Finland
Brief Description:
Area:
Finland is located between Sweden and Russia, Finland also borders the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia, and Gulf of Finland. Finland’s area, at 337,030 square kilometers (130,127 square miles), is slightly smaller than the state of Montana. Finland shares a long border of 1,313 kilometers (816 miles) with Russia, 729 kilometers (453 miles) of border with Norway, and 586 kilometers (364 miles) of border with Sweden. The remaining 1,126 kilometers (700 miles) of its boundary is coastline, excluding islands and coastal indentations. The capital, Helsinki, is the north-ernmost national capital in Europe, but it is found in the south of Finland, as are the majority of its 94 towns. Finland also includes the island province of Åland, located between Sweden and Finland. The islands are locally autonomous, have their own government, and are entirely Swedish-speaking.
Government System:
Parliamentary Republic.
Population:
It is estimated in 2014, that the total population of Finland is 54,57,429. The population growth rate is a very small 0.17 percent and generally has been small. Finland has a high proportion of elderly: only 18 percent of the population are under 14 years of age and 15 percent are over 65.
Finland is extremely homogenous. Ethnic Finns make up 93 percent of the population, ethnic Swedes 6 percent, and the rest is mainly made up of the Sami (also called Lapps), Roma, and Tatar. There are 2 official languages: Finnish (spoken by 93 percent of the population) and Swedish (by 6 percent). Due to the harsh climate in the north, population is concentrated in the lowlands in the south of Finland. Approximately 81.2 percent of Finns live in urban areas with around 1 million concentrated in the capital, Helsinki, and its metropolitan area.
Formerly a source of emigrants (people moving outwards from a country), Finland is currently becoming a destination for immigrants (people who move into a foreign country). In 1996, the number of foreigners living in Finland was 74,000, with Russians accounting for about 20 percent, followed by inhabitants with Estonian, Swedish, and Somali former citizenship.
For every square kilometre of Finnish land, there is an average of 16 people here. That converts to a figure of 41 per square mile and makes this the 201st most densely populated country in the world.
Largest cities:
Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa, Turku, Oulu, Lahti etc are the largest cities in Finland by population.
Monetary unit:
Euro.
National name:
The Republic of Finland.
Languages :
Between the two official languages of Finland, Finnish is the first language spoken by 93% of the country’s 5 million inhabitants. The other official language, Swedish, is spoken by around 6% of the population, most of whom live in the south west and are also speakers of Finnish. Sámi is a minority language in the Nordic countries that is spoken by around 2,000 people living in the north of Finland, which is 0.03% of the Finnish population.
Religion :
There has been complete freedom of worship in Finland since 1923. Most Finnish belong to the Evangelical-Lutheran Church (approximately 78 per cent) while 1.1 per cent belong to the Finnish Orthodox Church.
The Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland and the Finnish Orthodox Church of Finland are established churches with legal status. This legal status allows the levying of church taxes. This means that members of congregations pay taxes to the church. However, Finland has no state-church structure in the precise sense of the term. Churches have internal independence.
In general, Finnish people are fairly secular in their views, and religion does not play a big part in everyday life. Approximately 19.5 per cent of the population is without religious affiliation.
The number of immigrants in Finland is growing, and other religions are becoming more commonplace. Approximately 1.4 per cent of people.
Literacy rate:
The literacy rate in Finland is 100% with a rank of 4 out of 194.
GDP/PPP :
Total GDP $ 197.476 billion and per capita $36,395. The nominal GDP $250.16 & per capita $46,098.
EUR
)Largest City: Helsinki
Demonym : Finnish. Finn
Anthem: ” Maamme”
Government : Parliamentary Republic
Calling Code : + 358
Time Zone:
EET(UTC +2)
Summer(DST) EEST (UTC +3)