Härjedalen belonged to Norway until 1645, and are thus often considered outside of the historical Norrland. On the other hand, Finland belonged to Sweden until 1809, and during that time, Norrland was extended into Northern Finland. Administratively, Sweden is not divided into provinces but into counties (). Although Norrland is defined in terms of the historical provinces and not the counties, it roughly comprises the modern counties of Gävleborg, Jämtland, Norrbotten, Västerbotten and Västernorrland.

Sometimes, Norrland is subdivided into Northern Norrland () and Southern Norrland (). The northern part of the region typically covers the historical provinces of Norrbotten, Västerbotten and Lappland (the modern counties of Norrbotten and Västerbotten), while the southern part covers the remainder of the region. There is also the concept of Middle Norrland (), which is the northern part of Southern Norrland. Middle Norrland has no clearly defined boundaries, but usually corresponds with the historical provinces Ångermanland, Medelpad, Jämtland and Härjedalen.

Geography

thumb|240px|The village Stora Blåsjön and the lake of [[Stora Blåsjön in Strömsund Municipality, Jämtland.]]

Except for the coastal areas, Norrland is sparsely populated. Approximately 12 percent of Sweden's population lives in Norrland. Except for some coastal areas most of Norrland is made up by the Norrland terrain—hilly and mountainous land covered by boreal forests. More in detail Norrland is made up of three north–south belts: the Scandinavian Mountains in the west, the Muddus Plains covering much of the inland, and the mixed relief