Aland Islands

Where is Aland Islands?

Aland Islands is an island nation.

Mariehamn is the capital city of the Åland Islands. Although called a city, Mariehamn is a town. It is located at 60°7'N, 19°53'E. The town has a population of approximately 11,500 people representing 40% of the Islands population. The city was established in 1861 by Emperor Alexander II who named it after his wife, Empress Maria Alexandrovna. The city's population is growing slower than other European cities, but the number of tourists is rapidly increasing. It experiences one of the warmest summers in northern Europe and therefore attracts about a million visitors annually. A majority of those residing in the city communicate in Swedish but due to the high number of tourist one may come across several other languages. Mariehamn is a small town which means that one can walk from one end to the other. There are few cars and therefore minimal rate of pollution which has also boosted the city's tourism.

Aland Islands is a European country covering 1,850.00 km².. Mariehamn is the capital city.

Its ISO code is AX.

Aland Islands has a mean elevation of 0 m above sea level.

Although Åland is a Finnish territory, a majority of its citizens use Swedish as their first language. Swedish is considered a North Germanic language with at least 10 million users in Sweden and part of Finland including the Åland Islands. The islanders communicate in a variant of the Swedish language referred to as Åland Swedish. Although the numbers of the Swedish speaking majority has increased in the past 15 years, their percentage has dropped while the representation of other languages has risen to about 7%.

The dialing code for the country is 340.

The currency of Aland Islands is the Euro (EUR).

The government of the Åland Islands is headed by a premier who is nominated by the unilateral parliament. The premier is eligible for two terms of four years each. The government is located in the state’s capital city of Mariehamn. There are six ministries in the government while the parliament has 30 members, a speaker, and two deputies. Despite having its own parliament, the island is subjected to the Constitution of Finland which assumes administrative roles including maintaining law and order within the island. The relationship between the federal government of Finland and the island is governed by the Autonomy Act and the International Treaties Act. An amendment of any laws is by consensus between the parliament of Finland and the parliament of Åland.

Flag

The Åland Islands, popularly referred to as Åland, is a Finnish autonomous region in the Baltic Sea. Sweden, Russia, and Finland once contested Åland, and Finland before the League of Nations declared it a Finnish territory that would enjoy autonomy. Its flag resembles the flag of Sweden but with a red cross within the yellow cross. The Swedish flag was adopted because of the island's association with Sweden while the red color was borrowed from the Finnish coat of arms. Between 1922 and 1954 several flags were used unofficially but the current official flag was first hoisted on April 3, 1954 in the capital city Mariehamn.