Umeå is a city and municipality in the county of Västerbotten, Sweden. Founded in 1664, Umeå is today a centre of education, technical and medical research, with two universities and over 30,000 students, and is the largest city in northern Sweden, with 80,545 inhabitants (2005).
Umeå is a young (the average age of its 110,750 inhabitants is 36 years) and dynamic city with an industrial sector consisting of major industries (Volvo) as well as many smaller firms representing information technology, biotechnology, and other industrial products. Umeå is a centre for cultural activities, with annual film, jazz and chamber music festivals, and is home of the world's northernmost opera house (NorrlandsOperan). Umeå is a multi-cultural city with over 100 different nationalites, and construction work on the northernmost Mosque of Sweden is projected to begin in 2006.