Between 1634 and 2009,

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

was administered as several provinces, or counties (, ). Finland had always been a

unitary state A unitary state is a (Sovereign state, sovereign) State (polity), state governed as a single entity in which the central government is the supreme authority. The central government may create or abolish administrative divisions (sub-national or ...

: the provincial authorities were part of the central government's executive branch and apart from

Åland Åland ( , ; ) is an Federacy, autonomous and Demilitarized zone, demilitarised region of Finland. Receiving its autonomy by a 1920 decision of the League of Nations, it is the smallest region of Finland by both area () and population (30,54 ...

, the provinces had little autonomy. There were never any elected provincial parliaments in continental Finland. The system was initially created by the Instrument of Government of 1634 when Finland was a part of Sweden. Its makeup was changed drastically on 1 September 1997, 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 The municipalities (; ) represent the local level of administration in Finland and act as the fundamental, self-governing administrative units of the country. The entire country is incorporated into municipalities and legally, all municipalities ...

form the fundamental subdivisions of the country. In current use are the

regions of Finland Finland is divided into 19 regions (; ) which are governed by regional councils that serve as forums of cooperation for the Municipalities of Finland, municipalities of each region. The councils are composed of delegates from the municipal c ...

, a smaller subdivision where some pre-1997 s are split into multiple regions.

retains its special autonomous status and its own regional parliament.

Duties

Each province was led by a governor (Finnish ''maaherra'', Swedish ''landshövding'') appointed by the president on the recommendation of the cabinet. The governor was the head of the State Provincial Office (Finnish ''lääninhallitus'', Swedish ''länsstyrelse''), which acted as the joint regional authority for seven ministries in the following domains: *social services and health care *education and culture *police administration *rescue services *traffic administration *competition and consumer affairs *judicial administration The official administrative subentities under the Provincial Office authorities were the Registry Offices (Finnish ''maistraatti'', Swedish ''magistrat''). Formerly there was also a division to state local districts (Finnish ''kihlakunta'', Swedish ''härad''), which were districts for police, prosecution, and bailiff services, but there was reorganization such that 24 police districts were founded. These usually encompass multiple municipalities. Provinces governed only state offices, such as the police. Most services, such as healthcare and maintenance of local streets, were and remain today the responsibility of

. Many municipalities are too small for a hospital and some other services, so they cooperate in municipality groups, e.g. health care districts, using borders that vary depending on the type of service. Often Swedish-language municipalities cooperate even if they do not share a border.

List of all provinces that ever existed

In 1634, administratives provinces were formed in Sweden, and therefore in Finland, which was a part of Sweden until 1809. Five of the provinces covered what is now Finland; some of these also covered parts of what are now Russia. The exact division of the country into provinces has fluctuated over time. The boundaries of the old provinces partly survive in telephone area codes and electoral districts. The exception is Helsinki: there is a telephone numbering area that comprises Greater Helsinki (code 09), while only the city of Helsinki proper comprises the electoral district of Helsinki, the rest of Greater Helsinki belonging to the Uusimaa electoral district.

Geographical evolution of Finnish provincial administration 1634-2009

Finland under Swedish rule

file: Provinces of Finland 1634 - 1640, 1650 - 1721.svg, 1634-1640
1 Turku
2 Uusimaa and Tavastia
3 Ostrobothnia
4 Karelia
5 Käkisalmi file: Provinces of Finland 1640 - 1641.svg, 1640-1641
1 Turku
2 Uusimaa
3 Ostrobothnia
4 Karelia
5 Käkisalmi
6 Tavastia file: Provinces of Finland 1641 - 1642.svg, 1641-1642
1 Turku
2 Uusimaa
3 Ostrobothnia
4 Viipuri
5 Käkisalmi
6 Tavastia
7 Savonlinna
8 Pori file: Provinces of Finland 1642 - 1646.svg, 1642-1646
1 Turku
2 Uusimaa
3 Oulu
4 Viipuri
5 Käkisalmi
6 Tavastia
7 Savonlinna
8 Pori
9 Vaasa file: Provinces of Finland 1647 - 1648.svg, 1647-1648
1 Turku and Pori
2 Uusimaa
3 Oulu
4 Viipuri
5 Käkisalmi
6 Tavastia
7 Savonlinna
8 Vaasa file: Provinces of Finland 1648 - 1650.svg, 1648-1650
1 Turku and Pori
2 Uusimaa and Tavastia
3 Ostrobothnia
4 Viipuri
5 Käkisalmi
6 Savonlinna file: Provinces of Finland 1634 - 1640, 1650 - 1721.svg, 1650-1721
1 Turku and Pori
2 Uusimaa and Tavastia
3 Ostrobothnia
4 Viipuri and Savonlinna
5 Käkisalmi file: Provinces of Finland 1721 - 1743.svg, 1721-1743
1 Turku and Pori
2 Uusimaa and Tavastia
3 Ostrobothnia
4 Savonlinna and
   Kymenkartano file: Provinces of Finland 1743 - 1747.svg, 1743-1747
1 Turku and Pori
2 Uusimaa and Tavastia
3 Ostrobothnia
4 Savonlinna and
   Kymenkartano file: Provinces of Finland 1747 - 1776.svg, 1747-1776
1 Turku and Pori
2 Uusimaa and Tavastia
3 Ostrobothnia
4 Kymenkartano and
   Savonia file: Provinces of Finland 1776 - 1809.svg, 1776-1809
1 Turku and Pori
2 Uusimaa and Tavastia
3 Oulu
4 Kymenkartano
5 Vaasa
6 Savonia and Karelia

