My reason for writing this that if I say to foreigners that I'm from "Northern Finland", they likely get the wrong impression that I reside somewhere within the Polar Circle instead of a place that's pretty much right in the middle of Finland. Therefore, I thought of writing this explanation. Maybe I or someone else will need it in the future. Now, let's look at maps!



Needless to say, the one that depicts the north as bigger is the one that's falsely skewed. You know how map projection works... ^^''

In any case. In the first map, we see Finland divided into North, South, East and West. As weird as it might look that the north is so big, this is simply how it is. The reasons for this are historical: the northernmost parts of the state of Finland aren't historically, well, Finland, as in Land of the Finns. It is Sápmi aka Sámiland, the land of the indigenous Sámi peoples of northern Finland, Sweden, Norway and Kola Peninsula of Russia. When you clip off the northernmost parts of the country, the middle of the country is, in fact, in the northern half. The northern half of Finland, hence, northern Finland. Now, the Sámi are a minority in every municipality except for the very northernmost one (Utsjoki). It's no surprise then that the legally defined "Sámi homeland" according to the Finnish law is smaller than the historical area.

But what more! The second map divides Finland into the western and eastern cultural spheres as defined by dialect groups. Note the difference between the two maps, where some parts are considered West in one and East in the other. The easternmost part of the West in the first map, and the westernmost part of the East in the second one is aptly called "Central Finland".

The West and East divide defines not only dialect differences, but also things such as traditional clothing, food and music styles. Even genetics, as Finnish genes can be divided into a western and an eastern group (western has more connection to Germanic, eastern more connection to Siberian). For these reasons and others, if one wishes to understand Finland, understanding the existence of these areas is also important.

Regional inequality? Yes! The West is generally wealthier and healthier (and denser in population apart from the very north), whereas the East suffers from a higher rate of heart disease. Voting percentages also tend to be lower in the East - some people feel like everything will be done how the West (and especially South) want it and therefore, voting is useless. Though I do have to say that the northern parts of the West (in the second map) suffer from similar apathy. Now, for another set of maps:



Here is a VERY rough estimate about the different historical lands within Finland. Some of them also have certain historical English names that have been used and some are used to this day (the names in the map are in Finnish):
- Suomi = Finland
- Häme = Tavastia
- Karjala = Karelia
- Savo = Savonia
- Pohjanmaa = Ostrobothnia
- Kainuu = Caiania/Cajania (this is RARE)
- Lappi = Lapland (Saamenmaa = Sápmi)

The first map divides Finland based on historical municipalities, and the second one based on dialect groups. I added these maps so you see the Sápmi area. Snip that out, and you might see why "Northern Finland" streches so far south. You should also know that the "Region of Lapland" as an administrative region is made up half from Sápmi and other half from the Ostrobothnian side. The Ostrobothnian parts of the Region of Lapland are called "Peräpohjola". So, the modern "Lapland" is quite different from the historical one and indeed, stretches outside of Sápmi.

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