The following is a list of cities in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. In the year 1977, the legal difference between towns and

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

was removed. Today they are all classified as municipalities, some of which are commonly referred to as cities ''(kaupunki'' in

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

, ''stad'' in

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

). A municipality can decide whether it calls itself a municipality or a city. but ''suurkaupunki'' (~ large town) is used for a few cities in Finland. This fits the EU's definition of a city, which has the criteria of a minimum population of 50,000 and a minimum

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

of 500 inhabitants per square kilometer. A simple, independent decision in the municipal council is sufficient to call a municipality (''kunta'') a city (''kaupunki''). For cities founded before the 1960s, the list includes the year the city was chartered. Many municipal mergers have been carried out in Finland (and more are yet to come, due to a countrywide municipal reform). Mergers also make it difficult to define what towns are cities because mergers make the population increase a bit but make the population density decrease. For example, according to the EU definition,

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

is no longer a city, due to the municipal mergers with

Messukylä Messukylä ( sv, Messukylä, also ) is a former municipality of Finland which was annexed by the city of Tampere in 1947. The medieval stone church (built c. 1540) in Messukylä is the oldest building in Tampere. During the Civil War (1918), Mess ...

Aitolahti Aitolahti (; now forms the Tampere subdivision under the name Aito) is a former municipality in Pirkanmaa region, Finland. It was consolidated in 1966 with Tampere, and at the same time Tampere got new districts: Sorila, Nurmi and Aitoniemi. Un ...

, and

Teisko Teisko () is a village and former municipality in Pirkanmaa region, Finland. It was consolidated in 1972 with Tampere, and at the same time Tampere got new districts: Kämmenniemi, Polso, Terälahti and Velaatta. Teisko's neighboring municipal ...

, which decreased its official population density to 410.5 inhabitants per square kilometer, as of 1 July 2012. In Finland, the whole area inside a municipality's borders is officially considered the city or town area. The names used in this encyclopedia are usually the Finnish or Swedish forms, depending on the majority language of the municipality, except when there is a commonly used English name.

Cities (founded)

Suurkirkko Helsinki maaliskuu 2002 IMG 0629

Cities (founded)

See also

Notes

References

External links