About Finland

Total area:	338,000 square kilometres, of which 10% is water and 69% forest; 187,888 lakes, 5,100 rapids and 179,584 islands; Europe's largest archipelago, including the semi-autonomous province of Åland
Distances:	1,160 km north to south, 540 km west to east Finland's land border with Russia (1,269 km) is the eastern border of the European Union.
Climate:	The climate of Finland is marked by cold winters and fairly warm summers. In the far north of the country the sun does not set for about 73 days, producing the white nights of summer. In winter the sun remains below the horizon for 51 days in the far north. In summer the temperature quite often rises to +20 Celsius or more and occasionally goes close to +30 in southern and eastern parts of the country. In winter, temperatures of -20 Celsius are not uncommon in many areas. Finnish Lapland invariably has the lowest winter temperatures. The mean temperature in Helsinki in July is +17 Celsius and in February -5.7 Celsius.

People

Population:	5.3 million, 15.7 inhabitants per square kilometre 71% live in towns or urban areas, 29% in rural areas Principal cities: Helsinki (564,000), Espoo (235,000), Tampere (206,000), Vantaa (189,000), Turku (175,000) and Oulu (130,000) About 1.25 million people live in the Helsinki metropolitan area Finland has a Sami (Lapp) population of 8,700.
Languages:	Finland has two official languages: Finnish and Swedish. Finnish, a Finno-Ugric language, is spoken by 91.5% and Swedish by 5.5% of the population. Sami (Lappish) is the mother tongue of about 1,700 people.
Religion:	82.4% Lutheran and about 1.1% Orthodox

History and governance

Some important events in the history of Finland:
1155	The first crusade to Finland by the Swedes. Finland becomes part of the Swedish realm.
1809	Finland is handed over to Russia by Sweden and becomes a autonomous Grand Duchy under the Russian emperor.
1917	Finland's declaration of independence on December 6.
1919	The present constitution is adopted and Finland becomes a republic.
1939-40	The Soviet Union attacks Finland, which leads to the winter war.
1941-44	Fighting between Finnish and Soviet Forces resumes in the Continuation War. Some territory is ceded to the Soviet Union but Fnland is never occupied and preserves its independence and sovereignty.
1955	Finland joins the United Nations
1995	Finland becomes a member of the European Union

The head of state is the President of the Republic. The President is elected for a six-year term by direct popular vote. The incumbent, President Mrs Tarja Halonen, was elected in 2000, and re-elected in 2006.

Parliament:

Parliament consists of one chamber with 200 members. The members are elected for a four-year term by direct popular vote under a system of proportional representation.

After the parliamentary elections on 18, March 2007, the seats were divided among eight parties as follows:

Party	Seats	% of votes
The Centre Party	51	23.1
The National Coalition Party	50	22.3
The Social Democratic Party	45	21.4
The Left Wing Alliance	17	8.8
The Green League	15	8.5
The Swedish People's Party	9	4.6
The Christian Democrats	7	4.9
The True Finns	5	4.1
Others (province of Åland representative)	1	2.3

The Government:

The President of the Republic, Tarja Halonen, appointed Finland’s 70th Cabinet on 19 April 2007. The coalition government headed by Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, Centre Party, consists of 20 ministers. The Centre Party and the National Coalition Party have eight ministerial posts each. The Green League and the Swedish People's Party both have two ministers.

The Economy

In 2006, Finland's GNP per capita was around 31,700 euros.

Imports and exports in 2006 by region
Region	exports % share of total	imports % share of total
EU-countries Euro Zone Rest of Europe OECD North America Central and South America Middle East Rest of Asia Africa Oceania	57.0 29.3 16.4 68.0 7.4 2.6 4.6 9.2 2.3 0.8	55.6 31.5 19.0 67.7 4.3 2.8 0.2 16.0 0.6 1.3

Most important trade partners in 2006
Countries	exports % share of total	imports % share of total
Germany Sweden Russia USA United Kingdom Netherlands France China Italy Estonia Norway Spain Belgium Denmark Japan	11.3 10.5 10.1 6.5 6.5 5.1 3.4 3.2 3.2 2.9 2.6 2.5 2.3 2.1 1.6	13.9 9.8 14.1 3.8 4.8 4.4 3.3 7.4 3.4 2.3 3.1 1.5 2.2 3.1 2.9

Exports:
There are three almost equally important exports sectors in the Finnish economy: electrotechnical industry products account for about 24.7% of exports; metal products, machinery and transport equipment account for about 33.7%; and wood and paper products account for about 20.2%. The fourth biggest export sector is the chemical industry. In 2006, the volume of exported goods grew by 17%. Trade with developing countries accounted for about 15.7% of total exports in 2006.

Imports:
Finnish industry is particularly dependent on imports of raw materials, machinery and components that it needs for manufacturing products for both domestic and export markets. In 2006, raw materials and investment goods accounted for 37.6% and 21.0% of imports respectively, while the share of energy of total imports was 15.5%. Consumer goods, including textiles, clothing and cars, made up just over 26% of total imports. In 2006, imports increased by 17%. Trade with developing countries accounted for 16.7% of imports in 2006.

Currency:
The Finnish currency unit is the euro. Finland was one of the 12 EU countries that started using euro cash in 2002.

Sources:

Statistics Finland
National Board of Customs
Population Register Center
State Provincial Office of Lapland
Localfinland.fi

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Finnish Market

About Finland

People

History and governance

Some important events in the history of Finland:

Parliament:

The Government:

The Economy

Imports and exports in 2006 by region

Most important trade partners in 2006