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Currency: Basic Facts Suomen Tasavalta (fin) Republiken Finland (swe) Republic, 1919 Helsinki Helsingfors (swe) Independent since 1917 5 203 800 (2003) 17 per km² Lutheran 85,6 % Eastern Orthodox 1,1 % Finnish 92 % Swedish 6 % Euro

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Climate

The Atlantic Ocean, The Gulf Stream  Temperate climate  Summer: Warm, bright  Midnight Sun  Winter: Very cold  Twilight season  Low humidity  Temperatures feel warmer  Considerable temperature variations  Rainfall distributed throughout the year

Lapland

The Lakes

 About 10% of the total area are lakes.

 There are 187 888 lakes in Finland.

 And 5 100 rapids.

 The largest lake is called Saimaa.

The Finnish Archipelago

 81 000 islands (>100m²)  One of the natural trasures of Finland

Breef History

 Human settlement for more than a 100 000 years ago.

 1150 – 1300: Swedish crusades to Finland.

 Late 13th century – 1809: Finland as a part of Sweden  1809: Sweden loses Finland to Russia in the Finnish War.

 1809 – 1917 Finland as an autonomous part of Russia.

 1917: Revolution in Russia; Finland declares itself independent.

 1918: Civil War in Finland  1939: The Soviet Red Army attacks Finland.

 1939 – 1948: The Finnish forces fight against the Soviet Union.

Aurora Borealis

The Finnish People

 Two genetical groups:  The Finns  The Sami (the Lapps)  Origins  The Finns: “The great bend of the river Volga”.

 The Sami: Old population, origin not established.

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Genes of the modern Finns:

   25 – 50% Baltic 25% Siberian 25 – 50% Germanic

Languages

  Two official languages:  Finnish 92 %  Swedish 6 % Finnish (5 000 000 speakers): Finno-Ugric language  Other Finno-Ugric languages:   Hungarian (14 000 000) Estonian (1 000 000)  Swedish (9 000 000 speakers): North Germanic language  Sami: (34 000 speakers): Finno-Ugric language

Swedish in Finland

 294 000 Swedish speakers in Finland (6%)  Came to Finland during the Swedish era of the history of Finland.

 Official language

Finnish Music

 The Rasmus  HIM  Bomfunk Mc´s  Darude

Sauna

 About 2 000 000 saunas in Finland.

 One sauna for every three inhabitants.

 70 to 100 degrees celsius  Very healthy

Famous Companies

 F1   Mika Häkkinen Kimi Räikkönen  Soccer   Jari Litmanen Sami Hyypiä  Mikael Forssell  Icehockey  Teemu Selänne  Saku Koivu

Sport

 Capital of Finland

Helsinki

 Largest city   500 000 inhabitants  1,2 mill. In the captal area Economic and cultural centre

Finnish Food

 Combines traditional Finnish country food with modern continental cooking  Spices from both East and West  Light and healthy food  Different dishes depending on the season.

Some facts you possibly didn`t know about Finland

Quality of life

 Finland is ranked sixth in the latest United Nations survey of quality of life

Consumption

 The Finns drink more coffee than any other nation in the world  14 kg of coffee anually, per person  Ranked third in the world on buying newspapers.

 456 newspapers per 1000 inhabitants

Lifestyle

 Finland (naturally) tops the list in number of saunas  Vacation cabins in the archipelago or by a lake

Forest and paper

 70% of the area of Finland is covered by forest (highest proportion in the world)  Second in the world in production and exportation of paper

  http://virtual.finland.fi

www.visitfinland.com