Invest in Finland

Basic Facts on Finland

Total area: 338,000 square kilometers

Neighboring countries: Estonia, Sweden, Norway, Russia (1,269 km, Finland’s land border with Russia is the
eastern border of the European Union)

Population: 5.305 million; 67% live in towns or urban areas, 33% in rural areas

Main towns: Helsinki (564,520) Espoo (235,020), Tampere (206,370), Vantaa (189,710), Turku (175,355)
and Oulu (130,180)

Languages: Finnish 91.51%, Swedish 5.49%, Lappish 0.03%, Russian 0.80%, other 2.17%. Finnish and Swedish
are the official languages. English is an important business language.

Religion: Lutheran 82.5%, Orthodox 1.1%, other 1.1% (15.1% have no religious affiliation)

Government: Following the parliamentary elections of March 2007 the new centre-right governing coalition is
comprised of 20 ministerial posts held by the Centre Party (8), the National Coalition Party (8), the Green League (2)
and the Swedish People’s Party (2).

Currency: euro (EUR) = 100 cents

GDP: 186 bn € (2008)

GDP per capita: at current market prices 29 500 € (2008)

GDP growth: 0,9 % in (2008)

Unemployment rate: 6,1 % (December 2008)

Monthly wages: average 2,730 €; men 3,020 €, women 2,450 € (2007)

Main industrial products: Paper and board, electronics and metal products. Forests are still Finland's most crucial
raw material resource, although the engineering and high technology industries, led by Nokia, have long been the leading
branches of manufacturing.

Taxation: Corporation tax (26%) is uniform for all types of corporate income, including sales profits, interest income, dividends, royalties and rental income; value-added tax (VAT) is charged at 22% on most goods and services. Reduced tax rate of 17 % is applied to the sale of food and animal feed and another reduced rate of 8 % to certain services.