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This article is about the contemporary region of Finland. For other uses, see Uusimaa (disambiguation).

Uusimaa (Finnish: [ˈuːsimɑː]; Swedish: Nyland, Finland Swedish: [ˈnyːlɑnd]) is a region of Finland. It borders the regions of Southwest Finland, Kanta-Häme, Päijät-Häme, and Kymenlaakso. Finland’s capital and largest city, Helsinki, along with its surrounding metropolitan area, is located in the Uusimaa region, which is Finland’s most populous region. Its population is 1,734,000.

History

From the time of the Vikings in the 8th century, an eastern road ran along the Gulf of Finland. The first inhabitants were nomads.[4] The place name of Nuuksio derives from the Sami word njukča which means ‘swan‘.[5] Later Finns proper and Tavastians inhabited the area. Some place names have traces of Tavastian village names, like Konala, which likely derives from the older Tavastian village name Konhola.[6] Estonians inhabited the region to a smaller extent, specifically for seasonal fishing.[7]

Swedish colonisation of coastal Uusimaa started after the second crusade to Finland in the 13th century.[8][9] The colonisation was part of converting pagan areas to Catholicism. Eastern Uusimaa had its first Christian Swedish colonialists earlier than the western part, which got its colonialists in one mass transfer of people to Porvoo in the 14th century. The colonisation was supported by the Swedish kingdom and the immigrants were provided with grain seeds and cattle. They also got a four-year tax exemption from the crown.[7] All the Swedish place names of Uusimaa date back to this period.[10]

The names Uusimaa and Nyland, meaning ‘new land’ in English, derived from the Swedish colonisation era. The Swedish-language name Nyland appears in documents from the 14th century. The Finnish-language name Uusimaa appears for the first time in 1548 as Wsimaa in the first translation of the New Testament to Finnish by Mikael Agricola.[11] Much of Uusimaa is literally new – it has risen off the Baltic Sea due to post-glacial rebound.

The Finnish provinces (lääni, län) were ceded to Russian Empire after the Finnish War in 1809, when they were organized as the Grand Duchy of Finland. Finland became independent in 1917.

The provincial system was restructured in 1997, and from 1997 to 2010 Uusimaa formed a part of the Southern Finland Province. The provincial system was abolished in 2010 in favour of regions (maakunta, landskap). The regions had traditionally existed as cultural units but were made into administrative units in 1994. Initially, Uusimaa was divided into the regions of Uusimaa and Eastern Uusimaa, but in 2011 the two regions were merged into a single region, Uusimaa.[12]

Heraldry

The coat of arms features two silver, wavy fesses on a blue field, with a golden boat with a rudder between them. The boat symbolizes the coastal character of the region, while the silver fesses may represent its rivers.[13]

Uusimaa Province received its coat of arms at the end of the 16th century, and it is attested in 1599. In 1997, when the regional system was formalized, the traditional provincial coat of arms was adopted as the coat of arms of the Uusimaa region.[13]

Municipalities

The region of Uusimaa consists of four sub-regions and 26 municipalities, 13 of which have city status (marked in bold).[14]

Municipalities on the map

Cities and municipalities of Uusimaa.

Sub-regions

Helsinki sub-region

Loviisa sub-region

Raseborg sub-region

Porvoo sub-region

Municipalities listed

Coat of
arms 		Municipality Population Land area
(km2) 		Density
(/km2) 		Finnish
speakers 		Swedish
speakers 		Other
speakers
coat of arms of Askola Askola 4,677 212 22 92 % 4 % 4 %
coat of arms of Espoo Espoo 325,716 312 1,043 68 % 6 % 26 %
coat of arms of Hanko Hanko 7,620 117 65 52 % 41 % 7 %
coat of arms of Helsinki Helsinki 694,392 214 3,238 73 % 5 % 21 %
coat of arms of Hyvinkää Hyvinkää 47,015 323 146 90 % 1 % 9 %
coat of arms of Ingå Ingå 5,391 351 15 44 % 51 % 5 %
coat of arms of Järvenpää Järvenpää 46,944 38 1,251 89 % 1 % 10 %
coat of arms of Karkkila Karkkila 8,274 242 34 91 % 1 % 9 %
coat of arms of Kauniainen Kauniainen 10,318 6 1,752 59 % 30 % 11 %
coat of arms of Kerava Kerava 38,767 31 1,266 81 % 1 % 18 %
coat of arms of Kirkkonummi Kirkkonummi 41,725 367 114 72 % 14 % 13 %
coat of arms of Lapinjärvi Lapinjärvi 2,430 330 7 64 % 29 % 8 %
coat of arms of Lohja Lohja 45,435 940 48 89 % 3 % 7 %
coat of arms Loviisa Loviisa 14,196 820 17 55 % 39 % 6 %
coat of arms of Myrskylä Myrskylä 1,692 200 8 87 % 9 % 4 %
coat of arms of Mäntsälä Mäntsälä 20,861 581 36 93 % 1 % 6 %
coat of arms of Nurmijärvi Nurmijärvi 45,333 362 125 90 % 1 % 8 %
coat of arms of Pornainen Pornainen 4,919 147 34 94 % 2 % 4 %
coat of arms of Porvoo Porvoo 51,863 655 79 63 % 27 % 10 %
coat of arms of Pukkila Pukkila 1,720 145 12 95 % 1 % 5 %
coat of arms of Raseborg Raseborg 26,856 1,149 23 30 % 63 % 6 %
coat of arms of Sipoo Sipoo 23,006 340 68 65 % 27 % 8 %
coat of arms of Siuntio Siuntio 6,192 241 26 65 % 26 % 9 %
coat of arms of Tuusula Tuusula 42,479 220 193 90 % 1 % 9 %
coat of arms of Vantaa Vantaa 252,956 238 1,061 68 % 2 % 30 %
coat of arms of Vihti Vihti 28,852 522 55 91 % 2 % 8 %
Total 1,799,629 9,103 198 70 % 7 % 20 %

