Finland in a Nutshell
Finland (Suomi), officially the Republic of Finland is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, across from Estonia. Finland covers an area of 338,455 square kilometres (130,678 sq mi) with a population of 5.6 million. Helsinki is the capital and largest city. Most of the population are ethnic Finns. Finnish and Swedish are the official languages, Swedish is the native language of 5.2% of the population. Finland’s climate varies from humid continental in the south to the boreal in the north. The land cover is primarily a boreal forest biome, with more than 180,000 recorded lakes. Finland largely remained an agrarian country until the 1950s. After World War II, it rapidly industrialized and developed an advanced economy, while building an extensive welfare state based on the Nordic model; the country soon enjoyed widespread prosperity and a high per capita income. During the Cold War, Finland adopted an official policy of neutrality. Finland joined the European Union in 1995 and the Eurozone at its inception in 1999. Finland is a top performer in numerous metrics of national performance, including education, economic competitiveness, civil liberties, quality of life and human development.
The main Christian holidays are Christmas, New Year’s Day, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension Day, Pentecost, Midsummer Day, and All Saints’ Day. The non-Christian holidays are May Day and the Independence Day of Finland.
The majority of the country’s most popular festivals take place in the summer: Ruisrock, Provinssi, Ilosaarirock and Pori Jazz, to name a few. Alongside music enthusiasts, the summer caters to other audiences with events such as the Tampere Theater Festival, Seinäjoki Tango Festival, and Sodankylä Film Festival.
Finland applied for membership in NATO on 17 May 2022. Once all NATO members had ratified Finland’s Accession Protocol and Finland had accepted its accession to NATO nationally, Finland became a member of NATO on 4 April 2023.
Would you like to know more about India?
India, officially the Republic of India (Bharat Gaṇarajya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area and the most populous country. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia. India has been a federal republic since 1950, governed through a democratic parliamentary system. It is a multilingual and multi-ethnic society. India’s population grew from 361 million in 1951 to almost 1.4 billion in 2022. During the same time, India has substantially reduced its rate of poverty., and increased its literacy rate from 16.6% to 74%. From being a comparatively destitute country in 1951, India has become a fast-growing major economy and a hub for information technology services, with an expanding middle class. It has a space programme which includes several planned or completed extra-terrestrial missions.
Indian movies, music, and spiritual teachings play an increasing role in global culture. In the present scenario, there are 22 languages spoken in India which are officially registered. According to the Census of India of 2001, India has 122 major languages and 1599 other languages. However, figures from other sources vary, primarily due to differences in definition of the term’s “language” and “dialect”.
India is a country of festivals. There are several important and popular festivals across whole India through out the year. The major festivals include Diwali, Holi, Navratri, Durga Puja, Dussehra, Janmashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi and Raksha Bandhan. India’s land is megadiverse, with four biodiversity hotspots. Its forest cover comprises 21.7% of its area. India’s wildlife, which has traditionally been viewed with tolerance in India’s culture, is supported among these forests, and elsewhere, in protected habitats.