Pello

This article is about the municipality of Finland. For the locality in Sweden, see Pello, Övertorneå. For people, see Pello (name).

"Turtola" redirects here. For a district in Tampere, Finland, see Turtola, Tampere.

Pello (formerly Turtola) is a municipality of Finland. It is located approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of the Arctic Circle in the western part of the province of Lapland, and is part of the Lapland region. The municipality is on the national border with Sweden, by the Tornio River. The municipality has a population of 3,182 (30 June 2025)^[2] and covers an area of 1,864.66 square kilometres (719.95 sq mi) of which 126.12 km² (48.70 sq mi) is water.^[1] The population density is 1.83 inhabitants per square kilometre (4.7/sq mi).

Pello
Municipality
Pellon kunta Pello kommun
Coat of arms
Location of Pello in Finland
OpenStreetMap Interactive map outlining Pello.
Coordinates: 66°46.5′N 023°58′E
Country	Finland
Region	Lapland
Sub-region	Tornio Valley
Charter	1867
Government
• Municipal manager	Sami Baas
Area  (2018-01-01)[1]
• Total	1,864.66 km2 (719.95 sq mi)
• Land	1,738.15 km2 (671.10 sq mi)
• Water	126.12 km2 (48.70 sq mi)
• Rank	35th largest in Finland
Elevation	64 m (210 ft)
Population  (2025-06-30)[2]
• Total	3,182
• Rank	209th largest in Finland
• Density	1.83/km2 (4.7/sq mi)
Population by native language [2]
• Finnish	96.6% (official)
• Swedish	0.8%
• Others	2.6%
Population by age [3]
• 0 to 14	9.3%
• 15 to 64	49.7%
• 65 or older	41%
Time zone	UTC+02:00 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+03:00 (EEST)
Website	www.pello.fi

The municipality is unilingually Finnish, according to the legal definition in Finland.

Konttajärvi is in this municipality.

It is served by the Pello railway station.

History

The name of Pello is ultimately derived from the word pelto, field; which may have been the original name of the village. The weak grade stem of pelto is pello- (e.g. pellon - genitive case form of pelto), through which the name was corrupted to its current form. The name of Turtola refers to a male name Turto, a Finnish form of the Scandinavian name Tord.^{[citation needed]}

During the Late Middle Ages and the 16th century, Pello was the northernmost Finnish village in the Tornio Valley. It was a part of the Tornio parish until 1606, when said parish was divided into Alatornio and Ylitornio, from which the latter included Turtola and Pello.

After Russia conquered Finland in 1809, Ylitornio was split into two parts. The villages of Pello and Turtola were also split, which is why there is a Pello and a Turtola (Svanstein) in Sweden. The northern parts of Ylitornio became a separate parish and municipality in 1867, called Turtola after its most significant village at the time. The village of Pello later surpassed Turtola, thus the municipality was renamed to Pello in 1949.^[4]

Notable people

• Kaarlo Castrén (1860–1938), politician; the Prime Minister of Finland
• Paavo Lipponen (born 1941), politician; the Prime Minister of Finland
• Toivo Mäkikyrö (born 1957), biathlete
• Eero Mäntyranta (1937–2013), cross-country skiers
• Timo K. Mukka (1944–1973), author
• Olli-Markus Taivainen (born 1989), ski-orienteering competitor