The Finnish Language

Finnish is spoken by roughly 6 million people worldwide, the vast majority of which live in Finland (93.5%), where it is the official language along with Swedish.¹ A significant number of Finnish speakers also live in Sweden, North America and the Karelian region of Russia.²

The modern Finnish language first began to appear during the 16th Century in the writings and translations of the Lutheran bishop Mikael Agricola (specifically, his book on the Finnish alphabet in 1543 and his translation of the New Testament in 1548). Finnish did not start down the road to gaining official status, however, until the 19th Century when Finland was released from its six-century long rule by Sweden, during which Swedish was the country's only official language, and joined the Russian empire. In terms of official use, Finnish finally reached an equal footing with Swedish in the early 20th Century with the Finnish constitution of 1919.

Below are some brief but important facts about Finland and its people.

Capital: Helsinki
Currency: Euro (EUR)
Government Type: Republic
Population: 5,214,512 (July 2004 est.)
Internet Country Code: .fi
Internet Hosts: 1,219,173 (2004)
Internet Users: 2.65 million (2002)>
For additional demographic information on Finland and its people, please see the following link:

http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/fi.html
¹ "FINNISH: a language of Finland" Ethnologue.com
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=FIN
[Accessed December 9, 2004]

² "Uralic languages" Encyclopædia Britannica from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service.
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=74935
[Accessed December 8, 2004]