Finland Crossword Puzzle for Kids

Finland (Finnish: Suomi) is a country in Northern Europe and is a member state of the European Union and NATO. Finland is one of the Nordic countries and is also part of Fennoscandia. Finland is located between the 60th and 70th latitudes North. Its neighbours are Sweden to the west, Norway to the north, Russia to the east and Estonia to the south, beyond the sea called Gulf of Finland. Most of the western and southern coast is on the shore of the Baltic Sea.

The capital of Finland is Helsinki; the second largest city is Tampere. The official currency of the country is the euro (EUR); before 2002 it was the markka, the Finnish mark (FIM). The president of Finland is Alexander Stubb. 5.5 million people live in Finland. Finnish and Swedish both are the official languages of Finland; the most spoken languages is Finnish, mother tongue of about 90% of the population. Swedish is spoken by the Swedish speaking minority of Finland, called the Finnish Swedes, who make up 5% of the total population. Finland became independent of Russia on 6 December 1917.

The most important cities and towns in Finland are Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa, Turku, Oulu, Lahti, Kuopio, Jyväskylä and Pori.

Finland is a highly industrialised First World country. The most important Finnish industrial products are paper, and steel products such as machines and electronics. Nokia (the mobile company) is originally a company of Finland, named after a small town called Nokia.

Finland has been top of the list of least corrupt countries on the Corruption Perceptions Index more times than any other country.

People and culture

The people of Finland are called Finns. Most Finns speak Finnish as their mother tongue. About six percent of Finns have the Swedish language as their mother tongue. They live mostly in the western part of Finland and on Åland (Finnish Ahvenanmaa).

Finns also study mandatory English and Swedish in school. Most Finns work either in services (that is: shops, banks, offices or businesses) or in factories. Finns often like saunas and nature. Many Finnish families have summer cottages, small houses where they go to relax on their summer holidays. The most important festivals that Finnish people celebrate are Midsummer and Christmas.

The most popular sports in Finland are ice hockey, skiing, track and field and association football (soccer). Finns have also won events in swimming, motor sports and gymnastics.

There is a group of a few thousand Sámis (also called Lapps) in the most northern part of Finland, called Lapland. Most of the Samis live in Norway and Sweden. Many Sami people farm reindeers. Originally, Samis were hunter-gatherers. In the past the Sami were nomads, but nowadays they live in regular houses.

Minority groups in Finland include Swedish–speakers (5.3 per cent), Russian-speakers (1.4 per cent), Estonians (0.9 per cent), Roma (0.2 per cent), and Sámi (0.1 per cent). There is a also small number of Jews.

Nature and weather

Most of Finland is covered by pine forest. It is estimated that up to one-third of all wood resources of the European Union are in Finland. Wood is the most important natural resource of Finland.

The national animal of Finland is the brown bear. The swan, which was considered holy long ago, is the national bird of Finland. The largest animal is the elk, a type of moose, which is a member of the deer family. Other large animals (in the wild) are wolves.

There are hundreds of rivers and thousands of fresh water lakes. Fishing is a popular sport. It is estimated there are almost 180,000 lakes in Finland.

Many islands in the Baltic Sea belong to Finland. Thousands of islands are part of the Åland archipelago. Tourists from all over the world come to see the fells and the northern lights in Lapland.

The highest mountain of Finland is Halti, which is 1328 meters high. The largest lake is Saimaa, 4,400 square kilometres. The longest river of Finland is Tornionjoki. The largest river (by watershed) is Kemijoki, 552 kilometres long.

History

People first came to Finland 10,000 years ago. That was just after an ice age, after a glacier that covered the ground had receded.

Some think the first people in Finland already spoke a language similar to the Finnish language that is spoken today. It is known that an early form of the Finnish language was spoken in Finland in the Iron Age. (The Iron Age in Finland was 2,500–800 years ago).

The first residents in Finland hunted animals, as "hunter-gatherers". Some people started to farm crops about 5,200 years ago. Farming slowly became more and more popular and became the major way of life until the modern age.

The ancient Finns were pagans. The most important god of the Finnish pantheon was Ukko. He was a god of sky and thunder, much like Odin, another Scandinavian god-king. These powers were common among the pagan god kings in pantheons ranging from the Finnish Ukko, to the Scandinavian/Germanic/Saxon Odin, all the way east to Zeus of the Greeks and Jupiter of the Romans.

Around a thousand years ago, when most of Europe was adopting Christianity, Finland also began following Christianity. During the Reformation of Christianity in the 16th century, most Finns became Protestants. Some pagan practices still remain amongst the now Christian Finns, such as bear worship.

Economy

Finland has a mixed economy. Free market controls most of production and sales of goods, but public sector is involved in services. In 2013, taxes were 44% of gross national product. This is 4th largest in Europe, after Denmark, France and Belgium.

The largest company in 2014 was oil refinery Neste Oil. The second largest was Nokia. Two forest industries Stora Enso and UPM-Kymmene, were numbers three and four. Number five was Kesko which sells everyday goods in K-supermarkets.

Elections

Elections are organized to select 200 members to the Parliament of Finland. Also selected are the president of Finland, members of town and city councils and Finnish members to the European Parliament. The elections are secret and direct. People vote directly for the person they want to be elected. In presidential elections votes are only cast for a person, not for a political party. All the other elections are proportional. The system is a combination of voting for individuals and parties. The right to vote is universal and equal. In general elections everybody has one vote.

Alexander Stubb became the president of Finland in 2024 after winning the presidential election.

Famous Finnish people

The Dudesons, also known as Duudsonit, a four-man stunt group with several TV shows and a movie. Close friends with the Jackass crew

Tuomas Holopainen, founder of the internationally famous band Nightwish

Sami Hyypiä, football coach; 2005 UEFA Champions League winner

Urho Kekkonen, former President of Finland during the cold war

Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, a president and military commander

Text adapted from the Simple English Wikipedia article “Finland” (revision 10758886, 2026-02-21), authors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.