Regions 1.3. - 31.12.2018

The purpose of regional classifications used in statistics is to describe regional variations of various phenomena and regional structure. As most regional classifications, the division of regions is based on the administrative regional division. The Government decided on the division of regions in summer 1992.
Starting from September 1997, the areas of regions and regional councils representing them are uniform. Regional councils attend to the supervision of municipalities’ interests and are in charge of regional development in their operating areas. According to the Government decision in principle (6 February 1997), the regional division of regional councils was adopted as the basis for the regional divisions of regional administration authorities.

Names of regions
By the decision of the Government on 26 February 1998, the names of regions in Finnish and Swedish were confirmed. The decision entered into force on 1 March 1998. Apart from the regional council of Häme, the names of regional councils correspond to the names of regions starting from 1 January 1999.
The recommendation was made in the Ministry of the Interior (December 1998) for the equivalent names of regions in English, German and French. The main principle is to use the national names of regions. However, exceptions are Lapland, Ostrobothnia, Central Finland and Karelia, which already have established equivalents in foreign languages. The Swedish name of a region is used in Nordic languages. If the word region needs to be combined to the name, the structure in Swedish and English is as follows: Etelä-Pohjanmaan maakunta - landskapet Södra Österbotten - (the) region of South Ostrobothnia.

On 1 March 1998, regions received their official names. In this connection, two regions changed their names: The new name of the region of Häme (05) is Kanta-Häme. The new name of Coastal Vasa (15) is Ostrobothnia.

The classification of regions is a classification compiled for national needs.