Kauniainen

Kauniainen (Grankulla in Swedish) is a small town of 8,426 inhabitants (as of March 2005) in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland. It is a legally independent suburb within the city of Espoo, in Greater Helsinki. Kauniainen was founded as a corporation in 1906 in Espoo, in order to create a suburb for villas; a similar scheme was used by Danderyd in Stockholm, Sweden. Kauniainen received the status of a municipality in 1920, the Finnish name in 1949, and the title of kaupunki ("city, town") in 1972.

The local taxation rate in Kauniainen is the lowest in Finland (16%), and so it tends to attract the highest earners, hence it is a generally wealthy place, and hence it can keep the taxation rate low without compromising the service to the inhabitants.

Approximately 40% of the population have Swedish as their mother tongue; the rest are Finnish speakers. The dominant party in the town assembly has traditionally been the Swedish People's Party.