Finland in brief
Geography, People, Economy and Governance
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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: | 5.3 million, 15.7 inhabitants per square kilometre, 71% live in towns or urban areas, 29% in rural areas |
| Capital: | Helsinki (564,000), about 1.25 million people live in the Helsinki metropolitan area |
| Languages: | Finland has two official languages: Finnish (91.5%) and Swedish (5.5%). |
| Religion: | Lutheran (82.4% ) and Orthodox (about 1.1%) |
| GNP: | In 2007, Finland's GNP per capita was around 33,970 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 summer 2011 is a coalition of the National Coalition Party, Social Democrats, Left Alliance, the Green League, the Swedish People's Party and Christian Democrats. The Prime Minister is Mr. Jyrki Katainen. |
| 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 incumbent, President Mrs Tarja Halonen, was elected in 2000, and re-elected in 2006. |
| Finland in the International Community: | Member of EU, UN, OECD and WTO, among others. |
| Unemployment rate: | 7,3 % (September 2009) |
| 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 |
Modified 29.07.2011
