1. Nokia the worlds leading manufacturer in mobile phones are based in Espoo and generate an annual revenue of 50.7 billion Euro's

2. Despite the country having a population of just over 5 million, there are two million guns in Finland

3. Tampere is twinned with Kiev in the Ukraine and Syracuse in the U.S, amongst others

4. Finland was regarded as the second most stable country in the world

5. Tap water in Helsinki is of such high quality it is sold to countries such as Saudi Arabia

6. There are 248 bird species in Finland

7. Helsinki used to be part of Sweden

8. From north to south Finland is roughly 900 miles in length

9. It's a myth that Finland banned Donald Duck because he doesn't wear pants

10. Turku comes from the word 'Turgu' meaning market place and was the first capital of Finland

11. 25% of the country lies in the Arctic Circle

12. The Saimaa ringed seal is one of only three lake seal species in the world

13. Helsinki has 121 rainy days per year

14. 15% of the population died in the Finnish famine between 1866-68

15. Tampere has the highest population of any inland city in Scandinavia

16. There are 187,888 lakes in Finland

17. In 1996 Turku was named as the official Christmas city of Finland

18. The Molotov Cocktail, a glass bottle containing petrol was named by the Finns after former Soviet Union foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov

19. There are 1.8 million sauna's in Finland

20. The asteroid 1497 Tampere was named after the city by astronomer Yrjo Vaisala in 1938

21. Lake Saimaa which has an area of 4400 sq km is Europe's fifth largest lake

22. Santa Claus comes from Finland

23. Finland hosts World Championship events such as mosquito swatting, wife carrying, mobile phone throwing, boot throwing and swamp soccer

24. 3 million passengers travel through the port of Turku annually

25. Helsinki is the only city in Finland to have trams and subway trains