Finland

The tourist cliche of Finland as "the country of thousands of lakes" has some basis; in one count, a number of 187,880 islands was reached (but it all depends on what counts as a lake).

Finland (Finnish: Suomi) is the fifth largest country in Europe, excluding the Russian federation. Roughly 1/3 of the country lies north of the Arctic Circle. Finland shares a common border in the north with Norway, in the east a long border (1,269 km) with Russia, on the south it is bordered by the Gulf of Finland, and on the west by the Gulf of Bothnia and Sweden. Most of Finland is lowland, but in the far northwest (the "arm" of Finland) some mountains rise to over 1000m. Most of Finland is made of ancient granite bedrock, which has been shaped and fractured by numerous ice ages, the marks of which can be seen e.g in the complex lake system, the equally complex archipelagos and the huge boulders scattered all over the country.

Finland has three main physical regions: the coastal lowlands, the inland lake system, and the northern uplands. The coastal lowlands extend along coasts of the Gulfs of Finland and Bothnia, off which lie thousands of rocky islands; the principal archipelagos are the Åland (in Finnish: Ahvenanmaa) Islands and the archipelago of Turku. The lake district is an interior plateau of southern central, heavily forested and studded with lakes, swamps and bogs. The northern upland, much of which lies north of the Arctic Circle, has rather poor soils and is the most sparsely populated region of Finland. In the far north, arctic forests and swamps eventually change to tundra.

Finland's climate shows both maritime and continental influences. Surrounding seas cool the climate on the coast in spring but on the other hand warm it up in the autumn.The climate becomes more continental, i.e more extreme, the further east and north one goes. The furtherst north, however, has a rather marine climate because of the influence of the Arctic Ocean. The summer lasts two to four months, the growing season four to six.

The tourist cliche of Finland as "the country of thousands of lakes" has some basis; in one count, a number of 187,880 islands was reached (but it all depends on what counts as a lake). They are often connected by rivers and canals to form large lake-systems. Finland's largest lake, Saimaa, is in fact a system of more than a hundred interconnected smaller lakes. Finland's rivers are short and shallow, the longest being located in the north. Finland has about 30,000 coastal islands, of which the especially the southwestern archipelago is known for its beauty.

The country is situated entirely within the northern zone of coniferous forests. Forests cover about 65% of the total area (45% pines, 37% spruces, 15%). Oaks, lindens, elms, and ashes appear mostly in the southwest corner. Among the large wild animals are e.g ear, elk, deer, lynx, wolverine and wolf.

Finland is a bilingual country (with a Swedish-speaking minority living mostly in the coastal areas). The autonomous island-province of Åland is an exception: the province is monolingually Swedish-speaking.

Åland Islands, with approximately 25,000 inhabitants, is a demilitarized area with its own flag (a red Nordic cross outlined in yellow, on blue background) and a separate local legislation. Its autonomy is based on international treaties.

The Swedish-speaking minority of Finland descends chiefly from the settlers that arrived with the Christian missionaries and crusaders in the early middle ages. They speak a variety called "finlandssvenska" that differs slightly from Swedish spoken in Sweden ("rikssvenska"), most notably for its Finnish intonation and some archaic vocabulary. Today 5.7 % of Finland's population is registered as Finland-Swedish. The proportion has been steadily diminishing since the 18th century when 20% of the population had Swedish as mother tongue.

Facts

Name: Suomen Tasavalta / Republiken Finland / The Republic of Finland [ Fi/Sw/En ]


Flag: a blue Nordic cross on white background.
Languages: Finnish (92.7 %), Swedish (5.7 %) (both official), small Sámi and Romani minorities.

Area: 338,127 km² / 130,125 sq mi
Terrain: mostly low, flat to rolling plains interspersed with lakes and low hills; fjells and some mountains in the extreme northwest
Highest mountain: Haltiatunturi (1,328 m).
Land boundaries: Sweden, Norway and Russia

Population: 5,147,000 [year-end 1997]
Life expectancy: women 80, men 72. [1992]

Capital: Helsinki/Helsingfors (pop. 532,053), metropolitan area ca 1 mill.
Other major towns: Tampere/Tammerfors (186,026), Turku/Åbo (166,929) Espoo/Esbo (196,260)[a suburb to Helsinki] Vantaa/Vanda (168,778) [a suburb to Helsinki] Oulu/Uleåborg (111,556) [year-end, 1996]
(note: many places in Finland have two names, Finnish and Swedish)

Religion: Evangelic-Lutheran (84%), Greek Orthodox (1%) (both churches are official state-churches)
Currency: Euro


Climate: cold temperate. Gulf stream warms up parts of the country, Lapland is sub-arctic. Average temp. in Helsinki: -9°C - -4°C in Feb., 12°C - 22°C in July.


Natural resources: timber, copper, zinc, iron ore, silver.
Exports: paper, metal, machinery, ships, timber, textiles, chemicals, electronics, furniture.


This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Lysator article "Finland".


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