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The six provinces of Finland were abolished on 2010-01-01. They were replaced by the 20 regions which had already been established. The main table below shows the regions. Thanks to Bruce Lovdal for the original tip, and Valentin Arzoumanian and Sorin Cosoveanu for spreadsheets and links.

ISO 3166-1 Newsletter number V-9, dated 2004-02-13, informs us that Åland Islands has been assigned a separate country code AX. In making this change, ISO is simply following the lead of the United Nations Statistics Division, which added Åland to its country list in 2003. Åland has been gaining increasing autonomy from Finland over the decades, but it's not clear whether the U.N.S.D. revision is in response to any specific change in status. The most recent such change that I've found is the third Autonomy Act, with an effective date of 1993-01-01. The preamble to the ISO 3166-1 document states, "The list contains overlaps in those cases where entities are geographically separated from their main entity ... the entities are not mutually exclusive." My policy for this site has been to divide the land area of the world into countries exhaustively and exclusively, following the list of countries in ISO 3166-1. Therefore, I treat Åland as a separate country and not part of Finland.

When "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries" went to press, Finland had just undergone a reorganization. The book contained Finland's new provinces, but the standards had not yet issued new codes for them. The codes first appeared in international standard ISO 3166-2 (1998-12-15) and FIPS PUB 10-4 Change notice 2 (1999-03-01).

Country overview: 

Short name	FINLAND
ISO code	FI
FIPS code	FI
Languages	Finnish (fi), Swedish (sv)
Time zone	+2 ~
Capital	Helsinki

 

Finland was a grand duchy of the Russian Empire in 1900, enjoying a good measure of autonomy. It declared its independence on 1917-07-20. During World War II, Finland and the Soviet Union fought each other. Finland had to make several territorial concessions. Since 1947, Finland's borders have remained intact. Swedish is an official language, but is spoken by a small minority, so names given here are Finnish unless otherwise stated.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Finland
2. Dutch: Finland, Republiek Finland (formal)
3. English: Republic of Finland (formal)
4. Finnish: Suomi, Suomen Tasavalta (formal)
5. French: Finlande f
6. German: Finnland n
7. Icelandic: Finnland
8. Italian: Finlandia f
9. Norwegian: Finland, Republikken Finland (formal)
10. Portuguese: Finlândia, República f da Finlândia f (formal)
11. Spanish: Finlandia, República f de Finlandia f (formal)
12. Swedish: Finland, Republiken Finland (formal)

Origin of name: 

Land of Finns, from Germanic finna: fish scale, since suomu is Finnish for fish scale

Primary subdivisions: 

Finland, as usually understood, is divided into twenty maakunnat (sing. maakunta, regions; Swedish landskap). One of the regions is Åland. As explained above, Åland has been given a separate country code, so I no longer include it as part of Finland. It is listed in the table here for completeness, but not included in the column totals.

Region	HASC	NUTS	RC	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Prov	Capital
Åland	AX	FI200	20	27,456	1,553	599		Mariehamn
Central Finland	FI.CF	FI193	13	271,747	16,707	6,450	LS	Jyväskylä
Central Ostrobothnia	FI.CO	FI1A1	16	71,029	5,273	2,036	LS	Kokkola
East Uusimaa	FI.EU	FI182	3	93,491	2,736	1,057	ES	Porvoo
Kainuu	FI.KA	FI134	18	83,160	21,504	8,303	OL	Kajaani
Kanta-Häme	FI.KH	FI184	5	173,041	5,200	2,008	ES	Hämeenlinna
Kymenlaakso	FI.KY	FI186	8	182,754	5,112	1,974	ES	Kotka
Lapland	FI.LA	FI1A3	19	183,963	92,664	35,778	LL	Rovaniemi
North Karelia	FI.NK	FI133	12	166,129	17,763	6,858	IS	Joensuu
North Ostrobothnia	FI.NO	FI1A2	17	386,144	35,236	13,605	OL	Oulu
North Savo	FI.NS	FI132	11	248,423	16,771	6,475	IS	Kuopio
Ostrobothnia	FI.OS	FI195	15	175,985	7,749	2,992	LS	Vaasa
Päijät-Häme	FI.PH	FI185	7	200,847	5,127	1,979	ES	Lahti
Satakunta	FI.SA	FI196	4	227,652	7,957	3,072	LS	Pori
South Karelia	FI.SK	FI187	9	134,448	5,613	2,167	ES	Lapeenranta
South Ostrobothnia	FI.SO	FI194	14	193,511	13,444	5,191	LS	Seinäjoki
South Savo	FI.SS	FI131	10	156,632	13,986	5,400	IS	Mikkeli
Southwest Finland	FI.SF	FI183	2	461,177	10,663	4,117	LS	Turku
Tampere Region	FI.TR	FI197	6	480,705	12,447	4,806	LS	Tampere
Uusimaa	FI.UU	FI181	1	1,408,020	6,395	2,469	ES	Helsinki
Total exc. Åland				5,298,858	302,346	116,737
Region: English name of region. HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. NUTS: Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics. RC: Regional councils numbers from Finland Interior Ministry. Population: 2008-12-31 estimate (using 2009 regional division) Prov: ISO code for former province (see table under Change history).

