Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by a governor-general Prime minister: Danny Philip
President: Sauli Niinisto
Population
584,578
5,262,930
Life Expectancy
74.420 years
79.410 years
Capital City
Helsinki
Largest city
Honiara (population: 56,298)
Helsinki (population: 558,457)
Human Development Index
0.591
0.954
GDP per capita
$36,700 US
Literacy Rate
%
100%
Corruption Perception Index
2.9
9
Percentage of Women in Parliament
0%
41.5%
Wealthiest Citizens
Unemployment Rate
7.800%
Death Penalty
Abolished
Abolished
Political System
parliamentary democracy
republic
Independence date
6 December 1917 (from Russia)
Religions
Church of Melanesia 32.8%, Roman Catholic 19%, South Seas Evangelical 17%, Seventh-Day Adventist 11.2%, United Church 10.3%, Christian Fellowship Church 2.4%, other Christian 4.4%, other 2.4%, unspecified 0.3%, none 0.2% (1999 census)
Lutheran Church of Finland 82.5%, Orthodox Church 1.1%, other Christian 1.1%, other 0.1%, none 15.1% (2006)
Languages
Melanesian pidgin in much of the country is lingua franca; English (official; but spoken by only 1%-2% of the population); 120 indigenous languages
Finnish 91.5% (official), Swedish 5.5% (official), other 3% (small Sami- and Russian-speaking minorities) (2006)
Exports
electrical and optical equipment, machinery, transport equipment, paper and pulp, chemicals, basic metals; timber
External Debt
$577,000,000,000 US
Exchange Rate
euros (EUR) per US dollar - 0.6799 (2008 est.), 0.7345 (2007), 0.7964 (2006), 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004)
Military Budget as percentage of GDP
2.000%
Beijing Olympics Medal Count
0
4
Location
Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Papua New Guinea
Northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia, and Gulf of Finland, between Sweden and Russia
Area
28,896 km sq
338,145 km sq
Coastline
5,313 km
1,250 km
Climate
tropical monsoon; few extremes of temperature and weather
cold temperate; potentially subarctic but comparatively mild because of moderating influence of the North Atlantic Current, Baltic Sea, and more than 60,000 lakes
