Provinces
Finland is divided into the following provinces (lääni):
Southern Finland — the southern stretch of coastline up to the Russian border, including the capital Helsinki and the historical province of Uusimaa (Nyland)
Western Finland — the coastal areas, the old capital Turku, Finland's number two city Tampere and the southern parts of the historical province of Ostrobothnia (Pohjanmaa, Österbotten).
Eastern Finland — forests and lakes by the Russian border, including Savonia (Savo)
Oulu — Kajanaland (Kainuu) and northern Ostrobothnia, named after the technology city of Oulu
Finnish Lapland — tundra and reindeer above the Arctic Circle
The Åland Islands — an autonomous and monolingually Swedish group of islands off the southwestern coast of Finland
While a convenient and unambiguous bureaucratic division, the provinces do not really correspond to geographical or cultural boundaries very well. Other terms you may hear include Tavastia (Häme), covering a large area of central Finland around Tampere, and Karelia (Karjala) to the far east, the bulk of which was lost to the Soviet Union in World War II (still a sore topic in some circles).
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