Provinces of Finland

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Updates: 

The NUTS code scheme was revised in 2003. Almost all the Finland codes changed, as shown below. The NUTS-2 regions changed, but the other levels still observe the same geographical division.

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 will now treat Åland as a separate country and not part of Finland. I've revised the first table accordingly.

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). They are as shown below.

Country overview: 

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 five läänit (sing. lääni, Swedish län: provinces) and one itsehallinnollinen maakunta (autonomous province), namely Åland. As explained above, Åland has been given a separate country code, so I no longer include it as part of Finland.

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.

The five provinces are divided into nineteen regional councils, 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 (including Åland). The table below identifies which regional councils belong to each province.

There are various other geographical partitions of Finland in use. 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). Each country has a two-letter NUTS code. Depending on the size and administrative structure of the country, it may be divided into NUTS1 areas, coded with the country's two letters followed by one digit. There may then be NUTS2, NUTS3, NUTS4, and NUTS5 areas, each with codes containing the indicated number of digits.

The two-letter code for Finland is FI. If Åland is included, it has two NUTS1 areas, five NUTS2 areas (suuralueet, major statistical units), and twenty NUTS3 areas (maakunnat, regions), as shown in the table below. There are 82 NUTS4 areas (seutukunnat, sub-regions), and currently there are 446 NUTS5 areas (kunnat, municipalities). NOTE: some of the NUTS areas have the same names as some other divisions of Finland, but not the same geographical extent.

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.

1. 1997-09-01: Finland reorganized into five provinces (shown above) and Åland.
2. 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: 

current provinces:

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)

former provinces:

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)