The state of Finland consists of 6 provinces (Finnish: läänit, Swedish: län). The provincial authority is part of the central government's executive branch, not directly elected. The system was created in 1634, and its makeup was changed drastically in 1997, when the number of the provinces was reduced from 12 to 6. This effectively made them purely administrative units, as linguistic and cultural boundaries do not follow the borders of the provinces. The provinces will be abolished altogether in 2010.^[1]

Since the late 19th century the state of Finland has been bilingual. Its governmental offices and agencies use both domestic languages in contacts with the public. Each province is led by a governor (maaherra, landshövding) who is appointed by the president on the recommendation of the cabinet. The governor is the head of the State Provincial Office (lääninhallitus, länsstyrelse), which acts as the joint regional authority for seven ministries in the following domains:

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

The official administrative subentities under the Provincial Office authorities are the Registry Offices (Finnish maistraatti, Swedish magistrat), and State Local Districts (Finnish kihlakunta, Swedish härad), which are districts for police, prosecution, and bailiff services. These do not necessarily correspond to municipal level (municipality, sub-region, region) divisions of the country.

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.

Former provinces

Former provinces of the Republic of Finland that existed between 1917 and 1997, unless stated otherwise.

• Province of Central Finland (, ), 1960-1997
• Province of Häme (, )
• Province of Kuopio (, )
• Province of Kymi (, ), 1947-1997
• Province of Mikkeli (, )
• Province of Northern Karelia (, ), 1960-1997
• Province of Turku and Pori (, )
• Province of Uusimaa (, )
• Province of Vaasa (, )
• Province of Viipuri (, ), 1917-1947

See also

• Regions of Finland
• Historical provinces of Finland
• Subdivisions of the Nordic countries

Notes

External links

• State Provincial Offices Official site

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