Finland

Main article: Countries of the world

Climate

Main article: Climate in Europe

History

Main article: History of Finland

Population

Main article: Population of Finland

Cities

• Helsinki is the capital

Citizenship and residence permit

2019: Number of permits with a residence permit per 1000 residents of Finland

Passport strength

Parliament

• Parliament of Finland (Eduskunta)

Government

• Government of Finland

Foreign policy

2022: Freezing of assets of Russians by 187 million euros after the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine

The Finnish Foreign Ministry announced the freezing in 2022 of Russian assets after the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine in the amount of €187 million. Frozen assets include real estate, stocks, cars, yachts and airplanes.

Armed Forces

Main article: Finnish Armed Forces

Economy

Main article: Economy of Finland

Communication

• Communication (Finnish market)

Information Technology

Digital passports

Main article: Digital passports in Finland

Finland IT Market

2020: European tech companies attracting the most investment in 5 years

2018: Largest IT companies

2017:9 thousand programmers are looking for in Finland

According to the Finnish Information Processing Association (TIVIA), Finland's urgent need for software developers with higher education is 9 thousand people. At the same time, it is predicted that by 2020 demand will increase to 15 thousand people, partly due to the retirement of existing specialists from the labor market, the Helsinki Times reported in October 2017.

The business magazine Talouselämä writes that Finland demonstrates an unprecedented influx of foreign software developers: in January-September 2017, more than a thousand programmers from countries outside the European Union got a job in the country - more than in the whole of 2016.

At the same time, technology companies complain that Finnish migration legislation prevents the hiring of qualified foreign specialists, thereby forming conditions for shortages in the domestic labor market.

Due to the lack of their own Finnish qualified personnel, game development companies are forced to hire foreign specialists. About 650 programmers came from India, a little less than 100 from China, Japan and Russia.

"Since Finland does not have enough specialists, we had to hire programmers from South Korea," said Veli-Pekka Pirainen, CEO of the Kayaani-based Critical Force game developer.

Specialists coming to Finland from countries that are not members of the European Union are not subject to such a criticized procedure for monitoring the availability of labor resources. According to the Finnish migration control service Migri, such specialists receive a residence permit in Finland in an average of 21 days.^[1]

Health care

Main article: Health care in Finland

Education

2023: Finland begins to abolish digitalization in schools in favor of paper books

On September 10, 2024, it became known that the Finnish public education system began to abandon digitalization in schools. Instead of laptops, which were previously given free to students, educational institutions return traditional paper textbooks.

Finland's public education system has gained worldwide fame for its good results and willingness to try new training methods. Many schools provide laptop computers to all students starting at age 11. In particular, in Riyhimäki, a city of about 30,000 people located 70 km north of Helsinki, most textbooks have ceased to be used in secondary schools since 2018. However, in 2024, local educational institutions decided to return to pen and paper.

Finland's public education system has begun to abandon digitalization in schools

The fact is that Finnish parents and teachers are expressing increasing concern about the impact of digital devices on children. The constant distractions associated with the use of laptops and gadgets make many students too restless and inattentive, which interferes with the educational process. It is noted that most students simply try to perform exercises as quickly as possible, in order to then move on to games and communication on social networks. When the teacher approaches, they simply switch tabs in the browser and return to the task.

Nowadays, young people are so actively using smartphones and other digital devices that we do not want school to become one of the places where children will only look at screens, "says one of the teachers.

It is noted that against the background of the ubiquity of gadgets, the educational results of children throughout Finland are gradually deteriorating. This prompted the government to come up with new legislation to ban the use of personal devices such as phones during school hours.^[2]

2018: Literacy rate

1897: Literacy Map

Science and Research

2020: More than 100,000 animals are used for scientific purposes

Almost 8 million animals are used for scientific purposes in Europe and half of them are laboratory mice and rats.

Culture

Music

Language

Religion

2022

35.5% of the population believes in life after death

10% of the population attends divine services at least once a month

2021:10% of the population say religion is important in their lives

MEDIA

2022:67% of the population watch TV every day

Crime

2021: Number of intentional murders

and

2019: Detention of a gang of Finnish pimps

In July 2019, it became known that a gang of Finnish pimps sold Nigerian girls into sexual slavery.

They have been pimping in at least 15 countries in Europe for almost 10 years.

European police have arrested six suspected gang members. They confiscated almost 4 million euros, froze bank accounts in 12 different countries, and confiscated cars, jewelry and about 30 thousand euros in cash.

Since 2010, the gang has earned about 40 million euros from prostitution.

Prisons

2019: The minimum age for children to be jailed is 15

2018: Number of prisoners

Sport

2022: The most popular sport is ice hockey

Calendar