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Lahti (, ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Päijät-Häme. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Lahti is approximately , while the Lahti sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the most populous municipality in Finland, and the sixth most populous urban area in the country.
Lahti is situated on a bay at the southern end of lake Vesijärvi about north-east of the capital city Helsinki, south-west of Heinola and east of Hämeenlinna, the capital of the region of Kanta-Häme. Lahti is situated at the intersection of Highway 4 (between Helsinki and Jyväskylä) and Highway 12 (between Tampere and Kouvola), which are the most significant main roads of Lahti. Its neighboring municipalities are Asikkala, Heinola, Hollola, Iitti and Orimattila.
Lahti is a long-time pioneering city in environmental sustainability, dating back to as early as 1990 and before. The European Commission has named Lahti as the European Green Capital of 2021. Lahti is also the headquarters of the Salpausselkä UNESCO Global Geopark, one of 4 UNESCO Geoparks in Finland; Salpausselkä was added to the list of over 170 UNESCO Global Geoparks in the world in 2022. In January 2026, the British newspaper The Guardian highlighted Lahti as one of its readers' favorite travel destinations in the Nordic countries, praising its good transport connections from Helsinki, charming little cafes and "quiet, down-to-earth people".
The coat of arms of the city depicts a train wheel surrounded by flames. It refers to the Riihimäki–Saint Petersburg railway, which had a decisive influence on the birth of the city at its crossroads. (1982). 9789517730853, Suomen Kunnallisliitto. ISBN 9789517730853
The completion of the Riihimäki – St. Petersburg railway line in 1870 and the Vesijärvi canal in 1871 turned Lahti into a lively station, and industrial installations began to spring up around it. For a long time, the railway station at Vesijärvi Harbour was the second busiest station in Finland. Craftsmen, merchants, a few civil servants and a lot of industrial workers soon mixed in with the existing agricultural peasantry.
On 19 June 1877, almost the entire village was burned to the ground. However, the accident proved to be a stroke of luck for the development of the place, as it led to the authorities resuming their deliberations about establishing a town in Lahti. The village was granted market town rights by Emperor Alexander II of Russia in 1878 and an empire-style, grid town plan was approved, which included a large market square and wide . This grid plan still forms the basis of the city center. Most of the buildings were low wooden houses bordering the streets.
Lahti was founded during a period of severe economic recessions. The Russian Empire was encumbered by the war against Turkey, which also affected the economy of the Grand Duchy of Finland. The recession also slowed down building of the township: land would not sell and often plots were not built on for some time. In its early years, the town with its meagre 200 inhabitants was too small to provide any kind of foundation for trade. At the end of the 1890s, Lahti's Township Board increased its efforts to enable Lahti to be turned into a city. In spring 1904, the efforts finally bore fruit as the Governing Senate approved of the application, although it was another eighteen months before Tsar Nicholas II finally gave his blessing and issued an ordinance for establishing the city of Lahti.
At the end of 1905, the area that now comprises Lahti accommodated around 8,200 people of whom just under 3,000 lived in the city itself. All essential municipal institutions were built in just ten years, including a hospital and a city hall. At the same time, a rapid increase in brick houses was taking place in the centre of the city. The Battle of Lahti was fought in the 1918 Finnish Civil War as the German Detachment Brandenstein took the town from the Reds.
In the early 1920s, the city gained possession of the grounds of the Lahti Manor, an important piece of land previously blocking the city from the lake. Large-scale industrial operations grew rapidly in the 1930s as did the population; Lahti, at the time, was one of Finland's fastest-growing cities, and before the start of the Winter War its population was approaching 30,000.
Through the addition of new areas in 1924, 1933 and 1956, Lahti grew, both in terms of population and surface area. The increase in population was especially strong after WWII, when 10,000 evacuees from Moscow Armistice to the Soviet Union were settled in the city, and then later in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of urbanization. The rapid population growth came to a sharp end in 1975 and the city has since grown significantly slower albeit more steadily, with the latest notable growth in population happening in 2016 when the municipality of Nastola became a part of Lahti.
In December 2018, Lahti became the first new university city in Finland after Rovaniemi in 1979 when the Parliament accepted a change in the university law. LUT University nowadays consists of two campuses, Lappeenranta and Lahti.
At least 100 different languages are spoken in Lahti. The most commonly spoken foreign languages are Russian language (2.8%), Arabic (1.1%), Estonian (0.6%), Ukrainian (0.5%) and English language (0.3%).
| Population by country of birth (2024) | ||
| 90.0 | ||
| 2.2 | ||
| 0.8 | ||
| 0.6 | ||
| 0.5 | ||
| 0.5 | ||
| 0.5 | ||
| 0.5 | ||
| 0.4 | ||
| 0.3 | ||
| 0.2 | ||
| 0.2 | ||
| 3.4 | ||
The relative share of immigrants in Lahti's population is close to the national average. Furthermore, the city's new residents are increasingly of foreign origin. This will increase the proportion of foreign residents in the coming years.
| Services | 52.0% | 59.3% | 63.5% | 72.4% |
| Industry | 47.1% | 40.1% | 36.4% | 27.4% |
| Agriculture & Forestry | 0.9% | 0.6% | 0.1% | 0.2% |
In 1995, R&D expenditure was Finnish markka 715 per person, while Finland's average was about FIM 2050. The amount of Tekes (the National Technology Agency) funding in the Lahti Region grew 40% during 2004–2007 while the average growth in Finland was 60%.
