THIS BLOG’S THEME: NORDIC CAPITAL REGIONS
The Pathfinder blog series compares Nordic capital regions from a labour market perspective. But this is not always easy. For example, how do you compare units for which no statistical data is available? And does it make sense to compare the Nordic countries, or, more widely, The Nordics (Pohjola in Finnish), comprising the Nordic Countries and Estonia (Tallinn)?
There is no official definition of a capital region in Finland, and that’s why, especially in everyday speech, the area is referred to in different ways. Depending on the speaker, it may refer to all 14 municipalities in the Helsinki Region, or even the whole of the province Uusimaa Region.
The prevailing view is that the Finnish capital region is made up of the cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen, making up the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. These cities are also the founding municipalities of the Ami Foundation.
In this blog series, we discuss labour markets and related phenomena in the four municipalities of the Finnish capital region, and compare the situation with other Nordic capital regions.
At The Ami Foundation, we have chosen the Nordic capital region s as our benchmarks because the Foundation’s long-term vision is for the Finnish capital region to have the best labour market, and the most skilled individuals and companies in the Nordic countries, in the future.
To achieve this vision, we believe it is important to increase our understanding of the labour markets and skills in other Nordic countries.
What’s the definition of a capital region in Finland?
In order to make statistical comparisons between the Nordic countries, we need to select and define the units for which statistical data are comprehensively available.
The data we use for the Finnish capital region, Helsinki Metropolitan Area, are based on statistics for the Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen municipalities. However, not all data are available for each municipality, nor is a comparison between municipalities always relevant for all topics, which means that we can think of our capital region on a larger geographical scale as the Helsinki Region, and rely on the statistical data available for it.
One possibility would thus be to take the Helsinki Region as the reference unit for Finland, so that important surrounding municipalities such as Kirkkonummi, Kerava and Järvenpää would also be included in the comparison. This region is also often used in statistical comparisons in Finland, for example, in the open statistical database Nordstat.
Alternatively, depending on the availability of statistical data, it would be possible to use data for the Uusimaa Region for comparison, as is done in many international studies. The province of Uusimaa is one of the five NUTS 2 regions in Finland. NUTS is the European Union’s regional classification system, according to which all the Union’s common regional statistics are compiled.
The data for Uusimaa can be used at least when data for the Helsinki Region or the Helsinki Metropolitan Area are not available, or are outdated.
Choosing areas to compare against is always a compromise at some level.
What’s the definition of a capital region in other Nordic countries?
If defining a region is challenging already within Finland, the fact that statistics authorities in each country use different definitions does not make comparison any easier. In different countries, for example, geography and public transport links have shaped capital regions in different ways.
The structure and number of municipalities also varies from country to country, depending on the extent to which urban settlement and the capital city’s urban area have expanded beyond the administrative boundaries of the capital city itself.
This has been the case in Finland, where urban settlement and the Helsinki urban area have long since expanded beyond the geographical boundaries of the cities of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa, due to the strong growth in the region.
The urban areas of influence and employment do not, of course, follow administrative boundaries, and people can travel up to hundreds of kilometres to work in the capital region.
It will be particularly interesting to stimulate discussion on the comparative units, and to hear the views of experts from different fields.
In line with our vision, we are making comparisons with other Nordic countries, but should we be talking about The Nordics more broadly?
Helsinki Metropolitan Area and its surrounding municipalities
- Helsinki Metropolitan Area = Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen.
- Helsinki Region = Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen, Kirkkonummi, Vihti, Nurmijärvi, Hyvinkää, Tuusula, Kerava, Järvenpää, Sipoo, Pornainen, Mäntsälä.
- Helsinki Sub-region = Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen, Kirkkonummi, Vihti, Nurmijärvi, Hyvinkää, Tuusula, Kerava, Järvenpää, Sipoo, Pornainen, Mäntsälä, Siuntio, Lohja, Karkkila.
- Uusimaa Region = Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen, Kirkkonummi, Vihti, Nurmijärvi, Hyvinkää, Tuusula, Kerava, Järvenpää, Sipoo, Pornainen, Mäntsälä, Raasepori, Hanko, Inkoo, Askola, Myrskylä, Porvoo, Pukkila, Lapinjärvi, Loviisa, Siuntio, Lohja, Karkkila.
