Kitee (Finnish: [ˈkiteː]; Swedish: Kides) is a town and a municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Eastern Finland and is part of the North Karelia region, about 65 kilometres (40 mi) south of Joensuu and about 175 kilometres (109 mi) northeast of Lappeenranta. The municipality has a population of 9,397 (31 December 2025) and covers an area of 1,724.41 square kilometres (665.80 sq mi) of which 275.61 km2 (106.41 sq mi) is water. The population density is 7.49 inhabitants per square kilometre (19.4/sq mi).
The municipality is unilingually Finnish. Neighbouring municipalities are Parikkala, Rääkkylä, Savonlinna and Tohmajärvi.
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History
Kitee is known as the ''moonshine city of Finland'' due to its legal and illegal moonshine Finnish: Pontikka manufacturing.
Sports
The men's pesäpallo club Kiteen Pallo -90 competes in the Superpesis national league, playing at Shore Field.
Notable people
The founding members of symphonic metal band Nightwish all hail from the town of Kitee:
Tarja Turunen, singer
Emppu Vuorinen, guitarist
Tuomas Holopainen, keyboardist
Sami Vänskä, bassist
Jukka Nevalainen, drummer
Only Holopainen and Vuorinen remain in the band to this day. (Forced by health issues to stop performing, Nevalainen remains part of the band's management).
Antti Aalto, ski jumper
Nils Ludvig Arppe, industrialist
Tomek Valtonen, ice hockey coach and player