Åland Islands

autonomous region of Finland

The Åland Islands (Swedish: Åland (pronounced IPA: ['oːland]), Finnish: Ahvenanmaa) form an archipelago in the Baltic Sea. It is at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia and forms an autonomous, demilitarized, monolingually Swedish-speaking administrative province, region and historical province of Finland. It is the smallest province of Finland, with 0.5% of Finland's population and 0.49% of the land area.

Åland Islands
Coat of arms of Åland
Coat of arms
Motto: "Islands of Peace"[1]
Anthem: Ålänningens sång
Location of Åland
Capital
and largest city
Mariehamn
60°15′N 20°00′E / 60.25°N 20°E / 60.25; 20
Official languagesSwedish
Demonym(s)Ålandic - Ålandish
Ålänning - Åländare
Ahvenanmaalainen
GovernmentAutonomous region of Finland
• Governora
Peter Lindbäck
• Premier
Katrin Sjögren
Autonomy
• Declared
1920
• Recognized
1921b
Area
• Total
1,580[2] km2 (610 sq mi) (unranked)
Population
• 2011 estimate
28,355
• Density
18.14/km2 (47.0/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)2007 estimate
• Total
$1.563 billion[3]
• Per capita
$55,829
HDI (2007)0.967[4]
very high
CurrencyEuro (€)c (EUR)
Time zoneUTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)
UTC+3 (EEST)
Calling code+358d
ISO 3166 codeAX
Internet TLD.axe
  1. The governorship is an administrative post appointed by the Government of Finland and does not have any authority over the autonomous Government of Åland.
  2. Settled by the League of Nations following the Åland crisis.
  3. Until 1999, the Finnish markka. The Swedish krona (SEK) is also widely used.
  4. Area code 18.
  5. Replacing .aland.fi from August 2006. The .eu domain is also used, as it is shared with Finland and the rest of European Union member states.

References

Other websites

Media related to Åland at Wikimedia Commons