Finland

Full name of country: Republic of Finland

Region: Northern Europe

Official language: Finnish, Swedish

Population: 5,626,414 (2024 est.)

Nationality: Finn(s) (noun), Finnish (adjective)

Land area: 303,815 sq km (117,304 sq miles)

Water area: 34,330 sq km (13,255 sq miles)

Capital: Helsinki

National anthem: "Maamme" (Our Land), by Johan Ludvig Runeberg/Fredrik Pacius

National holiday: Independence Day, December 6 (1917)

Population growth: 0.2% (2024 est.)

Time zone: UTC +2

Flag: The flag of Finland is white and features a blue Nordic cross.

Independence: December 6, 1917 (from Russia)

Government type: parliamentary republic

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal

Legal system: civil law system based on the Swedish model

Finland is located in northeastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the east, Sweden to the west, Norway to the northwest, and the Baltic Sea to the southwest. Most of the country is covered by forests, and it has a reputation as a leading producer of paper and wood products. Finland has also become known for its advances in wireless digital communications. The nation has a very high standard of living, and its welfare system is one of the best in the world.

Note: unless otherwise indicated, statistical data in this article is sourced from the CIA World Factbook, as cited in the bibliography.

People and Culture

• Population: Finland had a population of more than 5.6 million as of 2024, with the most densely populated areas found along the southern and western coasts. About 1.338 million people lived in Helsinki in 2023.

Helsinki is the largest city in Finland. Espoo is the second-largest city while other major cities include Tampere, about 175 kilometers (109 miles) north of Helsinki; Vantaa, located in the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area; Turku, in southwestern Finland; and Oulu, in the north. Rovaniemi is the major city in Lapland, a region in northern Scandinavia and the northernmost province of Finland. Approximately 85.8 percent of the population reside in urban areas (2023 estimate).

Finland's population is fairly homogenous, with the majority of the people being of Finnish descent. Swedes are concentrated in the areas to the south around Helsinki and the Åland Islands. Russians, Estonians, Iraqis, Roma, Sami, and others also represent part of the population. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Finland saw a wave of immigration from Russia, Vietnam, Somalia, and the former Yugoslavia.

Finnish, spoken by 85.9 percent of the population, belongs to the Finno-Ugric group of languages. It bears more similarities to Hungarian, Estonian, and some Siberian languages than it does to other Scandinavian languages. Finnish words that have made their way into the English language include "sauna," a steam bath; and "tundra," a flat or slightly hilly treeless plain. Swedish, also an official language, is spoken by about 5.2 percent of the population (2022 estimates). The Sami speak a variety of dialects that are collectively referred to as Lappish.

Approximately 66.6 percent of Finns are Lutheran and 1.1 percent are Greek Orthodox. Roman Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and members of other Protestant faiths account for around 1.7 percent of the population. More than 30 percent of Finns do not specify a religion (2022 estimates).

Indigenous People: The Sami, also known as Lapps, are the Indigenous people of Finland. Traditionally reindeer herders, they migrated north to Lapland as other ethnic groups began to arrive. Some Sami continue to raise reindeer in huge cooperatives, using modern farming techniques.

Education: Finland has a high literacy rate. Education is compulsory and free for children between the ages of seven and eighteen. Finnish students attend primary schools for six years and lower secondary schools for three years. Secondary schools are either vocational or academic institutions. Students who plan to go on to college must attend academic secondary schools for three years. Students who attend vocational schools may spend one or two years in school to prepare for entry-level jobs or three to four years for managerial or supervisory positions.

The largest university in Finland is the University of Helsinki. Other notable institutions of higher learning include the University of Turku, Tampere University, the University of Oulu, and Aalto University. Students who plan to attend a university must pass a national examination before they are accepted.

Health Care: Finland's publicly funded national health care system provides universal medical care. Health care centers are located throughout the country. Health expenditures accounted for 9.6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020.

Finland has one of the world's lowest infant mortality rates at 2.11 deaths per 1,000 live births (2023 estimate). The average life expectancy at birth is 81.96 years (2023 estimate). In 2022 the country ranked 12th (based on data for 2022) on the United Nations Human Development Index.

Food: Finns consume a good deal of dairy products, including milk, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream. Fish such as salmon, trout, herring, and whitefish, and meats such as beef, pork, and chicken are popular. Some specialty dishes include makkara (sausages), fish pies with rye crusts called kalakukko, and pulla, a wheat bun.

