Between 1634 and 2009, Finland was administered as several provinces, or counties (, ). Finland had always been a unitary state: the provincial authorities were part of the central government's executive branch and apart from ÃÂ land, the provinces had little autonomy. There were never any elected provincial parliaments in continental Finland.
The system was initially created by the Instrument of Government of 1634 when Finland was a part of Sweden. When Finland was annexed by the Russian Empire and made into the Grand Duchy of Finland (18091917), the regional administration remained the same. The Vyborg Governorate was initially not part of the Grand Duchy, but in 1812, it was transferred from Russia proper to Finland. The provinces continued also under the independent Finland after 1917.
The makeup of the provinces changed drastically on 1 September 1997, when the number of the provinces was reduced from twelve to six. This effectively made them purely administrative units, as linguistic and cultural boundaries no longer followed the borders of the provinces.
The provinces were eventually abolished at the end of 2009. Consequently, different ministries may subdivide their areal organization differently. Besides the former provinces, the municipalities of Finland form the fundamental subdivisions of the country. In current use are the regions of Finland, a smaller subdivision where some pre-1997 s are split into multiple regions. ÃÂ land retains its special autonomous status and its own regional parliament.
Each province was led by a governor (, ) appointed by the president on the recommendation of the cabinet. The governor was the head of the State Provincial Office (, ), which acted as the joint regional authority for seven ministries in the following domains:
The official administrative subentities under the Provincial Office authorities were the Registry Offices (, ). Formerly there was also a division to state local districts (, ), which were districts for police, prosecution, and bailiff services, but there was reorganization such that 24 police districts were founded. These usually encompass multiple municipalities.
Provinces governed only state offices, such as the police. Most services, such as healthcare and maintenance of local streets, were and remain today the responsibility of municipalities of Finland. Many municipalities are too small for a hospital and some other services, so they cooperate in municipality groups, e.g. health care districts, using borders that vary depending on the type of service. Often Swedish-language municipalities cooperate even if they do not share a border.
In 1634, administratives provinces were formed in Sweden, and therefore in Finland, which was a part of Sweden until 1809. Five of the provinces covered what is now Finland; some of these also covered parts of what are now Russia. The exact division of the country into provinces has fluctuated over time.
The Vyborg Governorate was established in territories ceded by the Swedish Empire in the Great Northern War. By the Treaty of Nystad in 1721, Sweden formally ceded control of the parts of the Viborg and Nyslott County and the Kexholm County located on the Karelian Isthmus to Russia. The governorate was extended in 1743 when Sweden ceded control of the rest of Viborg and Nyslott, now called the KymmenegÃÂ¥rd and Nyslott County, by the Treaty of ÃÂ bo. In the Swedish kingdom the ceded territories was also known as Old Finland (, ), and between 1802 and 1812 it was named the "Finland Governorate".
During the Napoleonic Wars, the Kingdom of Sweden had allied itself with the Russian Empire, United Kingdom and the other parties against Napoleonic France. However, following the treaty of Treaty of Tilsit in 1807, Russia made peace with France. In 1808, and supported by France, Russia successfully challenged the Swedish control over Finland in the Finnish War. In the Treaty of Fredrikshamn on September 17, 1809 Sweden was obliged to cede all its territory in Finland, east of the Torne River, to Russia. The ceded territories became a part of the Russian Empire and was reconstituted into the Grand Duchy of Finland, with the Russian Tsar as Grand Duke.
In 1812 the Vyborg Governorate was transferred from Russia proper to the Grand Duchy. The transfer, announced by Tsar Alexander I just before Christmas, on December 23, 1811 O.S. (January 4, 1812 N.S.), can be seen as a symbolic gesture and an attempt to appease the sentiment of the Finnish population, which had just experienced Russian conquest of their country by force in the Finnish War.
In 1831 the Nyland-Tavastehus Governorate (, , ) was divided into the Nyland Governorate and the Tavastehus Governorate.
Upon the death of Tsar Nicholas I in 1855, the official name of the city of Vasa (Vaasa) was changed to Nikolaistad (, ). However, the name of the Vasa Governorate (, , ) was not changed correspondingly.
When Finland declared itself independent on December 6, 1917, the provinces continued as subdivisions of an independent Republic of Finland.
The provinces were abolished altogether effective 1 January 2010. Since then, the regional administration of the Finnish state has two parallel top-level organs in the hierarchy: the Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment on the one hand, and the Regional State Administrative Agencies on the other.
Six Regional State Administrative Agencies (aluehallintovirasto, regionförvaltningsverk, abbr. avi) – in addition to the State Department of àland – are primarily responsible for law enforcement. Among these, South-Western Finland and Western and Central Finland cover the former province of Western Finland, and the former province of Oulu was revamped as Northern Finland; other old provincial boundaries remain much the same in the new disposition.
In parallel, there are 15 Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (Finnish: elinkeino-, liikenne- ja ympäristökeskus, usually abbreviated ely-keskus), which are responsible for other state administration: employment, road and transport infrastructure, and environmental monitoring. They are each responsible for one or more of regions of Finland, and include offices of the Ministries of Employment and the Economy, Transport and Communications and Environment.
The boundaries of the old provinces partly survive in telephone area codes and electoral districts.