Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in Fennoscandia in Northern Europe. It is bordered with Sweden to the west, Russia to the east, Norway to the north while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland. Its capital city is Helsinki.

Finland has a population of 5.3 million, spread over an area of 338,145 square kilometres (130,559 square miles). The majority of the population is concentrated in the southern parts of the country. Finland is the sixth largest country in Europe in terms of area, with a low population density of 15.5 persons per square kilometre, making it the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. As their mother tongue, most Finns speak Finnish, one of the few official languages of the European Union that is not of Indo-European origin. The second official language, Swedish, is spoken natively by a 5.5 percent minority.

Area
338,145 sq km (130,559 sq miles).

Population
5,206,295 (official estimate 2002).

Population Density
15.4 per sq km.

Capital
Helsinki. Population: 559,716 (official estimate 2002).

Geography
Finland is situated in the far north of Europe. Bordered to the west by Sweden and the Gulf of Bothnia, to the north by Norway, to the east by the Russian Federation and to the south by the Gulf of Finland, it is the fifth-largest country in Europe. There are about 30,000 islands off the Finnish coast, mainly in the south and southwest, and inland lakes containing a further 98,000 islands. The Saimaa lake area is the largest inland water system in Europe. Of the total land area, 10 per cent is under water, and 65 per cent is forest, the country being situated almost entirely in the northern coniferous zone. In the south and southwest, the forest is mainly pine, fir and birch. In Lapland, in the far north, trees become more sparse and are mainly dwarf birch. 8 per cent of the land is cultivated.