Meals often include potatoes, cabbage, turnips, or rye bread. People tend to eat smaller meals for breakfast, while lunch (or "lounas"), which is served at noon, is the major meal of the day. Supper (or "paivallinen") is served in the early evening. Finns prefer coffee over tea, and Finland has one of the highest per capita rates of coffee consumption.

Arts & Entertainment: Outdoor sports, especially ice hockey, are popular in Finland. During the colder months, people like to ski or go snowmobiling or snowshoeing. Ice fishing and dog sled and reindeer safaris are other common winter activities.

During the summer, Finns enjoy watching soccer and a form of baseball called pesäpallo. Finland has many lakes and rivers, so fishing, swimming, and river rafting are common outdoor activities during the warmer months. There are more hunters per capita in Finland than in most other European nations.

Saunas or steam baths are part of the cultural tradition, although they did not originate in Finland. Many apartment and office buildings have their own saunas. There are at least two million saunas in Finland, so they are almost universally accessible.

Several major musical festivals are held in Finland each year, mainly during the summer months. The most famous is the Savonlinna Opera Festival, a month-long event that takes place at Olavinlinna Castle in the Lake Region. Internationally renowned jazz musicians perform at the Espoo Jazz Festival in April and the Pori Jazz Festival in July.

Finland has a small government-subsidized film industry that produces about twenty movies per year. Mies Vailla Menneisyyttä (The Man without a Past), a film by Aki Kaurismaki, won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.

Holidays: National holidays celebrated in Finland include May Day or Vappu (May 1), an occasion that marks the beginning of spring. Midsummer's Day, held on the first Saturday between June 20 and June 26, celebrates the summer solstice. Independence Day (December 6) commemorates Finland's declaration of independence from Russia in 1917.

Environment and Geography

Topography: Finland is bordered by Russia to the east, Sweden to the northwest, and Norway to the north. To the south, the Gulf of Finland separates the country from Estonia. The Åland Islands, a 6,500-island archipelago to the south in the Gulf of Bothnia, cover 1,528 square kilometers (590 square miles). About one-third of Finland lies above the Arctic Circle.

There are three major regions in Finland. The coastal plain is relatively narrow in the south and southwest, becoming wider in the western region near the Gulf of Bothnia. This is where the largest urban centers are found. The interior plateau, which includes the Lake District, forms the central part of the country. Lapland forms the northern region, one-third of which is covered by marshes and bogs. The most mountainous areas are in northwestern Finland, near the borders with Norway and Sweden. Finland's highest point is Mount Haltia, 1,328 meters (4,357 feet) above sea level.

Finland's coastline is about 1,250 kilometers (777 miles) long. Thousands of islands are found off the coast, mostly in the southwest. Winding ridges called eskers were formed by retreating glaciers that left deposits of sand and gravel in their wake. Three parallel ridges known as the Salpausselkä ridges form an arc along the southern coast.

Inland waters cover nearly 10 percent of Finland's area. The largest of the country's tens of thousands of lakes is Lake Saimaa, in the southeast. Other major lakes include the Päijänne, Pielinen, Oulu in central Finland, and Inari in the far north. Finland's longest river is the 552-kilometer (343-mile) long Kemi.

Natural Resources: Forests and timber are Finland's most abundant natural resource. Finland also has significant copper, iron ore, and zinc reserves, and other minerals such as chromite, lead, nickel, silver, and gold are mined commercially. Because it lacks natural energy sources, except for wood and hydroelectric power, Finland must import oil, with Russia being the largest supplier. However, this status began to change dramatically upon Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. As the European Union condemned the war and banned Russian oil imports, by 2023 Finland had transitioned to importing oil from Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Plants & Animals: More than 72.9 percent (2018 estimate) of Finland is covered by forests, mainly spruce, pine, and birch. Cloudberries grow in the swamps and bogs in the northern tundra.

Over three hundred species of birds are found in Finland, including seabirds and waterfowl. Woodland animals that are native to Finland include brown bears, moose, elk, wolves, wolverines, and lynx. Reindeer are still found in Lapland, but they are semidomesticated.

Fish such as salmon, trout, and siika (common whitefish) are plentiful in northern rivers, while Baltic herring is the most abundant sea fish.

Climate: Finland's climate is warmer than might be expected, due to the moderating influences of warm Gulf Stream breezes and the Baltic Sea. The weather is more extreme in the area above the Arctic Circle, where temperatures can reach –30 degrees Celsius (–22 degrees Fahrenheit) in the winter and 27 degrees Celsius (80 degrees Fahrenheit) in the summer. In the central and southern regions, winters are milder and shorter. Precipitation averages about 65 centimeters (25 inches) per year in the south, with slightly less in the north. At the same time, Finland, like all other countries, continued to experience the effects of climate change, particularly on the winter season.