Postal codes: 

Finland has five-digit postal codes. They don't correlate well with primary subdivisions. For a very approximate correspondence between the first two digits of a postal code and its location, see the table of former provinces under Change history (1960). Postal codes for Finnish addresses can be identified by prefixing them with "FI-". (The prefix "SF-", for Suomi Finland, was used until 1993-01-01. Then "FIN-" was used until 2004.)

Further subdivisions:

See the Sub-regions of Finland page.

Finland (including Åland) is divided into twenty regional councils, which are subdivided into seutukunnat (sing. seutukunta: sub-regions), which are further subdivided into kaupunki (Swedish stad: urban communes) and kunta (rural communes). The total number of communes has been decreasing, from 475 in 1976 to 452 in 1998 to 348 in 2009.

Eurostat maintains a hierarchical set of subdivisions of all the countries in the European Union for statistical purposes. The system is called NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics). In the case of Finland, there are two NUTS1 areas: Manner-Suomi (continental Finland), coded FI1, and Ahvenanmaa (Åland), coded FI2. At level 2, the country is divided into the five NUTS2 areas (suuralueet) shown in the table below. The NUTS3 areas are the regions, with the codes shown in the main table above. NOTE: some of the NUTS areas have the same names as the 1997 provinces of Finland, but not the same geographical extent.

NUTS2	Name
FI13	Itä-Suomi (East Finland)
FI18	Etelä-Suomi (South Finland)
FI19	Länsi-Suomi (West Finland)
FI1A	Pohjois-Suomi (North Finland)
FI20	Ahvenanmaa (Åland)

Territorial extent: 

1. Oulu includes the island of Hailuoto.
2. Southern Finland includes the island of Haapasaari and other small islands in the Gulf of Finland north of Ostrov Gogland.
3. Western Finland is separated from Åland by the Skiftet, or Kihti (channel). It includes islands east of the Skiftet and north of Åland up to the midline of the Gulf of Bothnia. Among them are Kimito, Nagu, Bergö, and Vallgrund.

Origins of names (including old provinces):

1. Lappi: from Norse Lappland: the land at the end.
2. Mikkeli: named for the city, which was named for Saint Michael.
3. Pohjois-Karjala: Karjala (Karelia) comes from Finnish karja: herd.
4. Turku ja Pori: named for its two main cities (Finnish ja: and). Turku is a word for marketplace in the regional lingua franca.
5. Uusimaa: Finnish for new land. Its Swedish name, Nyland, means the same.
6. Vaasa: probably from King Gustavus Vasa I of Sweden (1496-1560), who created the Grand Duchy of Finland.

