Not to be confused with regions of Finland, historical provinces of Finland, or Regional State Administrative Agency.
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Between 1634 and 2009, Finland was administered as several provinces (Finnish: Suomen läänit, Swedish: Finlands län). Finland had always been a unitary state: the provincial authorities were part of the central government's executive branch and apart from Åland, the provinces had little autonomy. There were never any elected provincial parliaments in continental Finland. The system was initially created in 1634. Its makeup was changed drastically on 1 September 1997,[1] when the number of the provinces was reduced from twelve to six. This effectively made them purely administrative units, as linguistic and cultural boundaries no longer followed the borders of the provinces. The provinces were eventually abolished at the end of 2009. Consequently, different ministries may subdivide their areal organization differently. Besides the former provinces, the municipalities of Finland form the fundamental subdivisions of the country. In current use are the regions of Finland, a smaller subdivision where some pre-1997 läänis are split into multiple regions. Åland retains its special autonomous status and its own regional parliament.
^"Kun Itä-Suomen lääni syntyi". Karjalan Heili. 19 August 2020. Retrieved 31 August 2022.
and 18 Related for: Provinces of Finland information
Between 1634 and 2009, Finland was administered as several provinces (Finnish: Suomen läänit, Swedish: Finlands län). Finland had always been a unitary...
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Grand Duchy ofFinland, officially and also translated as the Grand Principality ofFinland, was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed between...
turn merged with other provinces into the larger Southern Finland Province in 1997. Coat of arms between 1812 and 1917 Coat of arms after 1917 The area...
Western Finland (Finnish: Länsi-Suomen lääni, Swedish: Västra Finlands län) was a province ofFinland from 1997 to 2009. It bordered the provincesof Oulu...
independent of central or federal authority, especially in Canada and Pakistan. In other countries, like China or France, provinces are the creation of central...
Sweden-Finland Dominions of Sweden Provincesof Sweden Old Finland Historical provincesofFinland Subdivisions of the Nordic countries Lands of Denmark...
the royal arms of Sweden and those ofFinland, the arms of the 11 provinces are depicted. From Finland they include North and South Finland, as well as Tavastia...
The Province of Oulu (Finnish: Oulun lääni, Swedish: Uleåborgs län) was a province ofFinland from 1775 to 2009. It bordered the provincesof Lapland, Western...
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