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Republic of Finland
This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Finland
State Government
Constitution Declaration of Independence
Executive
President (list) Tarja Halonen
Prime Minister (list) Matti Vanhanen
Executive Departments Council of State (Cabinet)
Legislative
35th Parliament Speaker Sauli Niinistö
Elections in Finland
Parliamentary 1991 | 1995 | 1999 | 2003 | 2007 Presidential 1994 | 2000 | 2006 European Parliament 1996 | 1999 | 2004 Referendum EU Membership Referendum
Judicial system
General Courts Supreme Court Courts of Appeal District Courts
Administrative Courts Supreme Administrative Court Regional Administrative Courts
Prosecutor General Matti Kuusimäki
Administrative divisions
Provinces (Läänit) Regions (Maakunnat) Sub-regions (Seutukunnat) Municipalities (Kunta)
Political parties
KESK (Centre Party) KOK (National Coalition Party) SDP (Social Democratic Party) VIHR (Green League) VAS (Left Alliance) KD (Christian Democrats) PS (True Finns) RKP (Swedish People Party)
Politicians Chancellor of Justice Foreign relations Ambassadors Human rights Politics of the European Union
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The state of Finland consists of 6 provinces (Finnish: läänit, Swedish: län). The provincial authority is part of the central government's executive branch, not directly elected. The system was created in 1634, and its makeup was changed drastically in 1997, when the number of the provinces was reduced from 12 to 6. This effectively made them purely administrative units, as linguistic and cultural boundaries do not follow the borders of the provinces.

Since the late 19th century the state of Finland has been bilingual. Its governmental offices and agencies use both domestic languages in contacts with the public. Each province is led by a governor (maaherra, landshövding) who is appointed by the president on the recommendation of the cabinet. The governor is the head of the State Provincial Office (lääninhallitus, länsstyrelse), which acts as the joint regional authority for seven ministries in the following domains:

• social services and health care
• education and culture
• police administration
• rescue services
• traffic administration
• competition and consumer affairs
• judicial administration

The official administrative subentities under the Provincial Office authorities are the Registry Offices (Finnish maistraatti, Swedish magistrat), and State Local Districts (Finnish kihlakunta, Swedish härad), which are districts for police, prosecution, and bailiff services. These do not necessarily correspond to municipal level (municipality, sub-region, region) divisions of the country.

The Governor's post is widely seen as a post for "disposal" of retiring politicians.^{[citation needed]}

1/ Some duties, which in Mainland Finland are handled by the provinces, are on the Åland Islands transferred to the autonomous Government of Åland.
2/ The Åland Islands are unilingually Swedish.

• Regions of Finland
• Historical provinces of Finland
• Subdivisions of the Nordic countries

• State Provincial Offices - Official site