attraction.
Until the 1970s, Kiruna's population steadily increased as the iron ore economy was thriving. 1973 was a record year for the iron ore company LKAB, mining 24 million ton ore from Kiruna and nearby Svappavaara. However, a steel crisis led to a dramatic decrease in the iron ore economy, and LKAB had losses in 1977 for the first time in decades. Additionally, increasing transport capacity meant increasing competition from Africa, South America and Australia, where mining is mostly done in the open and thus cheaper. In ten years the number of employees decreased from 8,000 to 4,000 and the population of Kiruna began to drop. The mines at Svappavaara, Tuolluvaara and Luossavaara closed and only Kirunavaara remained. The local job office was jocularly called Resebyr�n (the travel agency) because the only message to unemployed youths was: move. Since then, the population has gone steadily downhill, but has stabilised in recent years due to the diversification of the economy.
Since 1985, the snow festival has been organised each winter, including various activities such as an ice sculpture contest. In 2000, when the city was 100 years old, the Kiruna festival was first organised and has since been organised every year in summer
