Finland is situated in the far north of Europe, bordered to the west by Sweden and the Gulf of Bothnia, to the north by Norway, to the east by the Russian Federation and to the south by the Gulf of Finland. There are about 30,000 islands off the Finnish coast, mainly in the south and southwest, and inland lakes containing a further 98,000 islands. The Saimaa lake area is the largest inland water system in Europe. Of the total land area, 10 per cent is under water, and 65 per cent is forest; Finland is situated almost entirely in the northern coniferous zone. In the south and southwest, the forest is mainly pine, fir and birch. In Lapland, in the far north, trees become more sparse and are mainly dwarf birch. Eight per cent of the land is cultivated.
About 7000 BC, the ancestors of the Sami are said to have occupied Finland; other groups began to enter the area about 3,000 years later, pushing the Sami northward. Presently, Finland has two national languages, Finnish and Swedish. The Swedish-speaking population, found mainly in the coastal area in the south, southwest, and west and in the Åland Islands (where Swedish is the sole official language), is slowly declining and constitutes roughly 5 percent of the total. Nearly all of the remainder speaks Finnish; the language is an important nationalist feature, although it is spoken in strong regional dialects. The Sami-speaking minority in the extreme north numbers about 6,000.
With an area of 338,000 sq km, Finland is the seventh largest country in Europe. Located between Sweden and Russia, with which it shares a 1269km border, it also shares one with Norway's arctic north (716km) and Sweden's north-west (586km). The Gulf of Finland separates southern Finland from Estonia. Forests cover two-thirds of Finland, the arctic zone one-third. Post-glacial lakes are the country's dominant feature, and if marshes and bogs are also counted, water covers about 10% of the country. Finland's highest point, the Halti, rises 1328m above sea level.
Finland can get mighty cold - in the south it gets down to -15°C in January and February, while in the north it's often below -30°C during the winter months. It's also dark most of the day during this time. When summer rolls around and the midnight sun does its thing, expect about 15°C in the north and around 20°C in the south (although it can get above 30°C).
Whatever time of year you visit Finland, there's something happening. Most museums and galleries are open year-round, annd there is as much to do in the depths of winter as there is at the height of summer. Nevertheless, you'll probably have a better time if you come in the warmer months, either in summer or anytime from May to September. As well as the advantages of warm weather, summer is the time of the midnight sun. Winter north of the Arctic Circle is a chilly confluence of strange bluish light and encroaching melancholy. Despite snow falls from November, it stays pretty sludgy until late winter: skiing isn't great until February, the coldest month, and you can ski in Lapland right through to June.
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