Varkaus is a Middle-Savonian industrial town and municipality of Finland.
It is located in the province of Eastern Finland and is part of the Northern Savonia region. The municipality has a population of 24731 (2003) and covers an area of 524,96 km² of which 139,27 km² is water. The population density is 47,11 inhabitants per km².
The municipality is unilingually Finnish. Oddly enough, 'Varkaus' translates to theft, even though it is not the reason for giving that name to the city. In old Finnish, the same word also meant strait, and this city is located in the lake district.
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