Luleå is considered as the world's largest brackish water archipelago with 1,312 islands, several rivers and vast forestland.

The town's Royal charter was granted in 1621 by King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden.

The town had to be moved in 1649 to the current site,[7] due to the post-glacial rebound that had made the bay too shallow for ships to enter.In 1805, Luleå only had 947 inhabitants, but in 1865 Luleå succeeded Piteå as the county town in Norrbotten county and now had around 1400 residents.

The Neo-Gothic Cathedral (originally the Oscar Fredrik church), dedicated in 1893, standing at 67 meters (220 ft), is the tallest building in town.

Major employers in the city are the SSAB steelworks and Luleå University of Technology.

Other major employers include Ferruform (a subsidiary of Scania AB) and Gestamp HardTech (acquired from SSAB 2005-01-01).

[8] Luleå has a subarctic climate (Dfc) with short, mild to warm summers and long, cold, snowy winters.

Newspapers include: Luleå became a transport hub in the region for ore, steel and freight, with trans-shipping between road, ship and rail.

[23] Vy Tåg operates a night train services northbound for Kiruna and Narvik, and southbound for Stockholm.

[24] The world's first indoor mall[25] was opened in Luleå in 1955 (architect: Ralph Erskine) and was named Shopping.

One of the largest winter festivals in Luleå is the indoor Minus 30-festivalen, held at Kulturens hus (the House of Culture) annually on a Saturday in mid-March.

The concerts are performed in a huge igloo and the instruments pulsate in all the colors of the rainbow.

Luleå Hockey/MSSK female team won their first Swedish Championship in 2016 while the male Luleå Hockey team has won one Swedish Championship in 1996, the European Trophy in 2012 and the Champions Hockey League in 2015.