Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
When Moscow's menace vanished, so did about 20 percent of Finland's
trade. After a few years of adjustment, Finland bounced back quickly, joining
theEuropeanUnionandadoptingtheeurocurrency.ManyFinnsusedtomove
to Sweden (where they are the biggest immigrant group), looking for better
jobs in Stockholm. Some still nurse an inferiority complex, thinking of them-
selves as poor cousins to the Swedes. But now Finland is the most techno-
logically advanced country in Europe. Home to the giant mobile-phone com-
pany Nokia, Finland has more mobile-phone numbers than fixed ones, and
ranks fourth among European nations (15th globally) in the number of Inter-
net users per capita.
We think of Finland as Scandinavian, but it's better to call it “Nordic.”
Technically, the Scandinavian countries are Denmark, Sweden, and Nor-
way—all constitutional monarchies with closely related languages. Add Ice-
land, Finland, and maybe Estonia—former Danish or Swedish colonies that
speak separate languages—and you have the “Nordic countries.” Iceland, Fin-
land, and Estonia are also republics, not monarchies. In 1906, Finnish women
were the first in Europe to vote, and today 40 percent of the Finnish parlia-
ment (as was the country's president from 2000 until 2012).
