thisisFINLAND

Kids ask the Finnish government questions in corona info session

For the first time ever, a Finnish prime minister held a press conference in which the journalists asking the questions were schoolchildren. Sanna Marin and her colleagues addressed the nation’s kids directly.

Arts & culture Art

Finnish museums step up their online game to meet demand

Unable to invite visitors onto their premises, Finnish museums are taking to their websites and social media to meet the demand for beauty, inspiration and ideas, bringing audiences everything from video art to VR guided tours. Here are some of our favourites.

Arts & culture Music

Bridging the social distance, Finnish musicians realign online

As tons of gigs get cancelled or postponed, relegated to an indefinite future because of Covid-19, many musicians and other performing artists in Finland are reaching their fans online, either on designated concert sites or by posting video material.

Helsinki is the city with the best work life balance

Source: Work–Life Balance Index, 2021

Life & society Education

As Finnish teachers move classes online, family routines change

Families in Finland and all over the world are facing new challenges. Many parents now have more experience of working from home, and many children and educators are now well acquainted with distance learning. They are wondering if they will need to use those new routines in the future.

Life & society Equality

Happiness report elevates Finland and other Nordics, shows that people should look after each other

The annual World Happiness Report seeks to measure how happy people are in more than 150 different countries. The Nordic countries have repeatedly done well in this listing, and in the 2020 edition of the report, Finland is at the top for the third year in a row.

Life & society Society

Facts and feelings: Do taxes make Finnish people happy?

What comes to mind when you consider Finland and taxes? What do Finnish people think about taxes? What are the facts? And what do the Finns get in exchange for their tax payments?

Arts & culture Webpick

7 movies to see at Helsinki’s DocPoint Festival

Female directors march to the fore at the documentary film fest DocPoint in 2020.

Life & society Nature

Warm winter makes rescuing Finland’s Saimaa seal many degrees more difficult

Climate change presents fresh challenges for Finland’s already endangered Saimaa ringed seal population and those trying to save it. We visit them on the lakeshore.

-51.5 °C (-60.7 °F)

Record low temperature, measured in Kittilä, January 1999

Source: Finnish Meteorological Institute

things you should and shouldn’t know