Geography & Climate

• Area: 338,424 km² (131,985 square miles), the fifth-largest country in Western Europe
• Greatest length from north to south: 1,160 km (720 miles)
• Greatest width from east to west: 540 km (335 miles)
• Capital: Helsinki (1.25 million inhabitants in metropolitan area)
• Climate: Great contrasts – cold winters and fairly warm summers (2010 extremes: coldest day in Kuhmo -41.3 C/-42.3 F, warmest day in Joensuu 37.2 C/99.0 F)

State & Government

• Independence: Declared on December 6, 1917. Previously a grand duchy in the Russian empire for 108 years, and a part of Sweden for 600 years before that
• Form of government: Republic, parliamentary democracParliament: 200 members in one chamber, elected every 4 years in a direct vote.
• Head of State: President of the Republic, elected every 6 years, two-term maximum.
• International cooperation: Member of United Nations since 1955 and European Union since 1995

People

• Population: 5.4 million, 15.8 inhabitants per km² (40.5 per square mile)
• Life expectancy: Men 76 years, women 83 years
• Languages: Official languages are Finnish (spoken by 91%) and Swedish (5.4%). Sámi is the mother tongue of about 1,700 people, members of the indigenous Sámi people of northern Lapland
• Religion: Christianity; 79.9 % Lutheran and about 1.1% Orthodox. In practice society is fairly secularized

The Finnish flag with "the blue of Finnish lakes and the white snow of Finnish winters", as a poet described these symbolic colours in 1870, was made official in a law enacted on May 29, 1918, less than six months after Finland had achieved independence.

The national coat of arms displays a crowned lion standing on a red field. The lion holds a raised sword in its right gauntleted fore leg and is trampling a curved sabre. The lion, the crown and the sword and sabre handles are gold, as are the gauntlet joints. The blades and the gauntlet are silver. The field is adorned by nine silver roses.