Finland (Finnish: Suomi [ˈsuo̯mi] (About this soundlisten); Swedish: Finland

[ˈfɪ̌nland] (About this soundlisten), Finland Swedish: [ˈfinlɑnd]), officially the

Republic of Finland (Finnish: Suomen tasavalta, Swedish: Republiken Finland (About
this soundlisten to all)),[note 1] is a country located in the Nordic region of
Europe. Bounded by the Baltic Sea to its southwest, the Gulf of Bothnia on the
west, and the Gulf of Finland on the south, it shares land borders with Sweden to
the west, Russia to the east, and Norway to the north. Helsinki, the capital of
Finland, and Tampere are largest cities and urban areas in the whole country.

Finland was first inhabited around the end of the most recent ice age,
approximately around 9000 BC.[7] The Comb Ceramic culture introduced pottery in
5200 BC and the Corded Ware culture coincided with the start of agriculture between
3000 and 2500 BC. The Bronze Age and Iron Age were characterised by extensive
contacts with other cultures in Fennoscandia and the Baltic region. At the time
Finland had three main cultural areas – Southwest Finland, Tavastia and Karelia.[8]
From the late 13th century, Finland gradually became an integral part of Sweden as
a consequence of the Northern Crusades and the Swedish colonisation of coastal
Finland, an event, the legacy of which is reflected in the prevalence of the
Swedish language and its official status.

In 1809, Finland was annexed by the Russian Empire as the autonomous Grand Duchy of
Finland. In 1906, Finland became the first European state to grant all adult
citizens the right to vote, and the first in the world to give all adult citizens
the right to run for public office.[9][10] Following the 1917 Russian Revolution,
Finland declared itself independent from the empire. In 1918, the fledgling state
was divided by the Finnish Civil War, with the Bolshevik-leaning Red Guards,
supported by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, fighting against the
White Guard, supported by the German Empire. After a brief attempt to establish a
kingdom, the country became a republic. During World War II, Finland fought the
Soviet Union in the Winter War and the Continuation War, and lost part of its
territory, but maintained independence.

Finland largely remained an agrarian country until the 1950s. After World War II,
war reparations demanded by the Soviet Union, amounting to $300 million (5,449
million in 2018) forced Finland to industrialise. The country rapidly developed an
advanced economy, while building an extensive welfare state based on the Nordic
model, resulting in widespread prosperity and a high per capita income.[11] Finland
is a top performer in numerous metrics of national performance, including
education, economic competitiveness, civil liberties, quality of life, and human
development.[12][13][14][15] In 2015, Finland was ranked first in the World Human
Capital[16] and the Press Freedom Index and as the most stable country in the world
during 2011–2016 in the Fragile States Index,[17] and second in the Global Gender
Gap Report.[18] It also ranked first on the World Happiness Report report for 2018,
2019 and 2020.[19][20]

Finland joined the United Nations in 1955 and adopted an official policy of
neutrality. The Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 gave the Soviet Union some leverage in
Finnish domestic politics during the Cold War. Finland joined the OECD in 1969, the
NATO Partnership for Peace in 1994,[21] the European Union in 1995, the Euro-
Atlantic Partnership Council in 1997,[21] and the Eurozone at its inception in
1999.

Finland has a population of approximately 5.5 million, making it the 25th-most

populous country in Europe. The majority of its population live in the central and
south of the country and speak Finnish, a Finnic language of the Uralic language
family, which is unrelated to the Scandinavian languages.[22] Swedish is the second
official language of Finland, and is mainly spoken in certain coastal areas of the
country and on Åland. Finland is the eighth-largest country in Europe in terms of
area, and the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. It is a
parliamentary republic consisting of 310 municipalities,[23] and includes an
autonomous region, the Åland Islands. Over 1.4 million people live in the Greater
Helsinki metropolitan area, which produces a third of the country's GDP. A large
majority of Finns are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.[24]