The Nordic country of Finland is geographically one of the world's northernmost countries, with a quarter of its territory lying within the Arctic Circle. One of Finland's most popular tourist destinations is its Arctic Lapland province in the far north of the country, a huge area of wilderness, national parks and ski resorts. Finland's capital is the city of Helsinki, located on a peninsula on the Gulf of Finland in south of the country. It has a population of 642,045, which increases to 1,231,595 when Helsinki's urban area is included, making it the world's northernmost metro area. Helsinki is the third-largest city in the Nordic countries (after Stockholm and Oslo) and is known for having a very high standard of living – it regularly features at the top of lists of most liveable cities.
Espoo is the second-largest city and municipality in Finland, with a population of 270,416. It is officially a bilingual city; while the majority of the population (83.6%) speaks Finnish, 8.3% speak Swedish as their native language. Espoo is also home to many major science and technology companies, making it an important economic center of the country. The southern city of Tampere is Finland's third-largest city with 230,537 residents, and is located between two lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi, that have historically been a major power source. Tampere is also regarded as a key major economic and cultural hub for central Finland.
Finland has 0 cities with more than a million people, 6 cities with between 100,000 and 1 million people, and 99 cities with between 10,000 and 100,000 people. The largest city in Finland is Helsinki, with a population of 558,457 people.