Sodankylä

Sodankylä is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the region of Lapland, and lies at the northern end of Highway 5 and along Highway 4. The Kitinen River flows near the center of Sodankylä. Its neighbouring municipalities are Inari, Kemijärvi, Kittilä, Pelkosenniemi, Rovaniemi, and Savukoski. The municipality has two official languages: Finnish and Northern Sami.

The municipality has a population of 8,187, which makes it the fourth largest municipality in Lapland after Rovaniemi, Tornio and Kemi, and at the same time the largest municipality in population that does not use the title of city or town. It covers an area of 12,415.50 square kilometres of which 718.65 km2 is water, making it the second largest municipality in Finland in terms of area, right after its neighboring municipality of Inari. The population density is 0.7 inhabitants per square kilometre.