

The followingoutline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Finland.
Finland –sovereignNordic country located inNorthern Europe.[1] Finland has borders withSweden to the west,Russia to the east, andNorway to the north, whileEstonia lies to its south across theGulf of Finland. Thecapital city isHelsinki.
Around 5.62 million people reside in Finland, with the majority concentrated in the southern part of country.[2] It is the eighth largest country in Europe in terms of area and the mostsparsely populated country in theEuropean Union. The native language for most of the population isFinnish, a member of theUralic language family most closely related toEstonian and one of the fourEU languages not ofIndo-European origin. The second official language,Swedish, is spoken by a 5.5 percent minority.[3] Finland is ademocratic,parliamentaryrepublic with a central government and local governments in 309 (2021)/308 municipalities (as of 1 January 2025).Greater Helsinki (includingHelsinki,Espoo,Vantaa and Kauniainen) totals a million residents and a third of the GDP. Other major cities includeTampere,Turku, andOulu.
Finland was historically part of Sweden and from 1809an autonomous Grand Duchy within theRussian Empire.Finland's declaration of independence in 1917 fromRussia was followed by a civil war,wars against the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and a period of official neutrality during theCold War. Finland joined theUnited Nations in 1955, theEuropean Union in 1995, andNATO in 2023, and participates in theEurozone. Finland has been ranked thesecond most stable country in the world, in a survey based on social, economic, political, and military indicators.[4]
Finland has seen excellent results in manyinternational comparisons of national performance such as the share of high-technology manufacturing, the rate of gross domestic product growth, and the protection of civil liberties.[5]



Administrative divisions of Finland
The Republic of Finland is a member of:[1]