Regions of Finland

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Finland comprises 19 regions called maakunta in Finnish and landskap in Swedish. The regions are governed by regional councils, which serve as forums of cooperation for the municipalities of a region. The main tasks of the regions are regional planning and development of enterprise and education. In addition, the public health services are usually organized on the basis of regions. Currently, the only region where a popular election is held for the council is Kainuu. Other regional councils are elected by municipal councils, each municipality sending representatives in proportion to its population.

In addition to inter-municipal cooperation, which is the responsibility of regional councils, there are 15 Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (Finnish: elinkeino-, liikenne- ja ympäristökeskus, abbreviated ely-keskus), which is responsible for the local administration of labour, agriculture, fisheries, forestry and entrepreneurial affairs. They are each responsible for one or more of regions of Finland, and include offices of the Ministries of Employment and the Economy, Transport and Communications and Environment. The Finnish Defence Forces regional offices are responsible for the regional defence preparations and for the administration of conscription within the region.

Regions represent dialectal, cultural and economic variations better than the former provinces, which were purely administrative divisions of the central government. Historically, regions are divisions of historical provinces of Finland, areas which represent dialects and culture more accurately .

Regions

Coat of Arms	English name	Finnish name	Swedish name	Capital	Map
	Lapland	Lappi	Lappland	Rovaniemi	Regions of Finland (the borders of historical provinces are shown in grey)
	Northern Ostrobothnia	Pohjois-Pohjanmaa	Norra Österbotten	Oulu
	Kainuu	Kainuu	Kajanaland	Kajaani
	North Karelia	Pohjois-Karjala	Norra Karelen	Joensuu
	Northern Savonia	Pohjois-Savo	Norra Savolax	Kuopio
	Southern Savonia	Etelä-Savo	Södra Savolax	Mikkeli
	Southern Ostrobothnia	Etelä-Pohjanmaa	Södra Österbotten	Seinäjoki
	Central Ostrobothnia	Keski-Pohjanmaa	Mellersta Österbotten	Kokkola
	Ostrobothnia	Pohjanmaa	Österbotten	Vaasa
	Pirkanmaa	Pirkanmaa	Birkaland	Tampere
	Central Finland	Keski-Suomi	Mellersta Finland	Jyväskylä
	Satakunta	Satakunta	Satakunta	Pori
	Southwest Finland	Varsinais-Suomi	Egentliga Finland	Turku
	South Karelia	Etelä-Karjala	Södra Karelen	Lappeenranta
	Päijänne Tavastia	Päijät-Häme	Päijänne-Tavastland	Lahti
	Tavastia Proper	Kanta-Häme	Egentliga Tavastland	Hämeenlinna
	Uusimaa	Uusimaa	Nyland	Helsinki
	Kymenlaakso	Kymenlaakso	Kymmenedalen	Kotka, Kouvola
	Åland Islands[1]	Ahvenanmaa	Åland	Mariehamn

The region of Eastern Uusimaa was consolidated with Uusimaa on January 1, 2011.^[2]

See also

• Municipalities of Lapland
• Regions of Northern Finland
• Regions of Eastern Finland
• Regions of Western and Central Finland
• Regions of South-Western Finland
• Regions of Southern Finland
• Municipalities of Åland
• County Councils of Sweden
• Household pennants of Finland
• ISO 3166-2:FI
• Regional State Administrative Agency

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Regions of Finland.

• Regional Councils of Finland – Official site
• Regional State Administrative Agencies

Regions of Finland
Regions	Åland Central Finland Central Ostrobothnia Kainuu Kymenlaakso Lapland North Karelia Northern Ostrobothnia Northern Savonia Ostrobothnia Päijänne Tavastia Pirkanmaa Satakunta South Karelia Southern Ostrobothnia Southern Savonia Southwest Finland Tavastia Proper Uusimaa
Former regions	Eastern Uusimaa

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