Pyhäjoki (river)

The Pyhäjoki (literally: "sacred river") is a river in Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is 166 km long and the town of Pyhäjoki is located where it empties into the Gulf of Bothnia on the Baltic Sea.

The river originates in Lake Pyhäjärvi and flows generally north-northwest through the Pyhäjokilaakso basin, a lightly settled region in southwest Northern Ostrobothnia. Towns along its course are Kärsämäki, Haapavesi and Oulainen. It empties into the Gulf of Bothnia at the town of Pyhäjoki, dividing into two branches shortly beforehand. The drainage basin of the Pyhajöki is variously described as 3,711.9 km2 and 3,750 km2; its mean discharge is approximately 30 m3/s.

The river has rapids and is used for rafting. Timber was formerly rafted down it, but like the other short rivers in the region, it could not support a major sawmill industry at its mouth. In 1979 the river still had a salmon run, but numbers declined and in 1993 the river was included in a salmon action plan (SAP) under which fry were introduced from the Torne.

The element pyhä-, meaning "sacred", in the name of the river and of the lake where it originates, stems from Finnish paganism.