Lapland (Finnish: Lappi; Northern Sami: Lappi; Swedish: Lappland) is the largest and northernmost of the regions of Finland. The municipalities in the province cooperate in a Regional Council. It borders the Region of North Ostrobothnia in the south. It also borders the Gulf of Bothnia, Norrbotten County in Sweden, Finnmark County and Troms County in Norway as well as Murmansk Oblast in Russia.

Lapland was separated from Oulu Province in 1936. After the Second World War, the Petsamo and Salla areas were ceded to the Soviet Union. Under the royalist constitution of Finland during the first half of 1918, Lapland was to become a Grand Principality and part of the inheritance of the proposed king of Finland.

Lapland was one of the provinces of Finland, until the provinces were abolished on January 1, 2010.

Lapland is the home of about 3.6% of Finland's population, and is by far the least densely populated area in the country. The biggest towns in Lapland are Rovaniemi (the regional capital), Kemi, and Tornio. In 2009, Lapland had a population of 183,748 of whom 179,070 spoke Finnish, 1,473 spoke Sami, 338 spoke Swedish and 2,867 spoke some other languages as their mother language. Of the Sami languages, Northern Sami, Inari Sami and Skolt Sami are spoken in the region.

Coordinates: 65°N 27°E / 65°N 027°E / 65; 027

Finland ⁱ/ˈfɪnlənd/ ( Finnish: Suomi; Swedish: Finland (help·info)), officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.

Around 5.4 million people reside in Finland, with the majority concentrated in the southern region. It is the eighth largest country in Europe in terms of area and the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. Finland is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in Helsinki and local governments in 336 municipalities, and an autonomous region of the Åland Islands. About one million residents live in the Greater Helsinki area, which consists of Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen and Vantaa, and a third of the country's GDP is produced there. Other larger cities include Tampere, Turku, Oulu, Jyväskylä, Lahti and Kuopio.