Country Profile: Finland

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Finland
Last reviewed: 21 May 2009

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FINLAND TODAY

Country Facts

Area: 390,920 sq km
Population: 5.3 million
Capital City: Helsinki – population 560,000 (capital region 1.2m)
Language(s): Finnish 91.51%. Swedish 5.49%. Increasing Russian-speaking minority (0.8%). Small Saami speaking community speak Inari and Skolt dialects. English is widely and well spoken, particularly in Helsinki.
Religions: Christianity. Main demoninations: Evangelican Lutheran 82.5% and Finnish Orthodox 1.1%.
Currency: euro
Major political parties:
Composition of Parliament (out of 200 seats) after March 2007 elections:
Centre – seats 51 / 23.1% of total vote / -4 from 2003 elections
National Coalition – 50 / 22.3 / +10
SDP – 45 / 21.4 / -8
Left Alliance – 17 / 8.8 / -2
Green League – 15 / 8.5 / +1
Swedish People’s Party – 9 / 4.6 / +1
Christian Democrats – 7 / 4.9 / 0
True Finns – 5 / 4.1 / +2
Others (Åland Islands) – 1 / 0.5 / 0
Government: Republic
Head of State: President Tarja Halonen
Prime Minister: Mr Matti Vanhanen
Minister for Foreign Affairs: Mr Alexander Stubb
Minister for Foreign Trade and Development: Paavo Väyrynen
Minister of Finance: Jyrki Katainen
Membership of international groups/organisations: European Union (EU), United Nations (UN), all the organisations of the United Nations family, the Council of Europe (COE), World Trade Organisation (WTO), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Nordic Council, the Barents Euro Arctic Council, the Council of Baltic Sea States and other regional bodies, Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

Public Holidays in 2009

1 January       New Year's Day
6 January       Epiphany
10 April           Good Friday
12 April           Easter Day
13 April           Easter Monday
1 May             May Day
21 May            Ascension
31 May            Whitsunday
19 June            Midsummer Eve (partly)
20 June            Midsummer
31 October       All Saints
6 December     Independence Day
24 December    Christmas Eve (partly)
25 December    Christmas Day
26 December    Boxing Day

DID YOU KNOW?

The Finns hold more Olympic medals per capita than any other nation - Paavo Nurmi and Lasse Viren are the best known Finnish athletes.
Finland's Saami community are the only indigenous population in the EU.
Finland's former President Martti Ahtisaari won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008 for his work with international conflicts.
Finns drink more coffee per capita than any other nationality in the world. Belgium are second and Norway third.
Finnish speeding fines are based on your annual income. In 2004 the 27-year-old heir to a family-owned sausage empire received a record €170,000 ticket for driving at 80 kph in a 40 kph zone.
Finnish musical traditions are extremely strong, from Sibelius onwards. Finns such as Esa-Pekka Salonen conduct many of the world's leading orchestras.
There are very few original Finnish words whcih commence with the letters b, c, d, f, q, w, x or z. Most of them are loan words with Swedish, Germanic, Russian or English origins.
The Finnish language is not related to other Scandinavian languages or Russian but belongs to the Fenno-Ugrian family of languages.
Finland is home to the World Mosquito-Killing Championship, the World Mobile Phone-throwing Competition and an annual National Wife-carrying Competition (for which the first prize is the woman’s weight in lemonade).
Novelist JRR Tolkein was heavily inspired by the Kalevala, the Finnish National Epic, when writing his Middle-Earth stories. Tolkein’s acquaintance with and fascination for Finnish at Oxford led to his creation of the High Elvish language.
Finnish architects and designers such as Alvar Aalto have a very high international reputation.
Finland was the first country in the world to elect women MPs.
10% of Finland’s land area is covered by water and 69% by forest.
Finland has 187,888 lakes and 179,584 islands. The surface area of Finland is growing by about 7 sq km a year due to uplift following the last ice age.
Finland is a market leader in IT and the mobile phone company Nokia is Finnish. Did you also know that Nokia started off as a factory making wellington boots?
Finland tops international league tables for education, literacy, honesty, and the sustainable use of natural resources, is in the top 3 for technological innovation, research and development, and internet use, and is one of the world's top 3 most competitive economies.

HEALTH

Infant mortality rate: 3.0 deaths/1,000 live births (2005)

Life expectancy: males 75.8 years, females 82.8 years.

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Useful Links

BBC Timeline of Finland
UK Trade & Investment Country Profile: Finland
Virtual Finland is a comprehensive website administered by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs with links to government, NGOs and other Finland–related sites.
The national broadcaster YLE has its own site in English including live Finnish radio and a recorded news summary in English.
The leading daily newspaper is: Helsingin Sanomat - a Helsinki newspaper that has a wide readership in the rest of Finland.
Finnish Statistics