Hi and welcome to Finland! Or as we say here "Hei ja tervetuloa Suomeen!"

We are one of the Nordic countries in Northern Europe. Our neighboring countries are Sweden (in west), Norway (in north), Estonia (in south across the Gulf of Finland) and Russia (in east) , and the Baltic Sea surrounds our coasts.

Here's a map:

We're a relatively small country; our population is about 5,5 million with a very uneven distribution, and our total area is 338 424 square kilometers. Finland is often referred to as the land of a thousand lakes. 10% of our land is water, and there are over 187, 000 (187, 888 officially) lakes in Finland. We're one of the European Union's member states and our currency is euro (€). Our official languages are Finnish, which majority of the population (about 89%) speaks, and Swedish which about 5,5% of our population speaks. There is also Sami which is a recognized regional language.  

We declared our independence in December 6, 1917. After a brief attempt to establish a kingdom, we became a republic. Finland was kind of late to industrialization as we remained a mainly agrarian country until the 1950's. Once we entered the industrial age, we developed an advanced economy.

We're a parliamentary republic with a presidential system and central government based in our capital. Our president is elected every six years. The largest religious body of our country is The Evangelical Lutheran Church. The Finnish Orthodox Church also has a national church's legal position in our country.

This is our flag:



It is often called "Siniristilippu" (Blue Cross Flag). The blue in the flag means the lakes and the sky, while the white means the snow in winter.

Here's what our country looks like up close:



Finland consists of 19 regions (you can see them all in the map), and it has quite a lot of small islands on the coast. One of these 19 regions is the Åland Islands (Åland in Swedish, Ahvenanmaa in Finnish) which is an autonomous region of Finland. Swedish is the only official language of Åland and they have their own government.

The capital of Finland is Helsinki, which is also our largest city with the population of about 626,000 and around 1,4 in the Greater Helsinki area. While the center of the city has a lot of refurbished older buildings, you can also bump into very new buildings there. New suburbs are filled mostly with newer buildings. For more info on Helsinki, check out the Places to visit thread!

Thread Index:
Introduction thread
Culture
Language
Nature and Places to Visit
Quiz