Maximum distances
1,157 km (719 miles) north to south, 542 km (336 miles) east to west

Land border
with Sweden 614 km (381 miles), with Norway 736 km (457 miles) and with Russia 1,340 km (833 miles)

Length
of coastline 4,600 km (2,859 miles), 1,100 km (684 miles) excluding inlets Of the total area 10% is water, 69% forest, 8% cultivated land and 13% other

Other
188,000 lakes and 179,584 islands, 98,050 of which are in the lakes. Europe's largest archipelago lies off Finland's southwest coast, and the islands of Åland, an autonomous Swedish-speaking province of Finland, are part of this archipelago.

General Information

History
The first crusade to Finland was led by the King of Sweden in 1155, starting a union with Sweden that was to last for 600 years. In 1809 Finland was incorporated into the Russian Empire as a Grand Duchy. Swedish laws were retained and the country was allowed to keep its own currency, mail and railway systems. Helsinki became the capital in 1812 (replacing Turku in the south-west). The official national languages were – and still are - Finnish and Swedish. Amid the turmoil of the Russian Revolution, Finland declared its independence in 1917, establishing its present constitution and status as a republic in 1919.

Government and Constitution
Finland has been an Independent Republic since December 6, 1917, before which it was a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire.

The Finnish constitution follows the Western democracy model, with a President elected for 6-year terms (for a maximum of two terms), and a 200-member, single-chamber parliament elected every four years by direct elections and on the basis of proportional representation.

Capital
Helsinki

Languages
Finland is officially bilingual: Finnish is the first language of 92%, and Swedish of 5.5% of the population. About 1,700 people in Lapland speak Sami (Lapp) languages. Swedish-speaking Finns, of which there are about 300,000, are concentrated mainly along the coastlines of the south and the south-west archipelago and along the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia to the west.

Currency
Finland is a participant in the European single currency, so its monetary unit is the euro (EUR), divided into 100 cents.