Change history: 

1. 1918: Ahvenanmaa split from Turku ja Pori province.
2. 1921-10: Ahvenanmaa granted autonomous status by a decision of the League of Nations.
3. 1938: Lappi province split from Oulu province.
4. 1940-03-12: In peace treaty ending Finnish-Russian War, Finland ceded several border territories to the Soviet Union, including about half of Viipuri province (with the port of Viborg), and part of Kuopio.
5. 1945: Name of Viipuri province (Viborg in Swedish) changed to Kymi.
6. 1947: In Paris peace treaty, Finland reaffirmed the cessions of 1940 (some of which it had temporarily reconquered), and ceded more land to the Soviet Union, including the strip of Lappi that had connected Finland to the Arctic Ocean around Petsamo.
7. 1960-03-01: Pohjois-Karjala province split from Kuopio; Keski-Suomi province formed from parts of Häme, Kuopio, Mikkeli, and Vaasa. At this point, the divisions were as follows.

Province	ISO	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital	Now	Pc
Ahvenanmaa	AL	FI01	25,008	1,552	599	Maarianhamina/Mariehamn	Åland	22
Häme	H	FI02	688,355	19,104	7,376	Hämeenlinna	Southern, Western	11-19, 30-39
Keski-Suomi	X	FI03	255,879	19,357	7,474	Jyväskylä	Western	40-44
Kuopio	K	FI04	258,712	19,953	7,704	Kuopio	Eastern	70-75
Kymi	R	FI05	335,093	12,828	4,953	Kouvola	Southern	45-49, 53-56, 59
Lappi	L	FI06	202,434	98,937	38,200	Rovaniemi	Lapland	94-99
Mikkeli	M	FI07	207,875	21,660	8,363	Mikkeli	Eastern, Southern	50-52, 57-58, 76-79
Oulu	O	FI08	445,632	61,582	23,777	Oulu/Uleåborg	Oulu	84-93
Pohjois-Karjala	S	FI09	177,803	21,585	8,334	Joensuu	Eastern	80-83
Turku ja Pori	T	FI10	731,792	23,863	9,214	Turku/Åbo	Western	20-21, 23-29
Uusimaa	U	FI11	1,277,800	10,404	4,017	Helsinki/Helsingfors	Southern	00-10
Vaasa	V	FI12	448,363	27,319	10,548	Vaasa/Vasa	Western	60-69
12 divisions			5,054,746	338,144	130,559
Province: except for Ahvenanmaa, which was an autonomous province. Names in Finnish. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Population: 1993 estimate. Capital: Finnish/Swedish names, where different. Now: Modern province(s) in the same area. Pc: Approximate postal code range for province.

1. 1995-01-01: Finland joined the European Union.
2. 1997-02: Finland divided into 20 regions, without abolishing the provinces.
3. 1997-09-01: Finland reorganized into five provinces (shown below) and Åland.

Province	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Åland	FI.AV	AL	FI01	25,392	1,552	599	Mariehamn
Eastern Finland	FI.IS	IS	FI14	603,724	60,720	23,444	Mikkeli
Lapland	FI.LP	LL	FI06	199,051	98,946	38,203	Rovaniemi
Oulu	FI.OU	OL	FI08	452,942	61,572	23,773	Oulu
Southern Finland	FI.ES	ES	FI13	2,037,147	34,378	13,273	Hämeenlinna
Western Finland	FI.LS	LS	FI15	1,829,093	80,975	31,265	Turku
6 provinces				5,121,957	336,591	129,958
Province: English name of province. HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Province codes from ISO 3166-2. For full identification in a global context, prefix "FI-" to the code (ex: FI-OL represents Oulu). FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4, a U.S. government standard. Population: 1997-12-31 estimate

1. 2004-02-13: ISO 3166-1 Newsletter number V-9 assigned a separate country code to Åland Islands. According to my criteria, this makes them no longer part of Finland.

