Administrative divisions of Finland

Finland
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politics and government of
Finland

As of 2016, Finland is divided into:

Description

Municipalities and regions map of Finland (2007).
Black borders refer to municipalities, red to regions.

Municipalities (which may also call themselves towns or cities) account for half of public spending. Spending is financed by municipal income tax, state subsidies, and other revenue. As of 2008, there were 415 municipalities, and most were under 5,000 residents. For comparison, Denmark has set a minimum size of 30,000 residents. In Finland, state has started the Municipality and Service Structure Reform Program to reform the complex and expensive municipal system, but initiatives have encountered much opposition from local bureaucrats and interest groups. People often identify with their municipality. Government's local administrative duties are performed by the Regional State Administrative Agencies.

In addition to municipalities, there are complex other arrangements. Municipalities co-operate in seventy-four sub-regions and twenty regions. These are governed by the member municipalities. The Åland region has a permanent, democratically elected regional council, as a part of the autonomy. In the Kainuu region, there is a pilot project underway, with regional elections. Sami people have a semi-autonomous Sami Domicile Area in Lapland for issues on language and culture.

In the following chart, the number of inhabitants includes those living in the entire municipality (kunta/kommun), not just in the built-up area. The land area is given in km², and the density in inhabitants per km² (land area). The figures are as of January 1, 2007. Notice that the capital region – comprising Helsinki, Vantaa, Espoo and Kauniainen (see Greater Helsinki) – forms a continuous conurbation of one million people. However, common administration is limited to voluntary cooperation of all municipalities, e.g. in Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council.

Municipality Population Land area Density
Helsinki 564,474 184.47 3,061.00
Espoo 235,100 312.00 751.60
Tampere 206,171 523.40 393.90
Vantaa 189,442 240.54 780.40
Turku 177,502 243.40 720.50
Oulu 130,049 369.43 351.40
Lahti 98,773 134.95 730.10
Kuopio 91,026 1,127.40 81.00
Jyväskylä 84,482 105.90 789.00
Pori 76,211 503.17 150.83
Lappeenranta 59,077 758.00 77.70
Rovaniemi 58,100 7,600.73 7.60
Joensuu 57,879 1,173.40 49.10
Vaasa 57,266 183.00 311.20
Kotka 54,860 270.74 203.00
Further information: List of Finnish municipalities, List of Finnish municipalities by population, List of Finnish municipalities by area, and Former municipalities of Finland

References

  1. ↑ "Regions and municipalities". Suomi.fi. 2016-01-01. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  2. ↑ http://www.tilastokeskus.fi/meta/luokitukset/seutukunta/001-2013/index_en.html
  3. ↑ "Kaupunkien ja kuntien lukumäärä". Kunnat (in Finnish). 2016-01-01. Retrieved 2016-04-29.

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 5/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.