Finland is the most sparsely populated country in the European Union, with only 16 inhabitants per km².
Finnish language (a.k.a. Suomi) is an non Indo-European language belonging to the Uralic family, along with Estonian and Hungarian.
Finland was one of the last region of Europe to be Christianised, in the 12th century.
Finland only proclaimed its independence in December 1917, and was only internationally recognised as an independent country in 1918. Before that it belonged to Russia or Sweden.
There are exactly 187,888 lakes (larger than 500 m²) and 179,584 islands within the territory of Finland.
Since 2004, Finland has been ranked as 2nd or 3rd best country for the State of the World’s Mothers by Save the Children.
Culture & Sciences
Finland has been at the top of the worldwide Press Freedom Ranking list every year since the publication of the first index by Reporters Without Borders in 2002.
According to the 2007 UNICEF report on child well-being in rich countries, Finland has the highest level of academic achievements of all surveyed countries for reading, mathematics and sciences. However, it also has the lowest percentage of children 'liking school a lot' (only 8%).
Economy & Politics
The current president of Finland, Tarja Halonen, is a woman, as are 12 of the 20 government ministers.
According to the World Audit study, Finland is the least corrupt and most democratic country in the world as of 2006.
Finland obtained respectively the 1st and 2nd position at the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report and Growth Competitiveness Index Ranking in 2006.
Finland has been ranked first on the Environmental Sustainability Index of Yale and Columbia University. It was also ranked first for technological achievement by the United Nations Development Program.
Nokia Corporation (a Finnish company) is currently the world's largest manufacturer of mobile telephones, with a global market share of approximately 36% in Q1 of 2007.
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