Other names of subdivisions: 

regions:

1. Åland: Ahvenanmaa (Finnish); Åland Islands (variant)
2. Central Finland: Finlande centrale (French); Keski-Suomi (Finnish); Mellersta Finland (Swedish)
3. Central Ostrobothnia: Keski-Pohjanmaa (Finnish); Mellersta Österbotten (Swedish); Ostrobotnie centrale (French)
4. East Uusimaa: Itä-Uusimaa (Finnish); Östra Nyland (Swedish)
5. Kainuu: Kajanaland (Swedish)
6. Kanta-Häme: Häme, Tavastia Proper (variant); Egentliga Tavastland (Swedish)
7. Kymenlaakso: Kymmenedalen (Swedish)
8. Lapland: Laponie (French); Lappi (Finnish); Lappland (Swedish)
9. North Karelia: Carélie du Nord (French); Norra Karelen (Swedish); Pohjois-Karjala (Finnish)
10. North Ostrobothnia: Norra Österbotten (Swedish); Ostrobotnie du Nord (French); Oulu Region (variant); Pohjois-Pohjanmaa (Finnish)
11. North Savo: North Savonia (variant); Pohjois-Savo (Finnish); Norra Savolax (Swedish)
12. Ostrobothnia: Österbotten (Swedish); Ostrobotnie (French); Pohjanmaa (Finnish); Vaasa Coastal (variant)
13. Päijät-Häme: Päijänne Tavastia (variant); Päijänne Tavastland (Swedish)
14. Satakunta: Satakunda (Swedish)
15. South Karelia: Etelä-Karjala (Finnish); Södra Karelen (Swedish)
16. South Ostrobothnia: Etelä-Pohjanmaa (Finnish); Ostrobotnie du Sud (French); Södra Österbotten (Swedish)
17. South Savo: Etelä-Savo (Finnish); Södra Savolax (Swedish); South Savonia (variant)
18. Southwest Finland: Egentliga Finland (Swedish); Finland Proper (variant); Varsinais-Suomi (Finnish)
19. Tampere Region: Birkaland (Swedish); Pirkanmaa (Finnish)
20. Uusimaa: Nyland (Icelandic, Swedish)

provinces of 1997:

1. Eastern Finland: Itä-Suomen lääni (Finnish); Östra Finlands län (Swedish)
2. Lapland: Lapin lääni, Lappi (Finnish); Laponia (Spanish); Lapônia (Portuguese); Laponie (French); Lappland (Icelandic); Lapplands län (Swedish)
3. Oulu: Oulun lääni (Finnish); Uleåborgs län (Swedish)
4. Southern Finland: Etelä-Suomen lääni (Finnish); Södra Finlands län (Swedish)
5. Western Finland: Länsi-Suomen lääni (Finnish); Västra Finlands län (Swedish)

provinces of 1960:

1. Häme: Hämeen lääni (Finnish); Tavastehus län (Swedish)
2. Keski-Suomi: Central Finland (English); Keski-Suomen lääni (Finnish); Mellersta Finlands län (Swedish)
3. Kuopio: Kuopio län (Swedish); Kuopion lääni (Finnish)
4. Kymi: Kymen lääni (Finnish); Kymmene län (Swedish); Viborg (Swedish-obsolete); Viipuri (obsolete)
5. Mikkeli: Mikkelin lääni (Finnish); Saint Michels län (Swedish)
6. Pohjois-Karjala: Carelia del Norte (Spanish); North Karelia (English); Pohjois-Karjalan lääni (Finnish); Norra Karelens län (Swedish)
7. Turku ja Pori: Turku-Pori, Turun ja Porin lääni (Finnish); Åbo-Björneborg, Åbo och Björneborgs län (Swedish)
8. Uusimaa: Nyland (Icelandic); Nylands län (Swedish); Uudenmaan lääni (Finnish)
9. Vaasa: Vaasan lääni (Finnish); Vasa län (Swedish); Wasa (obsolete)

Sources:

1. [1] Toponymic Guidelines for Map Editors and Other Editors: Finland . United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, New York, 2004; revised 2009 (retrieved 2010-01-30)
2. [2] Statistics Finland 's interactive page for querying the population database (retrieved 2010-01-30)
3. [3] Reform Project for Regional Administration  (retrieved 2010-01-30)
4. [4] National Land Survey of Finland  has a file showing areas of all municipalities and regions (retrieved 2010-01-30)
5. [5] "Suomen Tilastollinen Vuosikirja 1991" (Finland statistical yearbook)
6. [6] Bennett, Robert, ed., Territory and Administration in Europe. Pinter Publishers, London and New York, 1989
7. [7] Fourth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names, Vol. II, United Nations, New York, 1987