Provinces of Finland

Finland consists of 6 provinces (läänit/län), following a 1997 redesign that reduced their number from 12. The province authority is part of the central government's executive branch; a system that hasn't changed drastically since its creation in 1634.

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

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Provinces of Finland


Name of Provinces	Finnish/Swedish name	Residence city	Population	Area in km²	Old Province(s)
1. Southern Finland	Etelä-Suomen lääni/Södra Finlands län	Hämeenlinna, Tavastehus	2 000 000	34 378	Uusimaa, Kymi and (Southern-)Häme
2. Western Finland	Länsi-Suomen lääni/Västra Finlands län	Turku, Åbo	184 000	74 185	Vaasa, Turku-Pori, Keski-Soumi and (Northern-)Häme
3. Eastern Finland	Itä-Suomen lääni/Östra Finlands län	Mikkeli, S:t Michel	588 000	48 726	Kuopio, Pohjois-Karelien and Mikkeli
4. Oulu(some it is called Oulu-land)	Oulun lääni/Uleåborgs län	Oulu, Uleåborg	455 000	57 000	Oulu
5. Lapland	Lapin lääni/Lapplands län	Rovaniemi	188 000	98 946	Lapland
6. Åland¹	Ahvenanmaan lääni ²/Ålands län	Mariehamn, Maarianhamina ²	26 000	6 784	Åland

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¹ Some duties, which on 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

Each State Provincial Office authority is led by a Governor (Maaherra/Landshövding) who is appointed by the president after a proposal by the cabinet.