Municipalities of Finland

The municipalities (kunta in Finnish, kommun in Swedish) represent the local level of self government in Finland and also act as the basic regional administrative units of the country. Municipalities control many community services, such as schools and health care, but they do not maintain roads, set laws or keep police forces. Municipalities were originally parishes. The old word for a municipality is pitäjä, "keeper", because when the system was instituted, one municipality kept one minister.

In 2005 there are 444 Municipalities in Finland. Of these 111 are towns, 44 are bilingual and 3 are unilingually Finland-Swedish, plus the 16 municipalities on the unilingually Finland-Swedish Åland province. Until 1977 municipalities were divided into towns (kaupunki/stad), market towns (kauppala/köping) and country municipalities (maalaiskunta/landskommun). The market towns were abolished and renamed to towns. The rest of the municipalities were classed as "other municipalities". From 1995 onwards only "municipality" is recogniced by law and any municipality that wishes so can call itself a town.

Municipalities by Regions

• Municipalities of Central Finland
• Municipalities of Finland Proper
• Municipalities of Kainuu
• Municipalities of Kymenlaakso
• Municipalities of Lapland
• Municipalities of North Karelia
• Municipalities of South Karelia
• Municipalities of Ostrobothnia
• Municipalities of Central Ostrobothnia
• Municipalities of Northern Ostrobothnia
• Municipalities of Southern Ostrobothnia
• Municipalities of Pirkanmaa
• Municipalities of Satakunta
• Municipalities of Northern Savonia
• Municipalities of Southern Savonia
• Municipalities of Tavastia Proper
• Municipalities of Päijänne Tavastia
• Municipalities of Uusimaa
• Municipalities of Eastern Uusimaa
• Municipalities of Åland