Capital regions and surrounding municipalities in The Nordics
Sweden
- Comparison area: Stockholm County with 26 municipalities.
- The Swedish capital region is not as clearly defined as the Finnish capital region. Stockholm’s urban area extends from the City of Stockholm city in many directions.
- A comparison with the City of Stockholm alone would exclude large areas of the Stockholm agglomeration, such as the populous municipalities of Nacka, Järfalla and Solna. Therefore, our reference area is Stockholm County.
- Swedish statistics authorities use counties as units in most statistics.
- Stockholm County is not fully comparable with Finland’s capital region, because the geographical area is wider in Sweden.
- The county has a population of 2.45 million, of which 990,000 live in Stockholm.
Denmark
- Comparison area: Region Hovedstaden with 29 municipalities.
- The Copenhagen Region is larger than the Region Hovedstaden capital region, and it includes municipalities on the Sjælland side of the region.
- A comparison with Copenhagen alone would exclude, for example, the municipality of Frederiksberg, which has a large population. Therefore, our comparison area is wider.
- The Danish statistical authorities use Region Hovedstaden in their statistics.
- Copenhagen forms a major capital region with Malmö in Sweden, with cross-border employment and economic cooperation.
Norway
- • Comparison area: Oslo and Akershus Counties with 22 municipalities
- The Norwegian capital region is divided into two counties. The City of Oslo forms its own county, and the surrounding municipalities are part of Akershus County.
- County-specific data from Statistics Norway is the most useful for our purposes. The authorities use the term Oslo-Akershus (formerly Oslo-Viken), which covers the Norwegian capital region.
- However, statistics from the Oslo-Akershus area are not yet available, as the counties were reorganised on 1 January 2024.
- In Norway, there have been county reforms in 2020 and 2024, which will affect the comparison of statistical data.
- Viken County, which operated from 2000 to 2023, was abolished on 1 January 2024.
- At the moment, we are comparing the Finnish capital region with the counties of Oslo and Akershus.
- As with Stockholm, we cannot compare against the City of Oslo alone, as important surrounding areas (e.g., Bærum) would be excluded from the comparison.
Estonia
- Comparison area: City of Tallinn
- The Estonian capital region can be considered to consist of the municipalities of Tallinn, Maardu and Viimsi.
- In practice, the City of Tallinn covers the capital region, while Maardu and Viimsi are smaller satellite towns.
- For statistical comparisons, we can compare against the City of Tallinn alone. This is in contrast to Norway, Sweden and Denmark, where a significant part of the population of the capital region lives outside the boundaries of the capital itself.
| Region | Population |
| Helsinki | 673,000 |
| Finland’s capital region | 1,240,000 |
| Helsinki Region | 1,570,000 |
| Helsinki-Uusimaa Region | 1,753,000 |
| Stockholms län | 2,450,000 |
| Stockholm | 990,000 |
| Region Hovedstaden | 1,900,000 |
| Copenhagen | 660,000 |
| Tallinn | 450,000 |
| Oslo-Viken | 1,970,000 |
| Oslo-Akershus | 1,420,000 |
| Oslo | 700,000 |
This is how The Pathfinder handles information
• We often refer to statistics and statistical charts, and in the footnotes and captions we always indicate whether we are using the four municipalities of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, or the Helsinki Region comprising 14 municipalities, in the comparison.
• Some data may only be available at a national level, which also allows for comparisons between countries. In these cases, we will make it clear whether our findings are based on local or national data.
• The comparison of the four municipalities in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area introduces a kind of statistical bias, because data for the other Nordic countries includes inner and outer peripheral municipalities that share certain characteristics, for example, in terms of income and employment. When comparing the Finnish capital region, the peripheral municipalities are excluded. This is something to bear in mind when comparing statistics.
• Meaningful comparisons can be made between alternative areas. It is possible that, for some topics, we will include Tallinn, which is a significant partner for the Finnish capital region.