Helsinki is the capital of Finland. The city itself has a population of around 600,000 but as populations increase, the areas to the North, east and west of the city are now merging together to form one much larger municipal area combining to form the worlds most northern urban area of over one million people.
One in five Finns live in this area. Helsinki is strategically placed 50 mi north of Tallinn, Estonia, 250 mi east of Stockholm, Sweden, and 190 mi west of Saint Petersburg, Russia. Helsinki has close Historical connections with these three cities. The architecture seems to reflect this with a mix of Scandinavian and Russian influence evident as you explore.
Helsinki has a diverse and cosmopolitan atmosphere and is similar to other European capital cities in that respect. The city is well organized, clean and safe to walk around and explore. In 2009, Helsinki was chosen to be the World Design Capital for 2012
In the Economist Intelligence Unit's August 2012 Livability survey, assessing the best and worst cities to live in, Helsinki was placed 8th best overall.
Helsinki has a humid continental climate due to the influence of the Baltic Sea and Gulf Stream. Temperatures in winter are much higher than the far northern location might suggest, with the average in January and February around −5 °C. Temperatures below −20 °C occur normally a week or two in a year. Because of the latitude, days last less than six hours around the winter solstice but, Helsinki enjoys long days in summer [19 hours around the summer solstice].
The culture here is secular to say the least. Although over 80% of the population would tick their religion as Christian and volunteer to pay a tax directly from their salary to the Lutheran church [which is the national religion and still regarded as essential when applying for jobs etc.] less than 1% go to any form of church and of that number a very tiny percentage again could be described as born again and reformed in their theology. Most aren’t anti God or the church, more disinterested and completely unaffected by conversation to do with religion. Those who are religious often regard this as a private matter and not for open discussion.
