Västerås
urban area in Västerås Municipality, Sweden
Västerås (Swedish: [vɛstɛˈroːs] ) is a city in central Sweden on the shore of Lake Mälaren in the province of Västmanland, 110 kilometres (68 miles) west of Stockholm. The city had a population of 127,799 at the end of 2019, out of the municipal total of 158,653, over 100,000 more than the next largest of the 17 localities included in the Västerås Municipality.
Västerås is the seat of Västerås Municipality, which is the capital of Västmanland County and an episcopal see.
History
Västerås is one of the oldest cities in Sweden and Northern Europe. The area has been populated since the Nordic Viking Age, before 1000 CE. Anundshög, Sweden's largest burial mound, is located just outside the City of Västerås. It was built about 500 CE and is over 68 m (74 yards) wide and is almost 9 m (10 yd) high. In the beginning of the 11th century, Västerås was the second largest city in Sweden; by the 12th century, it had become the seat of the bishop.
The name Västerås originates from Västra Aros ('West Aros'), first recorded as Westraarus in the mid-13th century. In older sources, the city was often called simply Aros 'river mouth', but Västra was added to distinguish it from Östra Aros—the former name of Uppsala. The name reflects its location at the mouth of the Svartån River in Lake Mälaren.
The public source identifies “Västerås” as urban area in Västerås Municipality, Sweden. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Västerås, urban and area.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q25412. VIAF identifies the subject as 140723047. The Library of Congress control number is n80162576. Authority coordinates are 59.617, 16.542. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2019 and 1000.
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This entry incorporates text from “Västerås” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.