Provinces of Finland
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Finland consists of 6 provinces (Finnish: läänit, Swedish: län). The provincial authority is part of the central government's executive branch. The system was created in 1634, and its makeup was changed drastically in 1997, when the number of the provinces was reduced from 12 to 6. This effectively made them purely administrative units, as the linguistic or cultural variations do not follow the borders of the provinces. The State of Finland is since the late 19th century bilingual. Its governmental offices and agencies use both domestic languages in contacts with the public.
| No. | Provinces | Finnish and Swedish names | Residence city | Population (2003) | Area (km²) | Merged Provinces (1997) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Southern Finland | Etelä-Suomen lääni Södra Finlands län | Hämeenlinna Tavastehus | 2,116,914 | 34,378 | Uusimaa, Kymi, Tavastia |
| 2. | Western Finland | Länsi-Suomen lääni Västra Finlands län | Turku Åbo | 1,848,269 | 74,185 | Vaasa, Turku-Pori, Central Finland, Tavastia (Pirkanmaa) |
| 3. | Eastern Finland | Itä-Suomen lääni, Östra Finlands län | Mikkeli S:t Michel | 582,781 | 48,726 | Kuopio, North Karelia, Mikkeli |
| 4. | Oulu | Oulun lääni Uleåborgs län | Oulu Uleåborg | 458,504 | 57,000 | No changes |
| 5. | Lapland | Lapin lääni Lapplands län | Rovaniemi Rovaniemi | 186,917 | 98,946 | No changes |
| 6. | Åland¹ | Ahvenanmaan lääni Ålands län² | Maarianhamina Mariehamn² | 26,000 | 6,784 | No changes |
1/ Some duties, which in Mainland Finland are handled by the provinces, are on the Åland Islands transferred to the autonomous Government of Åland.
2/ The Åland Islands are unilingually Swedish.
Each province has a State Provincial Office (lääninhallitus/länsstyrelse) which act as the joint regional authority for seven ministries in the following domains:
- social and health care
- education and culture
- police administration
- rescue services
- traffic administration
- competition and consumer affairs
- judicial administration
The official entities under the Provicial Office authority are the jurisdictional districts (police) and city administrative courts (registries). Each State Provincial Office authority is led by a governor (maaherra, landshövding) who is appointed by the president after a proposal by the cabinet.
See also
External links
- State Provincial Offices (http://www.laaninhallitus.fi/lh/home.nsf/pages/index_eng) - Official sitede:Lääni
fr:Régions de Finlande pl:Podział administracyjny Finlandiipt:Provķncias da Finlāndia ro:Provinciile Finlandei ru:Ляни fi:Suomen läänit sv:Län i Finland