Land & Nature
Finland is the most sparsely populated country in the European Union, with only 16 inhabitants per km².
There are exactly 187,888 lakes (larger than 500 m²) and 179,584 islands within the territory of Finland. Both are world records.
The 120 km Päijänne Water Tunnel is Europe's longest tunnel and the world's second longest.
History & People
Finland was one of the last region of Europe to be Christianised, in the 12th century.
Finland has only been an independent country since 1918. Before that it belonged to Russia or Sweden.
Finnish athletes have won more Summer Olympic medals per capita than any other nation. As of 2012, Finland had won in total 302 Summer Olympic medals (incluidng 101 gold medals) for a population of only 5.4 million. That is an average of 55.9 medals (18.7 gold medals) per million people. Finland is only second to Norway for the number of Winter Olympic medals per capita (28.8 medals/million).
Drivers from Finland have won more World Rally championships (14 titles) than any other country, and more Formula One championships compared to their country's population (4 titles for 5 million inhabitants - the next best being Austria with 4 titles for a population of 8 million).
Society & Culture
Finland has been at the top of the worldwide Press Freedom Ranking list every year since the publication of the first index by Reporters Without Borders in 2002.
According to the 2007 UNICEF report on child well-being in rich countries, Finland has the highest level of academic achievements of all surveyed countries for reading, mathematics and sciences. However, it also has the lowest percentage of children 'liking school a lot' (only 8%).
Since 2004, Finland has regularly been ranked as 2nd or 3rd best country for the State of the World's Mothers by Save the Children.
Finnish language (a.k.a. Suomi) is an non Indo-European language belonging to the Uralic family, along with Estonian and Hungarian.
The Finns are the world's biggest coffee drinkers, gulping down no less than 12 kg of the black substance annually, twice more than the Italians, three times more than the Americans, and four times more than the Brits.
Santa Claus (known in Finland as Joulupukki or "Yule Goat") officially resides in a house built right on top of the Arctic circle, near the town of Rovaniemi, in the northern province of Lappland. The Santa Claus Post Office (address: Santa Claus Village, FIN-96930 Arctic Circle) receives some 700,000 letters every year from children from 198 countries (so far).
Economy & Politics
The current president of Finland, Tarja Halonen, is a woman, as are 12 of the 20 government ministers.
According to the World Audit study, Finland is the least corrupt and most democratic country in the world as of 2012.
Finland obtained respectively the 1st and 2nd position at the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report and Growth Competitiveness Index Ranking in 2006.
Finland has been ranked first on the Environmental Sustainability Index of Yale and Columbia University. It was also ranked first for technological achievement by the United Nations Development Program.
Nokia Corporation (a Finnish company) was the world's largest manufacturer of mobile telephones from 1998 to 2012, with a global market share of over 35% between 2006 and 2009.
Finland came in second position in the Waseda University International e-Government Ranking 2013.
Ten interesting facts about Finland
1. Finland is the first country in the world to make broadband connection a legal right.
2. Finland hosts some of the strangest world championships in the world. It holds, among other things, the World Sauna Championships, a Mobile Phone Throwing Championships, and a Wife Carrying World Championship.
3. Sauna forms a significant part of the Finnish culture, and Finns take it seriously. In fact, there are 2.2 million saunas all across Finland. The sauna is to the Finn what a pub is to an Englishman.
4. If is considered a faux pas to wear clothes at a Finnish sauna – and yes, swimsuits are considered clothes.
5. After a hot Finnish sauna, the traditional practice is to jump into the lake outside – yes, even in the middle of winter, when you need to have a hole cut into the ice before your sauna session so that you won't be chipping ice there while you're still in your "sauna suit," that is, the skin you were born in. Those who neglect to cut a hole in the ice ahead of time often end up rolling in the snow instead – yes, still in their sauna suit.
6. The word sauna is the most widely used Finnish word in the English language.
7. With their three to four cups of coffee every day, Finns are considered the most prolific coffee drinkers in the world.
8. Ironically, considering the Finn's love for coffee, there is not a single Starbucks store in the country (as of 2011).
9. In Finland, where almost everybody is equipped with mobile phones, the good old public phone can no longer be found – except, maybe, in museums.
10. When driving in Finland, you are required by law to keep your headlights on at all times, regardless of weather or time of day.
