Kauniainen (Grankulla in Swedish) is a small municipality of 8,622 inhabitants (as of 2003 12-31) in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland. Kauniainen is completely surrounded by the municipality of Espoo.
The local taxation rate in Kauniainen is the lowest in Finland (15%), and so it tends to attract the highest earners, hence it is a generally wealthy place, and hence it can keep the taxation rate low without compromising the service to the inhabitants.
Approximately 40% of the population have Swedish as their mother tongue; the rest are Finnish speakers. The dominant party in the town assembly has traditionally been the Swedish People's Party.
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