Uusimaa (; , ) is a region of Finland. It borders the regions of Southwest Finland, Kanta-Häme, Päijät-Häme, and Kymenlaakso. Finland's capital and largest city, Helsinki, along with its surrounding metropolitan area, is located in the Uusimaa region, which is Finland's most populous region. Its population is 1,734,000.
History
From the time of the
Vikings in the 8th century, an eastern road ran along the Gulf of Finland. The first inhabitants were
.
[, pp. 5-7] The place name of
Nuuksio derives from the Sami word njukča 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.
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 names Uusimaa and Nyland, meaning 'new land' in English, derived from the Swedish colonisation era. The Swedish-language name Nyland appears in 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.
The Finnish provinces (lääni, län) were ceded to Russian Empire after the Finnish War in 1809, when they were organized as the Grand Duchy of Finland. Finland became independent in 1917.
The provincial system was restructured in 1997, and from 1997 to 2010 Uusimaa formed a part of the Southern Finland Province. The provincial system was abolished in 2010 in favour of regions (maakunta, landskap). The regions had traditionally existed as cultural units but were made into administrative units in 1994. Initially, Uusimaa was divided into the regions of Uusimaa and Eastern Uusimaa, but in 2011 the two regions were merged into a single region, Uusimaa.
Heraldry
The coat of arms features two silver, wavy
Fess on a blue field, with a golden boat with a rudder between them. The boat symbolizes the coastal character of the region, while the silver fesses may represent its rivers.
Uusimaa Province received its coat of arms at the end of the 16th century, and it is attested in 1599. In 1997, when the regional system was formalized, the traditional provincial coat of arms was adopted as the coat of arms of the Uusimaa region.
Municipalities
The region of Uusimaa consists of 26 municipalities, 13 of which have city status (marked in bold).
Municipalities on the map
Sub-regions
Helsinki sub-region
Loviisa sub-region
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Lapinjärvi ( Lappträsk)
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Loviisa ( Lovisa)
Raseborg sub-region
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Hanko ( Hangö)
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Ingå ( Inkoo)
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Raseborg ( Raasepori)
Porvoo sub-region
Municipalities listed
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Places of interest
Uusimaa, the region surrounding Finland’s capital Helsinki, offers many sights and attractions, from historical landmarks to natural wonders.
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Amusement parks: Linnanmäki, Serena Waterpark
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Castles and fortresses: Suomenlinna, Raseborg Castle, Svartholm fortress,
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Churches and cathedrals: Helsinki Cathedral, Porvoo Cathedral, Espoo Cathedral, Temppeliaukio Church, , Church of St. Lawrence, Vantaa
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Harbour: Hanko and
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Historical houses: Seurasaari, Parliament House, Helsinki, , Glims, Hvitträsk, ,
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Ironworks: , , , Strömfors
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Libraries: Helsinki Central Library Oodi, National Library of Finland, Helsinki University Library
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Museums: Ainola, Ateneum, , Finnish Aviation Museum, Finnish Railway Museum, Gallen-Kallela Museum, Helsinki City Museum, Heureka, , Kiasma, Mannerheim Museum, National Museum of Finland, Taaborinvuori, WeeGee house
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Natural attractions: Nuuksio National Park, Karkali Strict Nature Reserve, Sipoonkorpi National Park,
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Sport venues: Helsinki Olympic Stadium, Töölö Stadium
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Squares: Senate Square, Helsinki, Market Square, Helsinki
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Zoo: Korkeasaari
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.
The employment rate is 76% as of 2022, second highest in Finland. There were 836,000 workplaces in Uusimaa in 2021, over 35% of the workplaces in Finland. The most common sectors were health and social services, wholesale and retail trade as well as professional, scientific and technical activities.
Demographics
Population
Languages
Uusimaa is a bilingual region, with municipalities both bilingual in
Finnish language and
Finland Swedish, and monolingual in Finnish. Uusimaa's coastal areas tend to be Swedish-speaking. The traditional regional dialects of Swedish (nyländska) are 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 the Emperor of Russia Alexander I in 1812, and the region attracted settlers from other parts of Finland. Helsinki slang first evolved in the late 19th century. 7.6% of the population of the region speaks the Swedish language natively.
Due to immigration, many foreign languages are spoken in Uusimaa. 19% speak a foreign language as their mother tongue, the 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 14.7% in 2020. Meanwhile, the proportion of Finnish and Swedish speakers has decreased from 87.6% and 11.3% in 1990 to 75.9% and 7.5% in 2021 respectively. On a municipal level, the highest shares of foreign speakers are in Vantaa (28.7%), Espoo (25.0%), Helsinki (20.4%) and Kerava (17.3%). The lowest share is in Pukkila (3.7%).
The most spoken foreign languages are Russian language (2.9%), Estonian (1.9%), Arabic (1.5%), Somali language (1.2%) and English language (1.2%). Other languages include Albanian, Mandarin Chinese, Persian language, Kurdish, Vietnamese, Spanish language, Turkish language, Thai language, Tagalog language, German language, Nepali language, Bengali language, French language, Romanian, Urdu, Hindi, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Italian language, Polish language, Tamil language, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Swahili language, Amharic, Serbo-Croatian, Latvian language, Japanese, Dutch language, Sinhala language, Tigrinya, Uzbek language, Greek language, Punjabi language, Pashto language and Telugu language, all with over 1,000 speakers.
Health
In late March 2020, the region of Uusimaa went into lockdown to be 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 the region and focuses primarily on urban planning. Like all regional councils, it is mandated by law.
Media
Newspapers
The largest
subscription newspapers published in the region are Helsingin Sanomat and
Hufvudstadsbladet in
Helsinki,
Aamuposti in Hyvinkää,
Länsi-Uusimaa 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, in the Helsinki metropolitan area the
Finnish language and
Swedish language Yle Vega, and in the eastern part the
Finnish language (discontinued) and
Swedish language Yle Vega.
Elections
The results of the 2023 Finnish parliamentary election in the Uusimaa constituency are:
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National Coalition Party: 26.2%
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Social Democratic Party: 19.2%
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Finns Party: 18.2%
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Swedish People's Party: 8.7%
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Green League: 7.6%
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Centre Party: 4.8%
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Left Alliance: 4.6%
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Movement Now: 3.7%
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Christian Democrats: 3.5%
The results of the 2023 Finnish parliamentary election in the Helsinki constituency are:
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National Coalition Party: 26.5%
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Social Democratic Party: 20.8%
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Green League: 15.3%
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Left Alliance: 11.8%
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Finns Party: 11.3%
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Swedish People's Party: 5.1%
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Movement Now: 2.3%
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Christian Democrats: 1.9%
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Centre Party: 1.6%
See also
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List of European regions by GDP
Notes
Further reading
External links
