The municipality is unilingual Finnish. Oddly enough, 'Varkaus' translates to 'theft', even though it is not the reason for giving that name to the city. In old Finnish, the same word also meant strait, and this city is located in the lake district.
The town is located on straits between two parts of Lake Saimaa. An extension of the Saimaa Canal passes through the town. The town became an industrial center in the end of the 19th century with the A. Ahlström paper mills. During the Finnish Civil War in 1918 the town was taken over by the "Reds", but because of its isolated location in rural Finland, it was soon taken by the "Whites". The whites proceeded to mercilessly execute every tenth Red soldier.
The municipality of Kangaslampi was consolidated to Varkaus on 1 January 2005.
Warkauden Pallo-35, or just WP-35, plays in the highest bandy division and has become Finnish champions 16 times
