Region

The country is divided into regions for the development of areas and for the planning of their use. A region is an area in which the municipalities form an operationally and economically functional whole for the development of the area. The Government determines the number, areas and names of regions after hearing the regional councils and municipalities concerned.

The division into regions is recommended for use in statistics in place of provinces or alongside them. From September 1997 the areas of regions and the regional councils representing them are exactly the same.

Regional councils are responsible for supervising the interests of the municipalities in their area. Nowadays they are also in charge of regional development of their territory. According to the Government resolution (6 February 1997), the regional division of regional councils is taken as the basis for the regional divisions of State regional administrative authorities.

The official NUTS regional classification is recommended to be used as the primary regional division in statistics. In the Finnish NUTS regions formed the NUTS 3 level until 11 July 2003. The NUTS Regulation passed then requires that the NUTS 3 division will be in force for at least three years from the approval of the regulation despite national changes to the division into regions. At the moment the national division deviates from the EU's NUTS 3 division in the case of the municipality of Punkalaidun. The NUTS 3 division is to be revised by the EU in 2006, when the accepted possible changes will take effect in 2008.

By virtue of the Government decision of 26 February 1998 regions were given their official names. The decision took effect on 1 March 1998.