Tampere

Tampere (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈtɑmpere]; Swedish: Tammerfors [tamərˈfɔrs] or [tamərˈfɔʂ]) is a city in Pirkanmaa, southern Finland. It is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries.

The city has a population of 223,292 growing to 313,058 people in the urban area, and 364,000 in the metropolitan area (Tampere sub-region) on an area of 4,977 km² as of 2011. Tampere is the second-largest urban area and third most-populous individual municipality in the country, after Helsinki and Espoo municipalities (2014 data). It's also the most populous Finnish city outside the Greater Helsinki area and inner Finland's major urban, economic and cultural hub.

Tampere is located between two lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi. Since the two lakes differ in level by 18 metres (59 ft), the rapids linking them, Tammerkoski, have been an important power source throughout history, most recently for generating electricity. Tampere is dubbed the "Manchester of Finland" for its industrial past as the former center of Finnish industry, and this has given rise to its Finnish nickname "Manse" and terms such as "Manserock".

List of minor planets: 1001–2000

Finland

Finland (ⁱ/ˈfɪnlənd/; Finnish: Suomi [suomi]; Swedish: Finland [ˈfɪnland]), officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, a peninsula with Gulf of Finland to the south and Gulf of Bothnia to the west. It has land borders with Sweden and Norway to the north and Russia to the east. Finland is part of the geographic region of Fennoscandia, which also includes Scandinavia and parts of Russia.

Finland's population is 5.5 million (2014), staying roughly on the same level with only about 9% increase in 24 years since the last economic depression in 1990. The majority live in the southern regions. The single largest group of foreigners living in Finland are Russians and Estonians, 36% of all of the foreigners (2014). In terms of area, it is the eighth largest country in Europe and the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. Finland is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in the capital Helsinki, local governments in 317 municipalities, and an autonomous region, the Åland Islands. Over 1.4 million people live in the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area, which produces a third of the country's GDP. Other large cities include Tampere, Turku, Oulu, Jyväskylä, Lahti, and Kuopio.

Finland (comedy song)

"Finland" is a Monty Python comedy song written and performed by Michael Palin and arranged by John Du Prez with a guitar accompaniment. It features on Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album from 1980, is also included on the CD Monty Python Sings, and was incorporated into the musical Spamalot.

It purports to be a celebration of Finland, a country that is overlooked when travelling abroad as "a poor second to Belgium", despite the fact that it "has it all" with lofty mountains and tall trees and pleasures including: pony trekking, camping or "just watching TV". In reality "mountains so lofty" are not characteristic of Finland as the Scandinavian Mountains only just touch the northwesternmost corner of the country.

Palin gave an impromptu rendition of the song while travelling through Finland for the 1992 travel documentary Pole to Pole.

References

Finland (European Parliament constituency)

In European elections, Finland is a constituency of the European Parliament, currently represented by thirteen MEPs. It covers the member state of Finland.

2014 election

The 2014 European election was the eight election to the European Parliament. Finland's representation remained at 13 MEPs.

2009 election

The 2009 European election was the seventh election to the European Parliament. The number of seats was decreased to thirteen.

MEPs 2009-2014

At the end of the Seventh European Parliament:

2004 election

The 2004 European election was the sixth election to the European Parliament.

Both the Finnish Social Democratic Party and the Finnish Centre Party improved their vote at the expense of the conservative National Coalition Party and the Greens.

1999 election

The 1999 European election was the fifth election to the European Parliament.

1996 election

This was the first European election in Finland.

References

External links