So a case in point re the urban/rural divide.
Kronoberg
7 seats, quota (±25%): 20,103
Växjö Norra (Växjö North)
As you can probably tell, this seat covers the northern half of Växjö. I've mostly used the municipal constituencies for the division, except that I've moved the villa neighbourhood of Högstorp from north to south and Araby, Växjö's main concrete suburb, from south to north. Aside from Araby and Biskopsgården (a name that never seems to be given to a nice area), this is mostly various types of rowhouse and detached neighbourhoods. Distinctly suburban in character.
Social Democrats: 6729 (37.53%)
Moderates: 3976 (22.17%)
Sweden Democrats: 1826 (10.18%)
Left Bloc: 53.28%
Alliance: 35.75%
Sweden Democrats: 10.18%
As you may have been able to guess, North is the more left-wing seat in the city, with about the same margin in party and bloc votes.
Växjö Södra (Växjö South)
This, then, is the rest of Växjö. The seat contains the city centre with the medieval cathedral and the station area (now being redeveloped), the older suburbs, as well as the industrial estates in the west and Teleborg, a mixture of Million Programme-era rowhouses and university campus to the southeast.
Social Democrats: 5736 (28.75%)
Moderates: 5340 (26.77%)
Sweden Democrats: 2135 (10.70%)
Left Bloc: 45.89%
Alliance: 42.61%
Sweden Democrats: 10.70%
On the one hand, the university area means that South is a better seat for the plural left than North, but it's also a
much better seat for the Moderates. So much so that they come within two percentage points of winning in the party vote, although the margin is
slightly greater in the bloc vote.
Norra Värend (Värend North)
For the eastern part of the county, I had the choice of dividing it between Växjö/not Växjö or north/south - I went with the latter, because while slightly harder to calculate, it feels a bit easier, and I doubt a situation where Tingsryd and Lenhovda are in the same seat while Ingelstad and Braås are in another one would've passed muster in a UK-style boundary review. This, then, is the northern seat, which covers Uppvidinge municipality and
most of rural Växjö municipality, with the main urban centres being Åseda (famous for cheese), Lenhovda (famous for radiators), Rottne (famous for horticultural machinery), Braås (famous for articulated haulers) and Lammhult (famous for furniture). Small industrial towns like this are a penny a dozen in this part of the country, but unlike mill towns aren't necessarily left-wing - indeed, the Alliance would've won the Växjö-only seat on the bloc vote.
Social Democrats: 5010 (30.63%)
Moderates: 3312 (20.25%)
Sweden Democrats: 2878 (17.60%)
Left Bloc: 41.15%
Alliance: 40.57%
Sweden Democrats: 17.60%
As you can tell, very marginal on the bloc vote. However, the Centre are also fairly strong here
(2033 (12.43%)) which muddles the party vote somewhat.
Södra Värend (Värend South)
The southern seat covers Tingsryd and Lessebo municipalities as well as the southeastern corner of Växjö, and its main centres are Tingsryd (famous for shops and the racetrack), Lessebo town (famous for its paper mill) and Hovmantorp (famous for its former glassworks, in common with much of the area). There's a stark divide here between Lessebo and the rest of the constituency - Lessebo doesn't really fit in with the rest of Kronoberg politically, as it's made up largely of former mill and/or glassworks towns with a strong labour movement, while the rest of the seat is much more typical of the county.
Social Democrats: 5681 (33.40%)
Moderates: 3215 (18.90%)
Sweden Democrats: 3209 (18.87%)
Left Bloc: 43.28%
Alliance: 37.19%
Sweden Democrats: 18.87%
Lessebo drags the seat leftward by a fair bit - without it, it would probably be quite winnable for the Alliance.
Alvesta
Alvesta itself is famous across southern Sweden as a place where everyone has went but no one has ever stayed - it's where the Southern Main Line meets the cross-country line from Gothenburg to Kalmar/Karlskrona, and consequently a
lot of train transfers happen here. There was a radio advert a few years ago for a hotel there which was about a child who kept pestering his mother to stick around for longer and longer, which elicited a lot of ridicule from virtually everyone not living in Alvesta. Other major towns in the constituency include Moheda (famous for clogs), Vislanda (famous for sawmills) and Gemla (famous as a dormitory town for Växjö after years of paper milling). In addition to Alvesta municipality, a chunk of Växjö municipality around Gemla was added to the seat to make up the numbers - the rail line makes it fairly connected to Alvesta regardless of the municipal boundaries.
Social Democrats: 4695 (29.60%)
Moderates: 3603 (22.71%)
Sweden Democrats: 3116 (19.64%)
Alliance: 40.64%
Left Bloc: 38.97%
Sweden Democrats: 19.64%
And here we have the only blue seat in the county, at least on the bloc vote. Also the strongest SD vote anywhere in the county, which I suspect goes some way toward explaining why the Centre isn't stronger here than it is.
Älmhult och Markaryd
Älmhult should be well-known [
citation needed] as the home of IKEA - although Ingvar Kamprad was actually from Älmtaryd in Agunnaryd parish, which is now in Ljungby municipality and constituency (hence the abbreviation, which comes from his then-address:
Ingvar
Kamprad,
Elmtaryd,
Agunnaryd), he founded his first shop in Älmhult, which was located on the aptly named "Ikea-vägen" and is now the site of the IKEA Museum (the shop itself having moved to the eastern edge of town). Markaryd is the former border town with Denmark (some would say it still is with tongue in cheek), and the home of Nibe, a manufacturer of heating equipment which, while less of a national icon than IKEA, is nonetheless fairly well-known.
Social Democrats: 5408 (33.89%)
Moderates: 3417 (21.41%)
Sweden Democrats: 2751 (17.24%)
Left Bloc: 42.73%
Alliance: 39.04%
Sweden Democrats: 17.24%
Fairly typical for the county, all things considered - Markaryd council is a rock-hard KD stronghold, but this is due to a UPLB effect and thus doesn't show up on the parliamentary level.
Ljungby
I know nigh-on nothing about Ljungby, so shan't be able to fill in much, but this seat is exactly coterminous with the municipality of the same name, which makes it unique in Kronoberg. Ljungby is to the south Swedish road network what Alvesta is to the rail network, to some extent, but the nature of car travel means there's much less interaction, so if I've been there at all I've probably never left the car. The city is built around the roads and the lumber industry, I'm told, and after a fire in 1953 a large portion of the city centre had to be rebuilt, so Ljungby shows (if possible) even less architectural heritage than comparable cities elsewhere. There are few other places of note in the constituency, but nearly half of it lives in the rural area around the city as opposed to the city itself.
Social Democrats: 5920 (33.42%)
Moderates: 3590 (20.27%)
Sweden Democrats: 2905 (16.40%)
Left Bloc: 43.03%
Alliance: 39.44%
Sweden Democrats: 16.40%
No comment really needed or available.