thumb|[[Santa Claus Village]]

thumb|The [[inselberg in Luosto from air]]

thumb|[[Aurora|Northern lights over Kittilä]]

Lapland is the largest and northernmost region of Finland. The 21 municipalities in the region cooperate in a Regional Council. Lapland borders the Finnish region of North Ostrobothnia in the south. It also borders the Gulf of Bothnia and the Norrbotten County in Sweden, Finnmark County and the Troms County in Norway, and Murmansk Oblast and the Republic of Karelia in Russia. The topography of Lapland varies from vast mires and forests in the south to fells in the north. The Arctic Circle crosses Lapland, so polar phenomena such as the midnight sun, the polar night and the northern lights can be viewed in this region.

Lapland's cold and wintry climate, coupled with its relative abundance of conifer trees such as pines and spruces, means that it has become associated with Christmas in some countries, most notably the United Kingdom, and holidays to Lapland are common towards the end of the year. However, the Lapland region has developed its infrastructure for year-round tourism. For example, in 2019, tourism during the snow-free period grew more than in the winter season. In recent years, Lapland has also become a major tourist destination for celebrities as well as royalty.

Rovaniemi is the main regional centre of Lapland, and the Rovaniemi Airport is the second busiest airport in Finland. Besides tourism, other important sectors are trade, manufacturing and construction. Like Rovaniemi, Inari is also one of the most important tourist destinations in Lapland for foreign tourism.

Lapland has been connected with the legendary "North Pole" home of Santa Claus (Father Christmas or Saint Nicholas) since 1927, when Finnish radio host Markus Rautio said that Santa Claus lived on Korvatunturi, a fell in the region. Later, Rovaniemi staked a claim as Santa's "official hometown" and developed the Santa Claus Village attraction to encourage tourism. However, this has brought overtourism as a mild phenomenon.

Geography

The area of the Lapland region is , which consists of of dry land, fresh water and of seawater. In the south it borders the Northern Ostrobothnia region, in the west, Sweden, in the north and west Norway, and in the east, Russia. Its borders follow three rivers: the Tana, Muonio and Torne. The largest lake is Lake Inari, . The region's highest point is on Halti, which reaches 1,324 m (4,344 ft) on the Finnish side of the border and is the highest point in Finland.

The areas of Enontekiö and Utsjoki in northern Lapland are known as Fell-Lapland. The bulk and remaining Lapland is known as Forest-Lapland. Lake Inari, the many fens of the region and the Salla-Saariselkä mountains are all part of Forest-Lapland. Fell-Lapland lies in the fells of the Scandinavian Mountains. It is not made up of barren ground like blockfields but instead has the vegetation of birch forests, willow thickets or heath. Common soil types in Forest-Lapland are till and sand with conifer forests growing on top. These forests show little variation across Lapland. Compared to southern Finland forest tree species grow slower. The understory typically consists of blueberries, lichens, crowberries and lings. It has been suggested the inselberg plains were formed in the Late Cretaceous or Paleogene period by pediplanation or etchplanation. Relative to southern Finland Lapland stands out for its thick till cover. The hills and mountains are typically made up of resistant rocks like granite, gneiss, quartzite and amphibolite. The central parts of the Fennoscandian ice sheet had cold-based conditions during times of maximum extent. This means that in areas like northeast Sweden and northern Finland, pre-existing landforms and deposits escaped glacier erosion and are particularly well preserved at present. Northwest to the southeast movement of the ice has left a field of aligned drumlins in central Lapland. Ribbed moraines found in the same area reflects a later west-to-east change in the movement of the ice. Present-day periglacial conditions in Lapland are reflected in the existence of numerous palsas, permafrost landforms developed on peat. More rare rock associations include mafic and ultramafic layered intrusions and one of the world's oldest ophiolites. The region hosts valuable deposits of gold, chromium, iron and phosphate.

Climate

thumb|Snow-covered forest in Lapland

The first snowflakes fall to the ground in late August or early September over the higher peaks. The first ground-covering snow arrives on average in October or late September. Permanent snow cover comes between mid-October and the end of November, significantly earlier than in southern Finland. The winter is long, approximately seven months. The snow cover is usually thickest in early April. Soon after that the snow cover starts to melt fast. The thickest snow cover ever was measured in Kilpisjärvi on 19 April 1997 and it was . The annual mean temperature varies from in the northwest to in the southwest (Kemi-Tornio area). Lapland exhibits a trend of increasing precipitation towards the south, with the driest parts being located at the two arms. In mid-winter, it is possible that temperatures in Lapland could drop to dangerously low temperatures, even ; this could have an impact on, among other things, the tourist flights that prevail during the winter season.

In summer, the average temperature is consistently over . Heat waves with daily temperatures exceeding occur on an average of 5–10 days per summer in northern Finland.

