Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council

Uusimaa (; sv, Nyland, ; both lit. 'new land') is a region of Finland. It borders the regions of Southwest Finland, Tavastia Proper (Kanta-Häme), Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme), and Kymenlaakso. Finland's capital and largest city, Helsinki, along with the surrounding Greater Helsinki area, are both contained in the region, and Uusimaa is Finland's most populous region. The population of Uusimaa is 1,723,000.

While predominantly Finnish-speaking, Uusimaa has the highest total number of native speakers of Swedish in Finland even at a much lower share than two other regions.

History

The place name of Nuuksio derives from the Sami word which means 'swan.'' Later Finns proper and Tavastians inhabited the area. Some place names have traces of Tavastian village names, like Konala, which likely derives from the older Tavastian village name ''Konhola''. Estonians inhabited the region to a smaller extent, specifically for seasonal fishing.

Swedish colonisation of coastal Uusimaa started after the second crusade to Finland in the 13th century. The colonisation was part of converting pagan areas to Catholicism. Eastern Uusimaa had its first Christian Swedish colonialists earlier than the western part, which got its colonialists in one mass transfer of people to Porvoo in the 14th century. The colonisation was supported by the Swedish kingdom and the immigrants were provided with grain seeds and cattle. They also got a four-year tax exemption from the crown. All the Swedish place names of Uusimaa date back to this period.

The names ''Uusimaa'' and ''Nyland'', meaning 'new land' in English, derive from the Swedish colonisation era. The Swedish-language name ''Nyland'' appears in the documents from the 14th century. The Finnish-language name ''Uusimaa'' appears for the first time in 1548 as ''Wsimaa'' in the first translation of the New Testament to Finnish by Mikael Agricola. Much of Uusimaa is literally new – it has risen off the Baltic sea due to post-glacial rebound.

The Finnish provinces were ceded to Imperial Russia in the War of Finland in 1809. After this, Uusimaa became the Province of Uusimaa in the old lääni system. From 1997 to 2010, Uusimaa was a part of the Province of Southern Finland. In 1994 it was divided into the regions of Uusimaa and Eastern Uusimaa, but in 2011 the two regions were merged as Uusimaa.

Economy

The gross domestic product (GDP) of the region was 91.2 billion € in 2018, accounting for 38.9% of Finnish economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was 43,500 € or 144% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 120% of the EU average.

Languages

Uusimaa is a bilingual region, with municipalities both bilingual in Finnish and Swedish, and monolingual in Finnish. Uusimaa's coastal areas tend to be Swedish-speaking. The traditional regional dialects of Swedish () are currently mostly spoken in Eastern Uusimaa, while in the rest of the Uusimaa Swedish dialect has become more standardised.

The Finnish-speaking population started to grow when the capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland was moved from Turku to Helsinki by Emperor of Russia Alexander I in 1812, and the region attracted settlers from other parts of Finland. Helsinki's slang first evolved in the late 19th century. 8.5% of population of the region speak the Swedish language natively.

Due to immigration, many foreign languages are spoken in Uusimaa. 15.5% speak a foreign-language as their mother tongue, highest proportion in Finland and 58% of all foreign-language speakers in Finland. The figure was 1.1% in 1990, 3.9% in 2000, 8.0% in 2010 and 11.3% in 2015. Meanwhile the proportion of Finnish and Swedish speakers has decreased from 87.6% and 11.3% in 1990 to 76.9% and 7.6% in 2021 respectively. On a municipal level, the highest shares of foreign-speakers are in Vantaa (23.0%), Espoo (20.1%), Helsinki (17.3%) and Kerava (13.5%). The lowest share is in Pukkila (3.0%).

The most spoken foreign-languages are Russian (2.5%), Estonian (2.0%), Arabic (1.2%) and Somali (1.1%). Other languages include English, Chinese, Albanian, Persian, Kurdish, Vietnamese, Spanish, Turkish, Thai, Tagalog, German, Nepali, Bengali, French, Romanian, Urdu, Hindi, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Italian, Polish, Tamil, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Swahili, Amharic, Serbo-Croatian, Latvian, Japanese, Dutch, Uzbek and Greek, all with over 1,000 speakers.

