Country information

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FINLAND TODAY

Country Facts

Area: 390,920 sq km
Population: 5.2 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 Sami speaking community.
Religions: Religions: Lutheran 82.5%, 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
Foreign Minister: Mr Ilkka Kanerva
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).

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.
• 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.
• The Finnish alphabet does not use the letters b, c, d, f, q, w, x or z. So in a 600-page dictionary only 3 pages are taken up by B, C and D – and only 9 words begin with C – all imported words, such as “CD-ROM”.
• 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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