27 - Languages
FINLAND TODAY The first thing that shocked me in Finland was the road signs, I couldn't understand them. To indicate a place there were always two names on them. Then I learned that there was a Finnish and a Swedish version. Finland has 5.4 million inhabitants with a population density of 16 inhabitants per square kilometre. While 85% of the population lives in urban areas, 15% of Finns live in rural areas. In the vast areas of Lapland, the density does not exceed 2.2 inhabitants per km2. In addition to the Finns, who make up the majority of the population (93%), there are also three minorities in Finland. The largest is the 300 000 Finlandsvensker or Swedish-speaking Finns. The country is indeed bilingual with two official languages, and this minority group includes the few that coexist: Finnish and Swedish. The second settled north of the Arctic Circle. Unlike 7,000 Saami (formerly called Lapps) to the Inuit, they came into contact with the more southern peoples at a very