7 absolutely amazing things that have come out of Finland
1 In Finland, there's a heavy metal band for children.
You're never too young to rupture your ear drums. Hevisaurus is a Finnish heavy metal children's music band, who dress in dinosaur costumes. The band was started by Thunderstone drummer Mirka Rantanen. Their first album, Kings of Jurassic Metal, was on the Finnish Album charts for 10 weeks.
Now, you'll never guess where this band came from. According to the Hevisaurus back-story, the band members were hatched from five metal eggs that had lain buried in a mountain from 65 million years in the past. Lightning and witch spells apparently unearthed the eggs and brought them to life.
2 October 13th is International Day for Failure. A new holiday intended for people to share stories of failure and learn from them.
The goal of the people organizing this event is to have it be an internationally-recognized holiday by 2020. The main purpose of the holiday is for people to share their failures in order to learn from them.
The holiday was created in Finland in 2010. In 2012 it has expanded to over 17 different countries, their goal is for it to be worldwide by 2020. In 2011, their campaign got over 30 public figures in Finland to talk about their failures. They managed to reach 1/4 of the population with their media coverage.
There's a list of things to do if you wanna participate. Apparently one of them is to take a picture using the Fail pose. Check out an example on the right. I'd say it's pretty appropriately named.
3 Finland issues traffic ticket fines based on how much money you make!
Finnish tradition is to fine according to gross income. For years, this was based on the honor system. Finnish police would ask the person pulled over how much they made per year, consult a table, and fine them accordingly.
The police hated it, though, because they were constantly lied to about how much people made. So, recently they got new high-tech tools for calculating traffic fines. Well-to-do Fins are pretty upset at the new hefty fines they are receiving.
Motorists started protesting and complaining about the prices. It wasn't fair that they were charged on their gross income instead of their net income. So, in 1999 the government made major changes, including basing fines on net income.
The biggest change was that the police can use their cell phones to tap into official public records and find out motorists' income. The changes have allowed for fines to be more accurate, much to the dismay of the motorists. What do you think? Is this a fair system to use when fining, or is it unfair, or does it invade privacy too much?
4 Finland will soon have an Angry Birds theme park!
Those little birds seem to be taking over everything in the last few months. Their most recent conquest is a new Angry Birds Land in Finland's Sarkanniemi Adventure Park! The area has 12 rides, an adventure course and themed food outlets.
Unlike the counterfeit Magic Kingdom in China, the game makers, Rovio, helped the theme park come up with the experience. Of course, since they're working so closely with the game, you'll be able to play Angry Birds in special demo pods, and meet and greet the red bird, the blue bird or the nasty pigs.
Check out more pictures at the source, and tell us in the comments: if you could get a theme park made of your favorite videogame, which one would it be? For me, it would definitely be a Super Mario theme park.
5 The longest movie ever is over 10 days long!
It's called 'Modern Times Forever' and it's an experimental film that was projected on the side of the Stora Enso building in Helsinki, Finland.
The film shows the decay that would happen to that building over thousands of years, compressed into a 'shortened' 10 day sequence.
The film took the crown away from the previous longest film, Cinématon. That film was a project by the director where he gave his friends each 3 minutes to do whatever they wanted. That film ran for 167 hour
6 The director of Nokia received a speeding ticket for 116,000 euros (roughly $152,725) in Finland.
In 2002, police caught Anssi Vanjoki breaking the speed limit on his Harley Davidson. In Finland, fines for traffic violations are based on the offender's income. Vanjoki's fine was an estimate of how much he would make in 14 days, based on his income in 1999. In 1999, he made 14 million euros (over $18 million).
Vanjoki appealed the fine, saying that the 1999 figure was inaccurate, and his income dropped considerably between 1999 and 2002.
7 A 5,000-year-old piece of chewing gum was discovered in Finland.
The gum was actually tar made of birch bark. Ancient Neolithic humans used to chew birch bark tar in order to treat gum infections. Discovered by a 23-year-old archaeology student, the gum still has visible tooth imprints!
Finland is an amazing country,happy independence day in advance
@jouni .
kunniaa Suomessa!
Best wishes and love from India.:thumb:
However for me India is best
.I have no statistics or impressive figures to prove it, but my heart tells me so and my heart never lies!!!