From mid-May to mid-July, the sun never sets in northern Lapland. Summer days are long in central and southern Finland, where twilight lasts until about midnight. The situation reverses during the winter, when days are very short. At the southern tip of Finland, Helsinki has less than seven hours of daylight in January and February. The sun never rises above the horizon at all in northern Finland from early December to early January, creating an eerie bluish glow called polar night, or kaamos (Finnish, "darkness").

Economy

Finland's gross domestic product (GDP) was estimated at US$321.126 billion, or US$57,500 per capita, in 2023. Starting in the late twentieth century, Finland has undergone a transition from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy. The majority of the workforce is employed in services.

Finland had an unemployment rate of 7.16 percent in 2023.

Industry: Manufacturing has historically been a primary sector of the economy, with production of paper, pulp, wood and chemical byproducts, metals, engineering and electronic products, and telecommunications equipment being major activities.

Other manufactured products include computerized mechanical systems, snowmobiles, icebreaker ships, furniture, ceramics, textiles, and home accessories. Nokia, a top telecommunications firm, is headquartered in Espoo.

Finland’s major trading partners are Germany, Sweden, Russia, the United States, the Netherlands, and China. Finland became a member of the European Union in January 1995.

Agriculture: Major cash crops include barley, wheat, potatoes, and sugar beets. Other major agricultural products are dairy cattle and fish. Livestock include poultry, cattle, pigs, reindeer, and sheep.

Tourism: Due to its remote location, Finland attracts fewer foreign tourists compared to Denmark, Sweden, or Norway. In 2019, there were approximately 3.2 million international tourist arrivals in Finland. This figure dropped to 896,000 arrivals in 2020 following the COVID-19 pandemic that began that same year. According to Statistics Finland, the number of total tourist overnight stays at accommodation establishments slowly rebounded after that point, though, with the number 7 percent higher in November 2022 than it had been in that same period in 2021.

Some of the country's notable tourist attractions include Olavinlinna Castle, built as a fortress in the fifteenth century at Savonlinna; Ainola, a museum that was once the home of composer Jean Sibelius; the Kiasma modern art museum in Helsinki; and Gallen-Kallela Museum, dedicated to Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela.

Government

Finland is a parliamentary republic. It has been an independent nation since December 6, 1917. The president, elected to a six-year term of office by popular vote in two rounds if needed, is the head of state, and may serve two consecutive terms in office. Finland also has a prime minister, who is appointed by the parliament. Cabinet ministers are appointed by the president.

The legislative branch, known as the Eduskunta, is a unicameral parliament with two hundred members who are elected by proportional representation vote, although one member in the province of Aland is elected by simple majority vote. Members of parliament serve four-year terms, with no limit on the number of terms they may serve. The judicial branch is headed by the Supreme Court, or Korkein Oikeus, whose judges are appointed by the president.

Major political parties in Finland include the Center Party (Kesk), the Christian Democrats (KD), the Finns Party (PS), the Green League (VIHR), the Left Alliance (Vas), the National Coalition Party (Kok), the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and the Swedish People's Party.

Conservative former Prime Minister Alexander Stubb won the February 2024 presidential election, in Finland's first election since it joined the Nato military alliance in April 2023.

Interesting Facts

• Finland became the first European nation to give women the right to vote in 1906.
• The world's northernmost film festival, the Midnight Sun Film Festival, is held in Lapland in June.
• Finland is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the European Union.
• Finland won its first ever men's ice hockey gold medal at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
• Finland topped the Sustainable Development Solutions Network's World Happiness Report as the happiest place to live for the sixth time in a row in 2023.
• Finland became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 2023.

Bibliography

"Country Profiles: Finland." United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, data.unicef.org/country/fin/. Accessed 13 Oct. 2023.

"Finland." The World Bank, 2024, data.worldbank.org/country/finland. Accessed 8 Jan. 2025.

"Finland." The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, 23 Dec. 2024, www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/finland/. Accessed 8 Jan. 2025.

Human Development Report 2021/2022. United Nations Development Programme, 2022, hdr.undp.org/system/files/documents/global-report-document/hdr2021-22pdf‗1.pdf. Accessed 13 Oct. 2023.

"Nights Spent by Foreign Tourists in Finland Increased by One Third from the Previous Year in November 2022." Statistics Finland, 29 Dec. 2022, www.stat.fi/en/publication/cktvhgqxs2b1i0b61c5t0nxgg. Accessed 13 Oct. 2023.