Travel to Finland

The Finnish language is totally different from the Scandinavian languages
Although Finland is often lumped in with Scandinavia, the country's language shares nothing in common with its Scandianvian friends. Finnish is part of the Uralic language family, of which Hungarian is the closest relation.

But Oslo is slightly bigger than Helsinki
Norway's capital city is home to approximately 693,000 people, whereas 656,000 people call Helsinki home. Of course, much of this comes down to somewhat arbitrary borders and definitions. When considering the total urban area, Helsinki (1.26 million) outnumbers Oslo (1.02 million).

Finland's population is only slightly bigger than Norway
According to preliminary data from Statistics Finland, the country's population stood at 5,532,333 at the end of August 2020. That compares to 5,374,807 in Norway at the end of July 2020.

Finland is the world's happiest country
The Nordic countries consistently rank at the top of the UN's annual World Happiness Report. But in 2020, Finland leapfrogged the rest to finish top of the pile.

The rankings take into account many factors. Life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, economic strength, generosity, social support from friends, perceived corruption, and views of the survey respondents.

Continuing our tour of Scandinavia and the Nordic region, it’s time to look at Finland. The heavily forested Nordic nation lies to the east of Norway and Sweden, and has a long border with Russia.

I've been to Finland a couple of times. I'm a big fan of the capital city Helsinki but I also enjoyed my time in Tampere, which had a very Trondheim-like vibe. If and when the world of international travel returns to normal, I'm looking forward to exploring Finland much more.