The Republic of Finland is a Nordic country in northeastern Europe , bordered by the Baltic Sea to the southwest, the Gulf of Finland to the southeast and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west. Finland has land frontiers with Sweden , Norway and Russia and a maritime border with Estonia . The Åland Islands , off the southwestern coast, are under Finnish sovereignty while enjoying extensive autonomy .

Finland is a country of thousands of lakes and islands; 187,888 lakes and 179,584 islands to be precise. One of these lakes, Saimaa , is the 5th largest in Europe. The Finnish landscape is mostly flat with few hills and its highest point, the Haltitunturi at 1,328 m, is found in the extreme north of Lapland . Beside the many lakes the landscape is dominated by extensive boreal forests (about 68 percent of land area) and little arable land. The greater part of the islands are found in southwest, part of the archipelago of the Åland Islands , and along the southern coast in the Gulf of Finland . Finland is one of the few countries in the world that is still growing. Owing to the isostatic uplift that has been taking place since the last ice age , the surface area of the country is growing by about 7 sq. kilometres a year.

The climate in Southern Finland is a northern temperate climate . In Northern Finland, particularly in the Province of Lapland , a subarctic climate dominates, characterised by cold, occasionally severe, winters and relatively warm summers.

A quarter of Finland's territory lies above the Arctic Circle , and as a consequence the midnight sun can be experienced — for more and more days, the further up north one comes. At Finland's northernmost point, the sun does not set for 73 days during summer, and does not rise at all for 51 days in winter.

Economy

Finland has a highly industrialized, largely free-market economy, with per capita output roughly that of the UK , France , Germany , and Italy . The Finnish standard of living is high. Its key economic sector is manufacturing - principally the wood, metals, engineering, telecommunications (especially Nokia ), and electronics industries. Trade is important, with exports equaling almost one-third of GDP . Except for timber and several minerals, Finland depends on imports of raw materials, energy, and some components for manufactured goods.

Because of the climate, agricultural development is limited to maintaining self-sufficiency in basic products. Forestry , an important export earner, provides a secondary occupation for the rural population. Rapidly increasing integration with Western Europe - Finland was one of the 11 countries joining the euro monetary system ( EMU ) on January 1 , 1999 - will dominate the economic picture over the next several years. Growth was anemic in 2002 but slowed down in 2003 because of global depression.

Demographics

There are two official languages in Finland: Finnish , spoken by 92% of the population, and Swedish , mother tongue for 5.5% of the population. Ethnic Finns and Finland Swedes are generally considered to comprise a common nation . The Finland-Swedes are concentrated in the coastal areas; and there is a slight cultural difference between the culture of the Ethnic Finns, focused on lakes and woods, and the more outward-oriented coastal culture of the Finland-Swedes. This difference may be considered as an ethnic division, but the difference is slight and not more pronounced than the difference between East Finnish and West Finnish culture .

Other minority languages include Russian and Estonian . To the north, in Lapland , are found the Sami , numbering less than 7,000, who like the Finns speak a Finno-Ugric language ( Sami ).

Most Finns (84%) are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland , with a minority of 1% belonging to the Finnish Orthodox Church (see Eastern Orthodoxy ). The remainder consist of relatively small groups of other Protestant denominations, Roman Catholics , Muslims and Jews beside the 14% who are unaffiliated.

After the Winter War (confirmed by the outcome of the Continuation War ) 12% of Finland's population had to be re-settled. War reparations , unemployment and uncertainty regarding Finland's chances to remain sovereign and independent of the Soviet Union contributed to considerable emigration , abating first in the 1970s . Until then, some 500,000 Finns had emigrated, chiefly to Sweden , although half of the emigrants ultimately re-migrated again.

Since the late 1990s , Finland has received refugees and immigrants at a rate comparable with the Scandinavian countries, although the total ethnic-minority population remains far lower in Finland than the rest. A considerable number of immigrants have come from the former Soviet Union claiming ethnic ( Finnic ) kinship. However, over 20 languages are now spoken in Finland by immigrant groups of significant size — that is, with at least a thousand speakers.

Finland's population has always been concentrated in the southern parts of the country, which is even more pronounced after the 20th century urbanization . The biggest and most important cities in Finland are Helsinki , Tampere , Turku and Oulu , with Oulu being the only city in central–northern Finland with more than 100,000 inhabitants.