Finland
Finland (officially Republic of Finland) is a country in Northern Europe, with its capital at Helsinki, and is home to roughly 5.6M people.
Its official languages are Finnish, Swedish; the currency in circulation is Euro (€); people from here are called Finnish.
> INTEL_
> NOTABLE_
- »Finland has around 188,000 lakes and a similar number of islands.
- »In the far north the sun does not set for weeks in summer, nor rise for weeks in winter.
> THE OUTLINE_
Finland straddles the Arctic Circle.
> BORDERS_
Finland touches three neighbours: Norway to the west, Russia to the northeast and Sweden to the west. Directions run from one centre to the other.
> THE CAPITAL_
Helsinki was made capital in 1812 partly because it was further from Stockholm than Turku, reducing Swedish influence. Its neoclassical centre was designed to resemble St Petersburg.
> SCALE_
330,802 km² (127,723 sq mi), 64th largest of 198 countries and territories on file, almost exactly the size of Vietnam.
Population 5,619,911, 116th of 198 on file. That averages 17 per km² (44 per sq mi).
> THE FLAG_
The Nordic cross in blue for the country's thousands of lakes, white for its snow. Adopted in 1918, months after independence from Russia.