Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, across from Estonia. Finland covers an area of 338,145 square kilometres (130,559 sq mi) with a population of 5.6 million. Helsinki is the capital and largest city. The vast majority of the population are ethnic Finns. Finnish and Swedish are the official languages, Swedish being the native language of 5.2% of the population. Finland's climate varies from humid continental in the south to boreal in the north. The land cover is primarily a boreal forest biome, with more than 180,000 recorded lakes.
Helsinki is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland and has a population of 665,558. The city's urban area has a population of 1,268,296, making it by far the most populous urban area in Finland as well as the country's most important center for politics, education, finance, culture, and research. Helsinki is located 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Tallinn, Estonia, 400 km (250 mi) east of Stockholm, Sweden, and 300 km (190 mi) west of Saint Petersburg, Russia. It has close historical ties with these three cities.
Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, or simply Helsinki Airport, is the main international airport of the city of Helsinki, its surrounding metropolitan area, and the Uusimaa region. The airport is located in the neighbouring city of Vantaa, about 5 kilometres (3 mi) west of Tikkurila, the administrative centre of Vantaa and 9.2 NM north of Helsinki's city centre. The airport is operated by state-owned Finavia.
Lotta Svärd was a Finnish voluntary auxiliary paramilitary organisation for women. Formed originally in 1918, it had a large membership undertaking volunteer social work in the 1920s and 1930s. It was formed to support the White Guard. During the Second World War, it mobilized to replace men conscripted into the army. It served in hospitals, at air raid warning positions, and other auxiliary tasks in close cooperation with the army. The women were officially unarmed except for an antiaircraft battery in 1944. Virtanen argues that, their "accountability to the nation took a masculine and military form in public, but had a private, feminine side to it including features like caring, helping and loving." The organisation was disbanded by the government after the war.
Sir Geoffrey John Mulgan CBE is Professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation at University College London (UCL). From 2011 to 2019 he was Chief Executive of the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA) and Visiting Professor at University College London, the London School of Economics, and the University of Melbourne. In 2020, he joined the Nordic think tank Demos Helsinki as a Fellow.
Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund, is an independent public foundation which operates directly under the supervision of the Finnish Parliament. Its endowment was valued at 771 million euros in 2017. Its duties are stated in legislation: the objective of the foundation is "to promote stable and balanced development in Finland, qualitative and quantitative economic growth and international competitiveness and cooperation", by means of supporting "projects that increase the efficiency of the economy, improve the level of education or research, or study future development scenarios". Sitra functions both as a think tank and as an investment company. Sitra was founded in 1967 as a part of the Bank of Finland, on the country's 50th anniversary. However, most of the value of its current endowment comes from a donation of Nokia stock from the Finnish Parliament in 1992.
Sari Maritta Baldauf is a Finnish businesswoman who is chairman of the board of directors of Nokia. She joined the board in 2018 and became vice chair in 2019, before she succeeded Risto Siilasmaa as chairman in 2020. Until 2005, she was head of Nokia's Networks Business Group.
Accidental Lovers is a Finnish interactive musical comedy series on television. Viewers can affect the love relationship between 61-year-old cabaret singer Juulia and 30-year-old pop star Roope by sending mobile text messages to the show.
Business Finland is a public organization under the Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy. It was established on 1 January 2018, with the goal of attracting trade, tourism and foreign investment to Finland as well as providing funds for innovation. And as such, Business Finland is also involved in funding Finnish space researches, under the New Space Economy program, as well as startup companies, under Young Innovative Company funding program among other projects. The organization is made up of two entities: Innovaatiorahoituskeskus Business Finland and Business Finland Oy.
Aalto University is a public research university located in Espoo, Finland. It was established in 2010 as a merger of three major Finnish universities: the Helsinki University of Technology, the Helsinki School of Economics and the University of Art and Design Helsinki. The close collaboration between the scientific, business and arts communities is intended to foster multi-disciplinary education and research.
The climate of Finland is influenced most by its latitude: Finland is located between 60 and 70 N. Because of Finland's northern location, winter is the longest season. Only on the south coast and in the southwest is summer as long as winter. On average, winter lasts from early January to late February in the outermost islands in the archipelago and the warmest locations along the southwestern coast – notably in Hanko – and from early October to mid May in the most elevated locations, such as northwestern Lapland and the lowest valleys in northeastern Lapland. This means that southern portions of the country are snow-covered about three to four months of the year, and the northern for about seven months. The long winter causes about half of the annual 500 to 600 millimetres precipitation in the north to fall as snow. Precipitation in the south amounts to about 600 to 700 millimetres annually. Like that of the north, it occurs all through the year, though not so much of it is snow.
Children of Bodom was a Finnish melodic death metal band from Espoo. Formed in 1993 as Inearthed, the final line-up of the group upon their split in 2019 consisted of Alexi Laiho, Jaska Raatikainen (drums), Henkka Seppälä (bass), Janne Wirman (keyboard), and Daniel Freyberg. The band released ten studio albums, two live albums, two EPs, two compilation albums and one DVD.
Anu Helena Vehviläinen is a Finnish politician for the Centre Party who served as Speaker of the Finnish Parliament from 2020 to 2022. She has previously held various cabinet positions, including Finland's Minister of Local Government and Public Reforms in the Sipilä Cabinet from 2015 to 2019; Minister of Transport from May to June 2019; and Minister of Transport in the Vanhanen II and Kiviniemi cabinets from 2007 to 2011.
Paulig is a Finnish family-owned food and drink company, founded in 1876. The company's brands are Paulig, Santa Maria, Risenta and Poco Loco. Paulig has 2,000 employees in 13 countries and its net sales in 2019 were EUR 921 million.
Roope Riski is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a forward for Veikkausliiga club HJK Helsinki.
Maria Lähteenmäki is a researcher of history, Jutikkala Professor at the University of Eastern Finland and Docent of Finnish and Scandinavian history at the University of Helsinki. She has produced many scientific monographs and textbooks and written a great number of articles.
Climate change in Finland has far reaching impacts on the natural environment and people of Finland. Finland was among the top five greenhouse gas emitters in 2001, on a per capita basis. Emissions increased to 58.8 million tonnes in 2016. Finland needs to triple its current cuts to emissions in order to be carbon neutral by 2035. Finland relies on coal and peat for its energy, but plans to phase out coal by 2029. Finland has a target of carbon neutrality by the year 2035 without carbon credits. The policies include nature conservation, more investments in trains, changes in taxation and more sustainable wood burning. After 2035 Finland will be carbon negative, meaning soaking more carbon than emitting.
Junction is a hackathon organizer with headquarters Espoo, Finland. Started in 2015, Junction grew to be one of the largest organizers in Europe. In 2018 it expanded globally with a Junction event at Tsinghua University in China and cooperation with Chinese and South Korean universities bringing high performing students to attend the event in Helsinki.
Tiden is a quarterly theoretical political journal published in Stockholm, Sweden, since 1908. It is organ of the Social Democratic Party. Its original subtitle was Tidskrift för socialistisk kritik och politik. It is later changed to Socialdemokratisk idé- och debattidskrift.
Viikkosanomat was an illustrated weekly news magazine in Finland which was published between 1922 and 1975. During its lifetime it was one of the most read magazines in the country.