| GDP at current prices; million € | 3,449.3 | 3,709.7 | 3,697.5 | 3,982.3 | 4,136.8 | 4,242.4 | 4,381.9 |
| Changes of GDP; year 2000 = 100% | 100.0% | 107.5% | 107.2% | 115.5% | 119.9% | 123.0% | 127.7% |
| GDP per capita; whole country =100% | 80.7% | 82.0% | 79.4% | 84.3% | 83.9% | 83.4% | 81.2% |
| GDP per employed; whole country =100% | 86.6% | 87.3% | 83.6% | 88.9% | 88.7% | 88.6% | 87.1% |
Lahti's annual music festival programme includes such events as Lahti Organ Festival, a jazz festival held in the city's market square and the Sibelius Festival.
In addition to the Sibelius Hall, other additional notable works of architecture in Lahti are the City Hall (1911) by Eliel Saarinen, the Church of the Cross (1978) by Alvar Aalto, Nastola Church (1804), the oldest church in the city, Joutjärvi church, the City Theatre (1983) by Pekka Salminen, the City Library (1990) by Arto Sipinen, the Piano Pavilion (2008) by Gert Wingårdh, and the Travel Centre (2016) by JKMM Architects. The City of Lahti has also acted as the host city for the international Spirit of Wood Architecture Award, established in Finland in 1999. Some of the prize-winners have received commissions to design small structures in the city; these include small works by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and Australian architect Richard Leplastrier.
The Finnish folk metal band Korpiklaani was founded in Lahti.
In the 1990s both clubs ended up in such massive financial difficulties that a merger was executed in 1996, with the newly formed club adopting a new name, crest and colours. FC Lahti has played in the Veikkausliiga since 1999, excluding a season-long visit to the first division in 2011, having placed twice third and appearing in Europe three times.
The 1997 World Games and the 2009 World Masters Athletics Championships were held in Lahti. For the 1952 Summer Olympics, some of the football matches were played at Kisapuisto.
Lahti will host the 2023 Ironman 70.3 World Championship August 26–27, an annual event which rotates venue and is the 2nd most important event in long course triathlon after Kona World Championship held annually in Hawaii.
Lahti is served by VR commuter rail, the Z train to Helsinki and the G train to Riihimäki run hourly. Most services to Kouvola don't have a letter designation and are run every three hours aside from rush hours. There are plans for building two new train stops inside the city limits before 2020, Hennala and Karisto. A local service to Heinola has been proposed but renovating the old line has been deemed too expensive and unprofitable in the long term, unless the Finnish state reaches an agreement with regional councils to finance a direct rail link from Lahti to either Jyväskylä or Mikkeli.
All local and long-distance trains and buses stop at the travel centre, making it convenient to transfer from one mode of transport to another. The city council has sold the old bus station in the city centre and it will be redeveloped for other uses in the near future.
Lahti's proximity to Helsinki provides a fast and well-serviced operation between the cities. Long-distance and commuter trains service the city at least twice an hour in the daytime. There is also a commuter train service towards Riihimäki in the south-west and to Kouvola / Kotka in the east. All the east and north-east long-distance train services to and from Helsinki railway station call at Lahti. From Lahti, it is also convenient to travel to Helsinki airport. Travel time to Helsinki airport via Tikkurila station is between 49min to 65min.
Additionally to the train connections, the long-distance busses are well-serviced in Lahti. Thanks to its geographical location, Lahti provides a hub-like possibility for busses too. From Lahti, the long-distance busses service routes to Helsinki, Turku, Tampere, Jyväskylä, Mikkeli, Oulu, Rovaniemi amongst the other destinations.
Salpaus is an educational consortium owned by the municipalities in Päijät-Häme arranging most of the region's vocational education and trade schooling. The privately owned Dila and Lahti Conservatory educate students for healthcare and music-related professions, respectively.
LUT University offers education in engineering science as well as in business and management. The Institute of Design and Fine Arts has gained international recognition in particular for jewelry and industrial design, while other areas of expertise include metal, woodworking and furniture.
There are two national sports institutes in greater Lahti. The Vierumäki International Sports Institute based in Heinola is the most versatile centre of sports and physical education in the country, operating under the Ministry of Culture and Education. In addition the Pajulahti Sports Institute, located in the district of Nastola in Lahti, is one of the leading sports and training centres in Finland.
Furthermore one of Finland's six multidisciplinary university campuses is based in Lahti. The University of Helsinki's Department of Environmental Sciences is the university's sole science department located outside the Helsinki metropolitan area.
The radio masts on top of the Radiomäki are tall.
Lahti won the European Green Capital Award of the year 2021. In 2020, National Geographic selected Lahti as one of the five most forward-looking cities in Europe for its sustainable urban development and environmental initiatives.
Although the Institute for the Languages of Finland recommend for Norway and Denmark to use the Swedish names for all Finnish towns, the use of Lahtis in those countries is almost non-existent even among major newssites, especially as a result of Lahti being the branding name used for skiing events held there.
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