Åland

Åland (/ˈɔːlənd/^[10] AW-lənd, Swedish: [ˈǒːland] ^ⓘ; Finnish: Ahvenanmaa) is an autonomous and demilitarised region of Finland. Receiving its autonomy by a 1920 decision of the League of Nations,^[1] it is the smallest region of Finland by both area (1,580 km² or 610 sq mi) and population (30,654),^[11] constituting 0.51% of Finland's land area and 0.54% of its population. Its official language is Swedish and the capital city is Mariehamn.

Åland is situated in an archipelago, called the Åland Islands, at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia in the Baltic Sea. It comprises Fasta Åland, on which 90% of the population resides,^[12] and about 6,500 skerries and islands to its east,^[13] of which about 60–80 are inhabited. Fasta Åland is separated from the coast of Roslagen in Sweden by 38 km (20+1⁄2 nautical miles) of open water to the west. In the east, the Åland archipelago is contiguous with the Finnish archipelago. Åland's only land border is located on the uninhabited skerry of Märket, which it shares with Sweden.^[14] From Mariehamn, there is a ferry distance of about 160 km (86 nautical miles) to Turku, a coastal city of mainland Finland, and also to Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.

Åland's autonomous status means that those provincial powers normally exercised by representatives of the central Finnish Government are largely exercised by its own government. The current demilitarised, neutral position of Åland dates back to the Paris Peace Treaty after the Åland War in the 1850s.^[15]