Location
Northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia, and Gulf of Finland, between Sweden and Russia
Population
5 526 774 (2020)
Conditional reduction of currency
EUR
Climate, average max and min t°
Semi-continental climate; in southern Finland - north temperate; avg. maximum temperature (July) +25°; avg. minimum temperature (January) -14°.
Time difference from Moscow
No
State language
Finnish and Swedish
Ethnic groups
Finn 93.4%, Swede 5.6%, Russian 0.5%, Estonian 0.3%, Roma (Gypsy) 0.1%, Sami 0.1%
History
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. 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 among the highest in Western Europe. A member of the European Union since 1995. In the 21st century, the key features of Finland's modern welfare state are a high standard of education, equality promotion, and national social security system.
Executive branch
President - chief of state; Prime Minister - head of government; Council of State (Cabinet or Valtioneuvosto) appointed by the president is responsible to parliament
Legislative branch
Unicameral Parliament (Eduskunta) and shared by the by Parliament (Eduskunta) and shared with the country's president; 200 parliamentarian elected by universal suffrage for four-year terms
Judicial branch
Two main branches: general courts, dealing with civil suits and criminal cases, and administrative courts, regulating the actions of the country's bureaucracy; each of the branched is headed by the Supreme Court or the Supreme Administrative Court; the two court systems are entirely separate, and they have no jurisdiction over one another; judges are appointed by the Supreme Court or the Supreme Administrative Court for life, with retirement set at age seventy
GDP per capita rank
25 (2020)
Corruption perceptions index rank
88 (2021)