Grand Duchy of Finland

file: Provinces of Finland 1809 - 1812.svg, 1809-1812
1 Turku and Pori
2 Uusimaa and Tavastia
3 Oulu
4 Kymenkartano
5 Vaasa
6 Savonia and Karelia file: Provinces of Finland 1812 - 1831.svg, 1812-1831
1 Turku and Pori
2 Uusimaa and Tavastia
3 Oulu
4 Kymenkartano
5 Vaasa
6 Savonia and Karelia
7 Viipuri file: Provinces of Finland 1831 - 1833.svg, 1831-1833
1 Turku and Pori
2 Uusimaa
3 Oulu
4 Mikkeli
5 Vaasa
6 Kuopio
7 Viipuri
8 Tavastia file: Provinces of Finland 1833 - 1918.svg, 1833-1917
1 Turku and Pori
2 Uusimaa
3 Oulu
4 Mikkeli
5 Vaasa
6 Kuopio
7 Viipuri
8 Tavastia

Independent Finland

file: Provinces of Finland 1833 - 1918.svg, 1917-1918
1 Turku and Pori
2 Uusimaa
3 Oulu
4 Mikkeli
5 Vaasa
6 Kuopio
7 Viipuri
8 Tavastia file: Provinces of Finland 1918 - 1920, 1921.svg, 1918-1920/1921
1 Turku and Pori
2 Uusimaa
3 Oulu
4 Mikkeli
5 Vaasa
6 Kuopio
7 Viipuri
8 Tavastia
9 Åland file: Provinces of Finland 1921.svg, 1921
  1 Turku and Pori
  2 Uusimaa
  3 Oulu
  4 Mikkeli
  5 Vaasa
  6 Kuopio
  7 Viipuri
  8 Tavastia
  9 Åland
10 Petsamo file: Provinces of Finland 1922 - 1938.svg, 1922-1938
1 Turku and Pori
2 Uusimaa
3 Oulu
4 Mikkeli
5 Vaasa
6 Kuopio
7 Viipuri
8 Tavastia
9 Åland file: Provinces of Finland 1938 - 1940.svg, 1938-1940; 1941–1944
  1 Turku and Pori
  2 Uusimaa
  3 Oulu
  4 Mikkeli
  5 Vaasa
  6 Kuopio
  7 Viipuri
  8 Tavastia
  9 Åland
10 Lapland file: Provinces of Finland 1940 - 1944.svg, 1940-1941
  1 Turku and Pori
  2 Uusimaa
  3 Oulu
  4 Mikkeli
  5 Vaasa
  6 Kuopio
  7 Viipuri
  8 Tavastia
  9 Åland
10 Lapland file: Provinces of Finland 1944 - 1945.svg, 1944-1945
  1 Turku and Pori
  2 Uusimaa
  3 Oulu
  4 Mikkeli
  5 Vaasa
  6 Kuopio
  7 Viipuri
  8 Tavastia
  9 Åland
10 Lapland file: Provinces of Finland 1945 - 1947.svg, 1945-1947
  1 Turku and Pori
  2 Uusimaa
  3 Oulu
  4 Mikkeli
  5 Vaasa
  6 Kuopio
  7 Kymi
  8 Tavastia
  9 Åland
10 Lapland file: Provinces of Finland 1947 - 1960.svg, 1947-1960
  1 Turku and Pori
  2 Uusimaa
  3 Oulu
  4 Mikkeli
  5 Vaasa
  6 Kuopio
  7 Kymi
  8 Tavastia
  9 Åland
10 Lapland file: Provinces of Finland 1960 - 1997.svg, 1960-1997
  1 Turku and Pori
  2 Uusimaa
  3 Oulu
  4 Mikkeli
  5 Vaasa
  6 Kuopio
  7 Kymi
  8 Tavastia
  9 Åland
10 Lapland
11 Central Finland
12 Northern Karelia file: Provinces of Finland 1997 - 2009.svg, 1997-2009
1 Western Finland
2 Southern Finland
3 Oulu
4 Eastern Finland
5 Åland
6 Lapland

Provinces of Finland at abolition

a. Some duties, which in Mainland Finland are handled by the provinces, are on the Åland Islands transferred to the autonomous

Government of Åland The Government of Åland () is the executive authority of Åland, an autonomous region of Finland. It is led by the Premier of Åland (), who is elected by the Parliament of Åland (). Åland Premiers * Carl Björkman (politician), Carl Björ ...

.
b. The Åland Islands are unilingually Swedish.

After abolition

The provinces were abolished altogether effective 1 January 2010. Since then, the regional administration of the Finnish state has two parallel top-level organs in the hierarchy: the Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment on the one hand, and the Regional State Administrative Agencies on the other. Six Regional State Administrative Agencies (''aluehallintovirasto, regionförvaltningsverk'', abbr. ''avi'') – in addition to the State Department of Åland – are primarily responsible for law enforcement. Among these, South-Western Finland and Western and Central Finland cover the former province of Western Finland, and the former province of Oulu was revamped as Northern Finland; other old provincial boundaries remain much the same in the new disposition. In parallel, there are 15 Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (Finnish: ''elinkeino-, liikenne- ja ympäristökeskus'', usually abbreviated ''ely-keskus''), which are responsible for other state administration: employment, road and transport infrastructure, and

environmental monitoring Environmental monitoring is the processes and activities that are done to characterize and describe the state of the environment. It is used in the preparation of environmental impact assessments, and in many circumstances in which human activit ...

. They are each responsible for one or more of

, and include offices of the Ministries of Employment and the Economy, Transport and Communications and Environment.

References

External links

State Provincial Offices
fficial site {{Terms for types of country subdivisions Lists of subdivisions of Finland Lists of populated places in Finland 2010 disestablishments in Finland Former provinces of Sweden