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World > Europe > Finland
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Finland |
Introduction:
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Finland was a province and then a grand duchy under Sweden from the 12th to the 19th centuries, and an autonomous grand duchy of Russia after 1809. It won its complete independence in 1917. During World War II, it was able to successfully defend its freedom and resist invasions by the Soviet Union - albeit with some loss of territory. In the subsequent half century, the Finns made a remarkable transformation from a farm/forest economy to a diversified modern industrial economy; per capita income is now on par with Western Europe. A member of the European Union since 1995, Finland was the only Nordic state to join the euro system at its initiation in January 1999.
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| Official name: |
Republic of Finland |
| Capital: |
name: Helsinki
geographic coordinates: 60 10 N, 24 56 E
time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October |
| Government type: |
republic |
| Population: |
5,238,460 (July 2007 est.) |
| Languages: |
Finnish 92% (official), Swedish 5.6% (official), other 2.4% (small Sami- and Russian-speaking minorities) (2003) |
| Official Currency: |
Euro (EUR)
Current Euro Exchange Rates
Historical Euro Exchange Rates
Chart Euro Exchange Rates |
| Currency code: |
EUR |
| Area: |
total: 338,145 sq km
land: 304,473 sq km
water: 33,672 sq km |
| Climate: |
cold temperate; potentially subarctic but comparatively mild because of moderating influence of the North Atlantic Current, Baltic Sea, and more than 60,000 lakes |
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Map of Finland
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