Finland consists of 6 provinces (Finnish: läänit, Swedish: län), following a 1997 redesign that reduced their number from 12.

The province authority is part of the central government's executive branch; a system that hasn't changed drastically since its creation in 1634. The State of Finland is since the late 19th century bilingual. Its governmental offices and agencies use both domestic languages in contacts with the public

No.	Provinces	Finnish and Swedish names	Residence city	Population (2003)	Area (km²)	Merged Provinces (1997)
1.	Southern Finland	Etelä-Suomen lääni Södra Finlands län	Hämeenlinna Tavastehus	2,116,914	34,378	Uusimaa, Kymi, Tavastia
2.	Western Finland	Länsi-Suomen lääni Västra Finlands län	Turku Åbo	1,848,269	74,185	Vaasa, Turku-Pori, Central Finland, Tavastia (Pirkanmaa)
3.	Eastern Finland	Itä-Suomen lääni, Östra Finlands län	Mikkeli S:t Michel	582,781	48,726	Kuopio, North Karelia, Mikkeli
4.	Oulu	Oulun lääni Uleåborgs län	Oulu Uleåborg	458,504	57,000	No changes
5.	Lapland	Lapin lääni Lapplands län	Rovaniemi Rovaniemi	186,917	98,946	No changes
6.	Åland¹	Ahvenanmaan lääni Ålands län²	Maarianhamina Mariehamn²	26,000	6,784	No changes

1/ Some duties, which in Mainland Finland are handled by the provinces, are on the Åland Islands transferred to the autonomous Government of Åland.
2/ The Åland Islands are unilingually Swedish.

Each province has a State Provincial Office (lääninhallitus/länsstyrelse) which act as the joint regional authority for seven ministries in the following domains:

• social and health care
• education and culture
• police administration
• rescue services
• traffic administration
• competition and consumer affairs
• judicial administration

The official entities under the Provicial Office authority are the jurisdictional districts (police) and city administrative courts (registries). Each State Provincial Office authority is led by a governor (maaherra, landshövding) who is appointed by the president after a proposal by the cabinet.

See also

• Historical provinces of Finland

External links

• State Provincial Offices (http://www.laaninhallitus.fi/lh/home.nsf/pages/index_eng) - Official site

de:Lääni fr:Régions de Finlande pl:Prowincja (Finlandia) ro:Provinciile Finlandei fi:Suomen läänit sv:Län i Finland