Places of interest

A historical old town of Porvoo

Uusimaa, the region surrounding Finland’s capital Helsinki, offers many sights and attractions, from historical landmarks to natural wonders.[4]

Economy

The gross domestic product (GDP) of the region was €91.2 billion in 2018, accounting for 38.9% of Finnish economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was €43,500 or 144% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 120% of the EU average.[15] The employment rate is 76% as of 2022, second highest in Finland. There were 836,000 workplaces in Uusimaa in 2021, over 35% of the workplaces in Finland. The most common sectors were health and social services, wholesale and retail trade as well as professional, scientific and technical activities.[16]

Demographics

Population

Population size 1990–2025[17]
Year Population
1990
1,232,236
1995
1,310,680
2000
1,394,199
2005
1,452,083
2010
1,532,309
2015
1,620,261
2020
1,702,678
2025
1,799,629

Languages

Languages in Uusimaa as of 2024[18]
Languages percent
Finnish
 
 73.7%
Swedish
 
 7.2%
Russian
 
 2.9%
Estonian
 
 1.9%
Arabic
 
 1.5%
Somali
 
 1.2%
English
 
 1.2%
Other
 
 10.4%

Uusimaa is a bilingual region, with municipalities both bilingual in Finnish and Swedish, and monolingual in Finnish. Uusimaa’s coastal areas tend to be Swedish-speaking. The traditional regional dialects of Swedish (nyländska) are mostly spoken in Eastern Uusimaa, while in the rest of the Uusimaa Swedish dialect has become more standardised.[citation needed]

The Finnish-speaking population started to grow when the capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland was moved from Turku to Helsinki by the Emperor of Russia Alexander I in 1812, and the region attracted settlers from other parts of Finland. Helsinki slang first evolved in the late 19th century. 7.6% of the population of the region speaks the Swedish language natively.

Due to immigration, many foreign languages[note 1] are spoken in Uusimaa. 19% speak a foreign language as their mother tongue, the highest proportion in Finland and 58% of all foreign-language speakers in Finland. The figure was 1.1% in 1990, 3.9% in 2000, 8.0% in 2010 and 14.7% in 2020. Meanwhile, the proportion of Finnish and Swedish speakers has decreased from 87.6% and 11.3% in 1990 to 75.9% and 7.5% in 2021 respectively. On a municipal level, the highest shares of foreign speakers are in Vantaa (28.7%), Espoo (25.0%), Helsinki (20.4%) and Kerava (17.3%). The lowest share is in Pukkila (3.7%).

The most spoken foreign languages are Russian (2.9%), Estonian (1.9%), Arabic (1.5%), Somali (1.2%) and English (1.2%). Other languages include Albanian, Chinese, Persian, Kurdish, Vietnamese, Spanish, Turkish, Thai, Tagalog, German, Nepali, Bengali, French, Romanian, Urdu, Hindi, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Italian, Polish, Tamil, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Swahili, Amharic, Serbo-Croatian, Latvian, Japanese, Dutch, Sinhalese, Tigrinya, Uzbek, Greek, Punjabi, Pashto and Telugu, all with over 1,000 speakers.[19]

Health

Map of the Uusimaa welfare region

In late March 2020, the region of Uusimaa went into lockdown to be isolated from the rest of Finland due to the global COVID-19 pandemic (2020/21).[20]

Regional council

The regional council is the main governing body for the region and focuses primarily on urban planning. Like all regional councils, it is mandated by law.[citation needed]

Media

Hufvudstadsbladet‘s building, Mannerheimintie, Helsinki

Newspapers

See also: List of newspapers in Finland

The largest subscription newspapers published in the region are Helsingin Sanomat and Hufvudstadsbladet in Helsinki, Aamuposti in Hyvinkää, Länsi-Uusimaa in Lohja, Loviisan Sanomat [fi] and Östra Nyland in Loviisa, Uusimaa and Borgåbladet in Porvoo, Västra Nyland in Raseborg, and Keski-Uusimaa [fi] in Tuusula. Also two popular tabloid newspapers, Iltalehti and Ilta-Sanomat, are published there.

