Piteå's coastal location, with numerous islands and inlets, is one of the reasons it is a popular place for tourism both in summer and winter.

In July 1666, the entire town burnt down, and over the following few years it was rebuilt on Häggholmen, a small island which forms the nucleus of present-day Piteå.

[10] Piteå has a sister city in the Caribbean: Gustavia, capital of Saint Barthélemy, the formerly Swedish possession that is now part of France.

Chemrec operates a black liquor gasifier and the world's first BioDME production facility, SunPine has pioneered a renewable diesel process technology using crude tall oil as feedstock, and ETC (Energy Technology Centre in Piteå) is a research and development center for renewable fuels with focus on combustion, gasification and biorefining processes.

Ice hockey is the big sport in town, even though Piteå HC only plays in the third-highest League (Division I) in Sweden.

The club has provided many good players to the NHL and national team: examples are Tomas Holmström, Mikael Renberg, Mattias Öhlund, Lars Lindgren, Stefan Persson, Jan Sandström and Mats Lavander.

In cross-country skiing the town has a successful club called Piteå Elit, with skiers like Lina Andersson, Magdalena Pajala and Charlotte Kalla.

Other sports clubs located in Piteå include Storfors AIK, MSSK and the northern paintball team 'Team X-rated'.