SECTION 2: Regional Policy Roadmaps: Finland/Lapland, University of Lapland

Lapland is Finland’s northernmost region, a
sparsely populated area bordering Sweden,
Norway, Russia, and the Baltic Sea. Lapland
covers 30% of the Finnish land mass but has
only about 3% (about 180,000 people) of the
total population of about 5.4 million people.
Distances are long; for example, from Simo,
the southernmost municipality of Lapland on
the shore of the Bay of Bothnia, to Nuorgam
in Utsjoki, at the top of Finland, is more
than 500 kilometres. The area of Lapland,
100,366 square kilometres, is almost onethird
of Finland’s total area. About 175,000
people live in Lapland. The region hosts
Finnish people, Indigenous Sámi people and
other cultural minorities. The history of the
region is shadowed by colonialism. Many
so-called ‘megatrends’ (Nordic Council of
Ministers, 2011, 2018) take place in Lapland
as well as elsewhere in the Arctic region.
Climate change, globalisation, urbanisation,
unemployment, and shifting demographics
influence people’s lives and cause challenges
in the social, cultural, and economic settings
and post-colonial situation of the area.