Finland (Finnish: Suomi; official “Suomen Tasavalta” or rather “Republics of Finland”) is an independent republic (since the 6th of December 1917) located in northern Europe.
It shares borders with Norway (in the north), Sweden (in the north-west) and Russia in the east.
The country consist of five provinces: South Finland, west Finland, east Finland, Oulu and Lapland, as well as the autonomous group of islands (more than 6000) Ahvenanmaa / Åland.
Almost a third of the country lies north of the polar circle. The total area of Finland is 338.145 square kilometres (comparison Montana, USA: 380.847 km²; Great Britain: 244.110 km² or Germany: 356.970 km²) of which 33.551 km² are inland water (all in all about 60.000 lakes).
Nature reserves  cover 5.5 % of the total area.

The capital and at the same time biggest city of the country (561.000 inhabitants) is Helsinki. Further important cities are Tampere (198.000 inh.) and Turku (174.000 inh.). The population is 5.2 million (population density: 15 inh. per km²) of which 67 % are living in cities. Finns make up about 93 % of the population, 6 % are Swedes and 1 % are Lapps (or “Sami” as they call themselves). Official language is Finnish, the second Swedish. The greatest part of the Swedish speaking inhabitants live on the Ålandislands. The approximately 17.000 people of Lappland speak Sami.

The country’s most valuable natural resource is the fertile forest country (72 % of the countryside.) This makes Finland the forest-richest country of Europe. Yet, spruce, pine wood and birch (see the chair series produced by the project group) are those, seen from forest-economical viewpoint, most important types of wood.
Wood is, next to peat from the bogs  in the northern third of Finland (north of the Arctic circle), the only natural combustible of the country.