Radio stations

Yle‘s local radio stations in the western part of the region are the Finnish-language Ylen läntinen [fi] and Swedish-language Yle Vega Västnyland, in the Helsinki metropolitan area the Finnish-language Yle Radio Suomi Helsinki [fi] and Swedish-language Yle Vega Huvudstadsregionen, and in the eastern part the Finnish-language Yle Radio Itä-Uusimaa [fi] (discontinued) and Swedish-language Yle Vega Östnyland.

Politics

For parliamentary elections, the Uusimaa region is divided into two electoral districts: The Helsinki constituency, which includes the city of Helsinki; and the Uusimaa constituency, which includes the region’s other municipalities. These constituencies elect 23 and 37 members of the Parliament of Finland, respectively. The total number of MPs is 200.[21]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ A language other than Finnish, Swedish or one of the Sami languages.

References

  1. ^ “Preliminary population structure by Month, Area, Sex, Age and Information”. StatFin. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
  2. ^ “EU regions by GDP, Eurostat”. www.ec.europa.eu. Retrieved September 18, 2023.
  3. ^ “Sub-national HDI – Area Database – Global Data Lab”. hdi.globaldatalab.org. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
  4. ^ a b Paavola, Arja-Leena; Selén, Otto; Pekkanen, Risto (2009). Matkalla maakunnissa – tietoa maakunnista ja nähtävyyksistä [Traveling in the regions – information about the regions and attractions] (in Finnish). Saarijärvi: AtlasArt. ISBN 978-952-5671-19-3., pp. 5-7
  5. ^ Tarkiainen, Kari (2010). Ruotsin itämaa (in Finnish). Helsinki: Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland. p. 120.
  6. ^ Ainiala, Terhi; Saarelma, Minna; Sjöblom, Paula (2008). Nimistötutkimuksen perusteet (in Finnish). Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. p. 66.
  7. ^ a b Tarkiainen, Kari (2010). Ruotsin itämaa (in Finnish). Helsinki: Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland. pp. 119–136.
  8. ^ Suhonen, V.-P.; Janne Heinonen (2011). “Helsingin keskiaikaiset ja uuden ajan alun kylänpaikat 2011, Inventointiraportti 2011. Museovirasto” (PDF).
  9. ^ Tarkiainen, Kari (2010). Ruotsin itämaa. Porvoo: Svenska litteratussällskapet i Finland. pp. 122–125. ISBN 9789515832122.
  10. ^ Ainiala, Terhi; Saarelma, Minna; Sjöblom, Paula (2008). Nimistötutkimuksen perusteet (in Finnish). Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. p. 68.
  11. ^ “Nytt Land, Nylands historia” (in Swedish). Uusimaa Regional Council. May 12, 2010. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved May 17, 2010.
  12. ^ “Valtioneuvosto päätti Uudenmaan ja Itä-Uudenmaan maakuntien yhdistämisestä” (in Finnish). Finnish Ministry of Finance. October 22, 2009. Archived from the original on August 7, 2011.
  13. ^ a b “Maakuntatunnukset”. Uudenmaan liitto (in Finnish). Retrieved January 27, 2026.
  14. ^ “Regional Council – Uudenmaan liitto”. www.uudenmaanliitto.fi. March 5, 2013. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  15. ^ “Regional GDP per capita ranged from 30% to 263% of the EU average in 2018”. Eurostat.
  16. ^ “Työllisyystilastot”. Uudenmaan liitto (in Finnish). Retrieved December 5, 2023.
  17. ^ “Population growth slowed down in 2025”. Population structure. Statistics Finland. April 1, 2026. ISSN 1797-5395. Retrieved April 6, 2026.
  18. ^ “Language according to age and sex by region, 1990-2024”. Statistics Finland. Retrieved December 13, 2025.
  19. ^ “Language according to age and sex by region, 1990-2021”. Statistics Finland. Archived from the original on May 17, 2022. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  20. ^ “Checkpoints ready: Parliament approves government plans to isolate Uusimaa”. News Now Finland. Archived from the original on April 9, 2020.
  21. ^ “Vaalipiirit eduskuntavaaleissa”. Vaalit (in Finnish). Retrieved April 30, 2026.

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons logo Media related to Uusimaa at Wikimedia Commons Wikivoyage logo Uusimaa travel guide from Wikivoyage