History

thumb|right|Lapponia, the first map by cartographer [[Anders Bure from 1611, the first reliable map of both Swedish and Finnish Lapland]]

thumb|[[Wehrmacht soldiers with a local Sámi reindeer herder in Sodankylä, 1942]]

The area of Lapland was split between two counties of the Swedish Realm from 1634 to 1809. The northern and western areas were part of Västerbotten County, while the southern areas (so-called Peräpohjola) were part of Ostrobothnia County (after 1755 Oulu County). The northern and western areas were transferred in 1809 to Oulu County, which became Oulu Province. Under the royalist constitution of Finland during the first half of 1918, Lapland was to become a Grand Principality and part of the inheritance of the proposed king of Finland. Lapland Province was separated from Oulu Province in 1938.

During the Interim Peace and beginning of the Continuation War the government of Finland allowed the Nazi German Army to station itself in Lapland as a part of Operation Barbarossa. After Finland made a separate peace with the Soviet Union in 1944, the Soviet Union demanded that Finland expel the German army from its soil. The result was the Lapland War, during which almost the whole civilian population of Lapland was evacuated. The Germans used scorched earth tactics in Lapland before they withdrew to Norway. 40 to 47 percent of the dwellings in Lapland and of railroads were destroyed, of roadways were mined, destroyed or were unusable, and 675 bridges and of telephone lines were also destroyed. Ninety percent of Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland, was burned to the ground, with only a few pre-war buildings surviving the destruction.

After the Second World War, Petsamo municipality and part of Salla municipality were ceded to the Soviet Union. The decades following the war were a period of rebuilding, industrialisation and fast economic growth. Large hydroelectric plants and mines were established and cities, roads and bridges were rebuilt after the destruction of the war. In the late 20th century the economy of Lapland started to decline, mines and factories became unprofitable and the population started to decline rapidly across most of the region.

The provinces of Finland were abolished on 1 January 2010, but Lapland was reorganised as one of the new regions that replaced them.

Municipalities

The region of Lapland consists of 21 municipalities, four of which have city status (marked in bold).

Sub-regions

Kemi-Tornio sub-region

  • 23px Kemi ()
  • 23px Keminmaa
  • 23px Simo
  • 23px Tervola
  • 23px Tornio (; )

Rovaniemi sub-region

  • 23px Rovaniemi ()
  • 23px Ranua

Torne Valley sub-region

  • 23px Pello
  • 23px Ylitornio ()

Eastern Lapland sub-region

  • 23px Kemijärvi
  • 23px Pelkosenniemi
  • 23px Posio
  • 23px Salla
  • 23px Savukoski ()

Northern Lapland sub-region

  • 23px Inari (; ; ; )
  • 23px Sodankylä ()
  • 23px Utsjoki (; )

Fell Lapland sub-region

  • 23px Enontekiö (; )
  • 23px Kittilä ()
  • 23px Kolari
  • 23px Muonio

List of municipalities

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: right;"

! class="unsortable" |Coat of<br/>arms

! Municipality

! Population

! Land area<br/>(km<sup>2</sup>)

! Density<br/>(/km<sup>2</sup>)

! Finnish<br/>speakers

! Swedish<br/>speakers

! Sámi<br/>speakers

! Other<br/>speakers

|-

|50px|border|Coat of arms of Enontekiö|| Enontekiö || || ||

|| &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;%

|-

|50px|border|coat of arms of Inari|| Inari || || ||

|| &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;%

|-

|50px|border|Coat of arms of Kemi|| Kemi || || ||

|| &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;%

|-

|50px|border|Coat of arms of Kemijärvi|| Kemijärvi || || ||

|| &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;%

|-

|50px|border|coat of arms of Keminmaa|| Keminmaa || || ||

|| &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;%

|-

|50px|border|Coat of arms of Kittilä|| Kittilä || || ||

|| &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;%

|-

|50px|border|Coat of arms of Kolari|| Kolari || || ||

|| &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;%

|-

|50px|border|Coat of arms of Muonio|| Muonio || || ||

|| &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;%

|-

|50px|border|Coat of arms of Pelkosenniemi|| Pelkosenniemi || || ||

|| &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;%

|-

|50px|border|coat of arms of Pello|| Pello || || ||

|| &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;%

|-

|50px|border|Coat of arms of Posio|| Posio || || ||

|| &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;%

|-

|50px|border|Coat of arms of Ranua|| Ranua || || ||

|| &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;%

|-

|50px|border|Coat of arms of Rovaniemi|| Rovaniemi || || ||

|| &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;%

|-

|50px|border|Coat of arms of Salla|| Salla || || ||

|| &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;%

|-

|50px|border|Coat of arms of Savukoski|| Savukoski || || ||

|| &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;%

|-

|50px|border|coat of arms of Simo|| Simo || || ||

|| &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;%

|-

|50px|border|Coat of arms of Sodankylä|| Sodankylä || || ||

|| &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;%

|-

|50px|border|Coat of arms of Tervola|| Tervola || || ||

|| &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;%

|-

|50px|border|coat of arms of Tornio|| Tornio || || ||

|| &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;%

|-

|50px|border|Coat of arms of Utsjoki|| Utsjoki || || ||

|| &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;%

|-

|50px|border|Coat of arms of Ylitornio|| Ylitornio || || ||

|| &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;% || &nbsp;%

|-

!!!+ style=text-align:right | Total !!+ style=text-align:right | !!+ style=text-align:right | !!+ style=text-align:right |

