Virrat
Virrat is a town and municipality of Finland.
It is part of the Pirkanmaa region. The town has a population of
and covers an area of of
which
is water. The population density is
. Apart from the town of Virrat itself, the administratively defined municipality is largely rural, and includes the villages of Äijänneva, Härkönen Jäähdyspohja, Killinkoski, Koro, Kotala, Kurjenkylä, Liedenpohja, Ohtola, Vaskuu and Vaskivesi.
The municipality is unilingually Finnish. Virrat crater on Mars is named after it.
The town grew rapidly in the middle years of the twentieth century, and by 1950 the population reached more than 12,000. Virrat acquired town status in 1977, although it had received the right to hold markets three years earlier, in 1974. More recently the population level has been adversely impacted by the drift of employment opportunities and people to the larger towns.
Major lakes in the area are Toisvesi, beside which the town of Virrat is located, and Tarjanne at the border of the municipalities of Virrat, Mänttä-Vilppula and Ruovesi.