Health

In late March 2020, the region of Uusimaa went to lockdown for isolated from the rest of Finland due to the global COVID-19 pandemic (2020/21).

Regional council

The regional council is the main governing body for region and focuses primarily on urban planning. Like all regional councils, it is mandated by law.

Municipalities

The region of Uusimaa is made up of 26 municipalities, of which 13 have city status (marked in bold).

Helsinki Sub-region:
* Espoo (Esbo)
**Population:
* Helsinki (Helsingfors)
**Population:
* Hyvinkää (''Hyvinge'')
**Population:
* Järvenpää (''Träskända'')
**Population:
* Karkkila (''Högfors'')
**Population:
* Kauniainen (Grankulla)
**Population:
* Kerava (''Kervo'')
**Population:
* Kirkkonummi (Kyrkslätt)
**Population:
* Lohja (Lojo)
**Population:
* Mäntsälä
**Population:
* Nurmijärvi
**Population:
* Pornainen (''Borgnäs'')
**Population:
* Sipoo (Sibbo)
**Population:
* Siuntio (Sjundeå)
**Population:
* Tuusula (''Tusby'')
**Population:
* Vantaa (Vanda)
**Population:
* Vihti (''Vichtis'')
**Population:

Loviisa Sub-region:
* Lapinjärvi (Lappträsk)
**Population:
* Loviisa (Lovisa)
**Population:
Porvoo Sub-region:
* Askola
**Population:
* Myrskylä (Mörskom)
**Population:
* Porvoo (Borgå)
**Population:
* Pukkila
**Population:
Raseborg Sub-region:
* Hanko (Hangö)
**Population:
* Ingå (Inkoo)
**Population:
* Raseborg (Raasepori)
**Population:

Politics

The results of the 2019 Finnish parliamentary election in Uusimaa (consisting of two constituencies, named Helsinki and Uusimaa) are:

* National Coalition Party: 21.28%
* Green League: 17.62%
* Social Democratic Party: 16.04%
* Finns Party: 14.37%
* Swedish People's Party: 7.51%
* Left Alliance: 7.42%
* Centre Party: 4.97%
* Movement Now: 4.11%
* Christian Democrats: 2.38%
* Blue Reform: 1.24%
* Seven Star Movement: 0.43%
* Other parties: 2.63%

Heraldry

The coat of arms of the province is ''Azure, a boat Or between two fesses wavy Argent'' (a golden boat which is a symbol for the coastal areas, and two silver wavy fesses which are the symbol for rivers.)

Uusimaa received its coat of arms at the end of the 16th century. There is an image of the coat of arms made in 1599. In 1997, the traditional coat of arms became the official coat of arms of the region.

Media

Newspapers

The largest subscription newspapers published in the region are ''Helsingin Sanomat'' and '' Hufvudstadsbladet'' in Helsinki, ''Aamuposti'' in Hyvinkää, ' in Lohja, ' and ''Östra Nyland'' in Loviisa, '' Uusimaa'' and ''Borgåbladet'' in Porvoo, ''Västra Nyland'' in Raseborg, and ' in Tuusula. Also two popular tabloid newspapers, ''Iltalehti'' and ''Ilta-Sanomat'', are published there.

Radio stations

Yle's local radio stations in the western part of the region are the Finnish-language and Swedish-language Yle Vega Västnyland, in the Capital Region the Finnish-language and Swedish-language Yle Vega Huvudstadsregionen, and in the eastern part the Finnish-language (discontinued) and Swedish-language Yle Vega Östnyland.

See also

* List of European regions by GDP

Notes

References

Further reading

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External links

Uusimaa Regional Council

{{Authority control

Southern Finland Province
Regions of Finland