!!+ style=text-align:right | &nbsp;%

!!+ style=text-align:right | &nbsp;%

!!+ style=text-align:right | &nbsp;%

!!+ style=text-align:right | &nbsp;%

|}

Former municipalities

  • Rovaniemen maalaiskunta (), merged with Rovaniemi in 2006.
  • Kemijärven maalaiskunta (), merged with Kemijärvi in 1973.
  • Petsamo, ceded to the Soviet Union in 1944.

Economy

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto; margin-left:20px;"

|+Economic facts and figures (2021)

|-

|Jobs

|68,370

|-

|GDP (million euros)

|6,940

|-

|GDP (per capita)

|€39,320

|-

|Private and public offices

|10,400

|-

|Private sector revenues (million euros)

|15,400

|-

|Exports (million euros)

|4,000

|-

|Private and public sector workers

|62,600

|-

|Unemployment

|9.8%

|}

Tourism

{| class="wikitable sortable" width= style="font-size:90%; float:right; float:right;"

|+ Top 10 tourism source countries in 2016–2018

|- style="background:lightgrey;"

! Country||2016||2017||2018

|-

| 1. || 233,295 || 273,603 || 285,359

|-

| 2. || 137,440 || 162,035 || 165,993

|-

| 3. || 124,071 || 141,123 || 159,343

|-

| 4. || 59,368 || 83,069 || 95,673

|-

| 5. (including and ) || 54,116 || 85,109 || 90,751

|-

| 6. || 67,633 || 68,695 || 67,453

|-

| 7. || 57,709 || 62,053 || 65,428

|-

| 8. || 55,278 || 56,395 || 54,963

|-

| 9. || 37,842 || 43,607 || 53,132

|-

| 10. || 35,638 || 42,996 || 40,359

|-

| Total foreign || 1,213,689 || 1,479,691 || 1,563,495

|}

Demographics

Population

250px|right|thumb|A map of Lapland's [[Municipalities of Lapland (Finland)|municipalities, shaded by the percentage of the population that speaks a Sámi language (as of 2024).]]

Lapland is the home of about 3 % of Finland's total population and is by far the least densely populated area in the country. The biggest towns in Lapland are Rovaniemi (the regional capital), Tornio, and Kemi. , Lapland had a population of 176,215 of whom 164,945 spoke Finnish, 1,574 spoke Sami, 532 spoke Swedish and 9,164 spoke some other languages as their mother tongue.

Crimes

Lapland is by far the most violent region in Finland in the 21st century, based on homicides per population; in the Pelkosenniemi municipality alone, with less than a thousand inhabitants, there were 12 murders, manslaughter or attempted murders within two decades.

Regional council

The 21 municipalities of Lapland are organised into a single region, where they cooperate in the Lapland regional council, Lapin liitto or Lapplands förbund.

Politics

In parliamentary elections, Lapland forms a single electoral district. As of 2023, the Lapland constituency elects six MPs.

Sámi homeland

thumb|[[Sámi peoples|Sámi family in Lapland, 1936]]

The northernmost municipalities of Lapland where the Sámi people are the most numerous form the Sámi homeland. Sámi organisation exists in parallel with the provincial one.

Transport

thumb|Traffic in Lapland

Roads

Three European roads pass through Lapland: E8, E63 and E75, the latter of which runs almost from the southernmost municipality of Simo to the northernmost municipality of Utsjoki.

Airports

Kemi-Tornio, Rovaniemi, Kittilä, Ivalo and Enontekiö airports are located in Lapland. The flight time from Helsinki is about 1,5 hours.

Railways

In the western part, the Laurila–Kelloselkä railway runs from Tornio to Kolari, and the eastern line runs from Keminmaa via Rovaniemi and Kemijärvi to the eastern border of the country at Salla's Kelloselkä.

See also

  • Finnish Lakeland
  • Lääni
  • Lapland (historical province of Finland)
  • Lappmarken
  • National parks in Lapland
  • Sea Lapland
  • Southern Lapland

Notes

References

  • Lapland Regional Council – Official site
  • House of Lapland
  • Lapland Club
  • Rovaniemi, Lapland – Official site of Visit Rovaniemi, Finland.
  • Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences – video portal – Videos about Lapland experiences and lifestyle.
  • Levi, Lapland – Official site of Levi, Finland.
  • Where is Lapland?
  • Midnight Sun Film Festival