User:Micropot/Finland Regions

Finland consists of 19 regions called maakunta in Finnish and landskap in Swedish. The regions are governed by regional councils, which serve as forums of cooperation for the municipalities of a region. The main tasks of the regions are regional planning and development of enterprise and education. In addition, the public health services are usually organized on the basis of regions. Currently, the only region where a popular election is held for the council is Kainuu. Other regional councils are elected by municipal councils, each municipality sending representatives in proportion to its population.

In addition to inter-municipal cooperation, which is the responsibility of regional councils, each region has a state Employment and Economic Development Centre, which is responsible for the local administration of labour, agriculture, fisheries, forestry and entrepreneurial affairs. The Finnish Defence Forces regional offices are responsible for the regional defence preparations and for the administration of conscription within the region.

Regions represent dialectal, cultural and economic variations better than the former provinces, which were purely administrative divisions of the central government. Historically, regions are divisions of historical provinces of Finland, areas which represent dialects and culture more accurately.

Six regional state administrative agencies (Etelä-Suomi, Itä-Suomi, Lounais-Suomi, Länsi- ja Sisä-Suomi, Pohjois-Suomi, Lappi) were created by the state of Finland in 2010, each of them responsible for one of the regions called [alue] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) in Finnish and [region] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) in Swedish; in addition, Åland was designated a seventh region. These take over some of the tasks of the earlier Provinces of Finland (the läänis), which were abolished.

Regions

Coat of Arms	In English	In Finnish	In Swedish	Capital	Regional state administrative agency	Map
	Lapland	Lappi	Lappland	Rovaniemi	Lapland	Lapland  North Ostrobothnia  Kainuu  North Karelia  North Savo  South Savo  South Ostrobothnia  Ostrobothnia  Central Ostrobothnia  Central Finland  Pirkanmaa  Satakunta  Southwest Finland  Kanta-Häme  Päijät-Häme  South Karelia  Kymenlaakso  Uusimaa  Åland
	Northern Ostrobothnia	Pohjois-Pohjanmaa	Norra Österbotten	Oulu	Northern Finland
	Kainuu	Kainuu	Kajanaland	Kajaani	Northern Finland
	North Karelia	Pohjois-Karjala	Norra Karelen	Joensuu	Eastern Finland
	Northern Savonia	Pohjois-Savo	Norra Savolax	Kuopio	Eastern Finland
	Southern Savonia	Etelä-Savo	Södra Savolax	Mikkeli	Eastern Finland
	Southern Ostrobothnia	Etelä-Pohjanmaa	Södra Österbotten	Seinäjoki	Western and Central Finland
	Central Ostrobothnia	Keski-Pohjanmaa	Mellersta Österbotten	Kokkola	Western and Central Finland
	Ostrobothnia	Pohjanmaa	Österbotten	Vaasa	Western and Central Finland
	Pirkanmaa	Pirkanmaa	Birkaland	Tampere	Western and Central Finland
	Central Finland	Keski-Suomi	Mellersta Finland	Jyväskylä	Western and Central Finland
	Satakunta	Satakunta	Satakunda	Pori	South-Western Finland
	Finland Proper	Varsinais-Suomi	Egentliga Finland	Turku	South-Western Finland
	South Karelia	Etelä-Karjala	Södra Karelen	Lappeenranta	Southern Finland
	Päijänne Tavastia	Päijät-Häme	Päijänne Tavastland	Lahti	Southern Finland
	Tavastia Proper	Kanta-Häme	Egentliga Tavastland	Hämeenlinna	Southern Finland
	Uusimaa	Uusimaa	Nyland	Helsinki	Southern Finland
	Kymenlaakso	Kymenlaakso	Kymmenedalen	Kouvola	Southern Finland
	Åland Islands	Ahvenanmaa	Åland	Mariehamn	Åland

The region of Eastern Uusimaa was consolidated with Uusimaa on January 1, 2011.

See also

• Regions of Eastern Finland
• Regions of Oulu
• Regions of Southern Finland
• Regions of Western Finland
• County Councils of Sweden
• Household pennants of Finland
• ISO 3166-2:FI

External links

• Regional Councils of Finland – Official site
• Regional State Administrative Agencies