The Republic of Finland
(Finnish: Suomen tasavalta Swedish: Republiken Finland)
is a Nordic country in northeastern Europe,
bounded by the Baltic Sea to the southwest, the Gulf of
Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west.
Finland has land frontiers with Sweden,
Norway and Russia.
The Åland Islands, off the southwestern coast, are
under Finnish sovereignty while enjoying extensive autonomy.
The Finnish name for Finland is Suomi; in Swedish it is
Finland. The Latin language name is Fennia. Finland has
a population of only five million people in three hundred
thousand square kilometres, making it the 162nd most densely
populated country in the world. It ranked thirteenth on
the 2005 United Nations Human Development Index.
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Living in Finland
The climate in Southern Finland is a northern temperate
climate. In Northern Finland, particularly in the Province
of Lapland, a subarctic climate dominates, characterised
by cold, occasionally severe, winters and relatively
warm summers.
A quarter of Finland's territory lies above the Arctic
Circle, and as a consequence the midnight sun can be
experienced — for more and more days, the further
up north one comes. At Finland's northernmost point,
the sun does not set for 73 days during summer, and
does not rise at all for 51 days in winter.
There are two official languages in Finland: Finnish,
spoken by 92% of the population, and Swedish, mother
tongue for 5.5% of the population. Ethnic Finns and
Finland Swedes are generally considered to comprise
a common nation. The Finland-Swedes are concentrated
in the coastal areas; and there is a slight cultural
difference between the culture of the Ethnic Finns,
focused on lakes and woods, and the more outward-oriented
coastal culture of the Finland-Swedes. This difference
may be considered as an ethnic division, but the difference
is slight and not more pronounced than the difference
between East Finnish and West Finnish culture.
Other minority languages include Russian and Estonian.
To the north, in Lapland, are found the Sami, numbering
less than 7,000, who like the Finns speak a Finno-Ugric
languages. There are three Sami languages that are spoken
in Finland: Northern Sami, Inari Sami and Skolt Sami.
Most Finns (84%) are members of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church of Finland, with a minority of 1% belonging to
the Finnish Orthodox Church (see Eastern Orthodoxy).
These two churches are the state church of Finland.
The remainder of the population consists of relatively
small groups of other Protestant denominations, Roman
Catholics, Muslims and Jews beside the 14% who are unaffiliated.
Today, Finland has 6 administrative provinces (lääni,
pl. läänit) The province authority is part
of the executive branch of the national government;
a system that had not changed drastically since its
creation in 1634 to the new division to "greater
provinces" in 1997. Since then, the six provinces
are:
Southern Finland
Western Finland
Eastern Finland
Oulu
Lapland
Åland
The Åland Islands enjoy a degree of autonomy.
According to international treaties and Finnish laws,
the regional government for Åland handles some
matters which belong to the province authority in Mainland
Finland.
Another kind of provinces are those echoing the pattern
of colonisation of Finland. Dialects, folklore, customs
and people's feeling of affiliation are associated with
these historical provinces of Finland, although the
re-settlement of 420,000 Karelians during World War
II and urbanization in the latter half of the 20th century
have made differences less pronounced.
Local government is further organised in 432 (1.1.2005)
municipalities of Finland. Since 1977, no legal or administrative
distinction is made between towns, cities and other
municipalities. The municipalities co-operate in 20
regions of Finland.
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