Wikipedia
Ikaalinen is a town and municipality of Finland.
It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Pirkanmaa region. The town has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is .
The municipalities next to it are Hämeenkyrö, Jämijärvi, Kankaanpää, Parkano, Sastamala and Ylöjärvi.
The municipality is unilingually Finnish.
The Seitseminen national park is partly located in the municipality.
Ikaalinen is an old tourist attraction in Finland. Its spa tradition dates back to the last century and folk music, especially accordion music is one of its traditions. Its beautiful landscape has always fascinated visitors.
During the last decades Ikaalinen developed into a versatile service centre with good business, educational and recreational facilities. Today about 55% of the population earns its living from the service sector and 15% from agriculture, which has always provided an important source of income.
S. Albert Kivinen, the associate professor of philosophy of the University of Helsinki, is the most famous living native of Ikaalinen, due to his tongue-in-the-cheek horror stories written in Lovecraftian style. His most famous fictional work, Keskiyön Mato Ikaalisissa ("The Midnight Worm in Ikaalinen"), is a Lovecraftian story set in his childhood surroundings in Ikaalinen.
Ikaalinen became an independent municipality in 1641. The associated market town was founded in 1858. The market town and the municipality were united in 1972 and Ikaalinen became a town in 1977.
The centre of Ikaalinen is on the beautiful lake Kyrösjärvi nearby the highway 3 ( E12).
The biggest industrial plants are Finlayson, Upofloor, Georgia Pacific Paper, Amerplast, Honkarakenne, Keskus-Sähkö, H&H Siporex and Katsa.