Finland in brief
Geography, People, Economy and Governance
| Total area: | 338,144 km² square kilometres, of which 10% is water and 69% forest; Europe’s largest archipelago, including the semi-autonomous province of Åland. |
| Neighboring Countries: | Sweden, Norway, Russia, Estonia |
| 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 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 |
| Population: | 5.4 million, 71% live in towns or urban areas, 29% in rural areas |
| Capital: | Helsinki (595,000), about 1.3 million people live in the Helsinki metropolitan area |
| Languages: | Finland has two official languages: Finnish (91.5%) and Swedish (5.5%). Another official indigenous minority language is Sami (0.03%) |
| Religion: | Lutheran (82.4% ) and Orthodox (about 1.1%) |
| GNP: | In 2007, Finland’s GNP per capita was 34,003 euros |
| Currency: | The Finnish currency unit is the euro. Finland was one of the 12 EU countries that started using euro cash in 2002. |
| 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. |
| Government: | The Government as of June 2011 is a coalition of The National Coalition Party, The Finnish Social Democratic Party, The Left Alliance, The Swedish People´s Party, The Greens of Finland and The Finnish Christian Democrats.The Prime Minister is Mr. Jyrki Katainen. 9 of the 19 ministerial posts are held by women. |
| President: | The head of state is the President of the Republic. The President is elected for a six-year term by direct popular vote. The president for the current term (until February 28, 2018) is Mr Sauli Niinistö. |
| Finland in the International Community: | Member of EU, UN, OECD and WTO, among others. |
| Unemployment rate: | 6,9 % (October 2012) |
| Flight Times to Helsinki (by Finnair) hrs:min: | Beijing 8:00 Brussels 2:40 Melbourne 22:00 Moscow 1:40 New York 8:40 Rome 3:40 Tokyo 9:30 |
| Local Time: | +2 hrs GMT |
