Finland Population, Main Cities and Geography

Finland: population and cities

Population

Population

According to Countryaah website, Finland has about 5.4 million residents.

Ethnic composition

About 92% of the population are Finns, about 5.6% Swedes and about 0.6% Russians. The Saami ethnic group also lives in Lapland, although they only make up 0.1% of the total Finnish population.

Religious affiliation

82.5% of the population belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church. 16.4% of Finns are non-denominational. A minority belong to the Finnish Orthodox Church.

National language

The official national languages are Finnish and Swedish as well as the minority language Sami, the language of the Lapps. But only around 1,700 people still speak Sami.

Capital, other cities

The capital of Finland is Helsinki with a population of around 595,550. According to Abbreviation Finder, FIN stands for Finland in English. Click to see other meanings of this 3-letter acronym.

Other bigger cities in Finland are:

Espoo with around 227,480 residents
Vantaa with around 185,400 residents
Tampere with around 202,900 residents
Turku with around 174,800 residents

Finland: geography, map

National borders

Finland has a common border with a total of three countries:

Norway with a length of around 736 km
Sweden with a length of around 614 km
Russia with a length of around 1,340 km

Finland has a coast to the Baltic Sea with a length of around 1,126 km. Check topmbadirectory for politics, flags, famous people, animals and plants of Finland.

Area and land use

Finland covers an area of 338,145 km², around 10% of which is covered by water.

ForestAround 69% of the country is forested.
Meadow and pasture landAround 200 km ^{2 of} the land is used as meadow or pasture land.
Arable land and fieldsAround 8% of the land is used as arable land or fields, especially for growing barley, oats and sugar beet.
Protected wetlandsThere are 173 protected wetlands in Finland with a total area of 453 km²

Tidal range

In Finland the mean tidal range is only around 20 – 40 cm. (You can find detailed explanations of ebb and flow under tides, ebb and flow.)

Comparisons

Incidentally, the world’s highest tidal range can be found in the Bay of Fundy in Canada. There it is up to 16 m, with spring tide even over 20 m. The Bay of Fundy is located on the Atlantic between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which is called Nova Scotia in German and whose capital is Halifax. On the German North Sea coast it varies between one and three meters. In the western Baltic Sea, on the other hand, the tidal range is only 0.3 m, while it is barely noticeable in the eastern Baltic Sea.

Longitude and latitude

Finland extends over the following geographical latitude (abbreviation Δφ) and geographical longitude (abbreviation Δλ):

Δφ = from 60 to 71 ° north latitude Δλ = from 20 to 32 ° east longitude

You can find detailed information on this subject under Longitude and Latitude.

Legal time

For Finland, the following value applies to Central European Time (CET), i.e. the time without summer time. A minus sign means that it is earlier there and a plus sign that it is later than after CET:

Δt (CET) = + 1 h

Further and detailed explanations of the time can be found under Time zones, time.

Highest point of the sun in Helsinki

Helsinki lies at a northern latitude of around φ = 60 °. If the sun is at the tropic, i.e. at δ = 23.5 °, summer begins in Helsinki. This is June 21st. Then, for the highest position of the sun at noon, according to Eq. 1 (see position of the sun):

60 ° = (90 ° – h) + 23.5 °

so:

H = 53.5 °

At 53.5 °, the sun has the highest level of the entire year above the horizon (more precisely: above the horizon).

Midnight Sun

In the north of Finland, the sun does not set at night in summer – for example in the following places.

From May 17th to June 27th	Utsjoki (69 ° 52`North)
From May 30th to July 14th	Sodankylä (67 ° 25` North)
From June 6th to July 7th	Rovaniemi (66 ° 30` North)
From June 18th to June 24th	Kem (65 ° 45` North)

Low sun in Helsinki

In cities far north, it is also of interest to many people how high the sun appears above the horizon at noon in winter. For this we consider December 21st. At this point in time the sun has a declination of -23.5 °, it is then at the southern tropic (Tropic of Capricorn). This case is calculated using the above equation with φ = 60 ° and δ = – 23.5 ° for Helsinki:

60 ° = (90 ° – h) – 23.5 °

so:

H = 6.5 °

On December 21st, the sun in Helsinki only comes up to a maximum of 6.5 ° above the horizon, and then sets again accordingly early, so that the days are correspondingly short.