Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country located in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the west, Russia to the east, Norway to the north, and is defined by the Gulf of Bothnia to the west, and the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea across Estonia to the south. Finland covers an area of 338,455 square kilometres (130,678 sq mi), with a population of 5.5 million. Helsinki is the country's capital and largest city. Finnish, the native language of the Finns, is among the only few Finnic languages in the world. The climate varies relative to latitude, from the southern humid continental climate to the northern boreal climate. The land cover is primarily a boreal forest biome, with more than 180,000 recorded lakes.
Finland has a population of over 5.53 million people and an average population density of 19 inhabitants per square kilometre. This makes it the third most sparsely populated country in Europe, after Iceland and Norway. Population distribution is very uneven: the population is concentrated on the small southwestern coastal plain. About 85% live in towns and cities, with 1.5 million living in the Greater Helsinki area. In Arctic Lapland, on the other hand, there are only 2 people to every square kilometre.
Scandinavia is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties.
The Sámi people are an indigenous Finno-Ugric people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses large northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula within the Murmansk Oblast of Russia. The Sámi have historically been known in English as Lapps or Laplanders, but these terms are regarded as offensive by some Sámi people, who prefer the area's name in their own language, "Sápmi". Sámi ancestral lands are in the Volga region, in present-day Russia, like other Uralic peoples. Their traditional languages are the Sámi languages, which are classified as a branch of the Uralic language family.
Sápmi is the cultural region traditionally inhabited by the Sámi people. Sápmi is in Northern Europe and includes the northern parts of Fennoscandia.
Laestadianism, also known as Laestadian Lutheranism and Apostolic Lutheranism, is a pietistic Lutheran revival movement started in Sápmi in the middle of the 19th century. Named after Swedish Lutheran state church administrator and temperance movement leader Lars Levi Laestadius, it is the biggest pietistic revivalist movement in the Nordic countries. It has members mainly in Finland, Northern America, Norway, Russia and Sweden. There are also smaller congregations in Africa, South America and Central Europe. In addition Laestadians have missionaries in 23 countries. The number of Laestadians worldwide is estimated to be between 144,000 and 219,000.
Finland is divided into 19 regions The regions are governed by regional councils, which serve as forums of cooperation for the municipalities of a region. The main tasks of the regions are regional planning and development of enterprise and education. In addition, the public health services are usually organized on the basis of regions. Currently, the only region where a popular election is held for the council is Kainuu. Other regional councils are elected by municipal councils, each municipality sending representatives in proportion to its population.
The music of Finland can be roughly divided into categories of folk music, classical and contemporary art music, and contemporary popular music.
Nordic folk music includes a number of traditions in Northern European, especially Scandinavian, countries. The Nordic countries are Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.
Lapland is the largest and northernmost region of Finland. The municipalities in the region cooperate in a Regional Council. There are 21 municipalities in Lapland region. Lapland borders the region of North Ostrobothnia in the south. It also borders the Gulf of Bothnia, Norrbotten County in Sweden, Troms and Finnmark County in Norway, and Murmansk Oblast and the Republic of Karelia in Russia. Topography varies from vast mires and forests of the South to fells in the North. The Arctic circle crosses Lapland, so polar phenomena such as the midnight sun and polar night can be seen in Lapland.
A joik or yoik is a traditional form of song in Sámi music performed by the Sámi people of Sapmi in Northern Europe. A performer of joik is called a joikaaja, a joiker or jojkare. Originally, joik referred to only one of several Sami singing styles, but in English the word is often used to refer to all types of traditional Sami singing. As an art form, each joik is meant to reflect or evoke a person, animal, or place..
Inari Sami is a Sami language spoken by the Inari Sami of Finland. It has approximately 300 speakers, the majority of whom are middle-aged or older and live in the municipality of Inari. According to the Sami Parliament of Finland, 269 persons used Inari Sami as their first language. It is the only Sami language that is spoken exclusively in Finland. The language is classified as being seriously endangered, as few children learn it; however, more and more children are learning it in language nests. In 2018, Inari Sami had about 400 speakers; due to revival efforts, the language had gained speakers.
Inari is Finland's largest municipality, with four official languages, more than any other in the country. Its major sources of income are tourism, service industry and cold climate testing. With the Siida museum in the village of Inari, it is a center of Sami culture, widely known as the "capital of Sámi culture". The airport in Ivalo and the country's key north-south European Route E75 bring summer and winter vacationers seeking resorts with access to a well-preserved, uncrowded natural environment.
Sami Tuomas Hyypiä is a Finnish football manager and former defender.
The two main official languages of Finland are Finnish and Swedish. There are also several official minority languages: three variants of Sami, Romani, Finnish Sign Language and Karelian.
Sámi languages, in English also rendered as Sami and Saami, are a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sámi people in Northern Europe. There are, depending on the nature and terms of division, ten or more Sami languages. Several spellings have been used for the Sámi languages, including Sámi, Sami, Saami, Saame, Sámic, Samic and Saamic, as well as the exonyms Lappish and Lappic. The last two, along with the term Lapp, are now often considered pejorative.
Tanssii tähtien kanssa is a Finnish version of the British BBC television series Strictly Come Dancing. The show has run on MTV3 since March 3, 2006, on Sunday evenings. The twelfth season was aired in the autumn 2019.
Keiino is a Norwegian supergroup consisting of Sámi rapper Fred Buljo and singers Alexandra Rotan and Tom Hugo. The group was created in late 2018 in preparation for the participation in Melodi Grand Prix 2019., they won the contest and so were selected to represent Norway in the 2019 Eurovision Contest, coming in 7th in the semifinals, and 6th in the final.
