Home    Buy data    Donate

Updates: 

According to ISO 3166-1 Newsletter number V-9, dated 2004-02-13, Åland Islands has been assigned a separate country code. Therefore, I will now treat Åland as a separate country and not part of Finland. However, it's still administered by Finland, and has a structure of municipalities and sub-regions that is part of Finland's administrative system. The ISO 3166-2 code, FI-AL, and the GEC code FI01, representing Åland as a province of Finland, have not been revoked. The GENC standard treats Åland as part of Finland. [1]

Swedish is the only official language of Åland. The Finnish name for the territory is Ahvenanmaa, and its capital, Mariehamn, is Maarianhamina in Finnish. The town has been created by the Russian emperor Alexander II in 1861, and named in honor of his consort, the empress Maria Alexandrovna. The rural municipalities, which originate in the old parishes, bear the name of their center.

The population is 30,359 (2022-12-31 estimate), and the land area, 1,554 km² or 600 sq. mi. [2]; [3]

Country overview: 

Short name	ÅLAND
ISO code	AX
GEC code	FI01
Language	Swedish (sv)
Time zone	+2 ~
Capital	Mariehamn

 

Åland was a district (kihlakunta/härad) of Turku and Pori county (lääni/län) of Finland until 1918, when it was made a special county by the Senate Regulation no. 48 of 1918-06-13. It has remained a county until 2010, when it became a province (maakunta/landskap). Its special autonomous status was acquirred since 1921-10, under the Decision of the Council of the League of Nations of 1921-06-24, and was enlarged by the Act on the Autonomy of Aland of 1991-08-16/1144, as amended in 1993, 1995, 2000, and 2004.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Ålandsøerne
2. Dutch: Åland
3. English: Åland Islands (variant)
4. Finnish: Ahvenanmaa, Ahvenanmaan maakunta
5. French: Îles fp Åland
6. German: Åland-Inseln fp
7. Icelandic: Álandseyjar
8. Italian: Isole Åland
9. Norwegian: Åland
10. Portuguese: Åland
11. Russian: Аландские острова
12. Spanish: Islas de Åland
13. Swedish: Ålands län
14. Turkish: Åland Adaları

Origin of name: 

Ahvenanmaa: Finnish ahven: perch (the fish) + maa: land. Åland comes from Swedish å: river, land: land.

Primary subdivisions: 

Åland is divided into sixteen municipalities (kommuner; sing.: kommuna).

Swedish name	HASC	mun	src	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)
Brändö	AX.BR	035	213	450	108.4	40.5
Eckerö	AX.EC	043	212	939	109.2	42.2
Finström	AX.FN	060	212	2,588	130.2	50.3
Föglö	AX.FG	062	213	504	135.0	52.1
Geta	AX.GT	065	212	507	87.5	33.8
Hammarland	AX.HM	076	212	1,628	140.3	54.2
Jomala	AX.JM	170	212	5,610	144.4	55.8
Kökar	AX.KK	318	213	223	64.0	24.7
Kumlinge	AX.KM	295	213	306	99.4	38.4
Lemland	AX.LE	417	212	2,131	114.1	44.0
Lumparland	AX.LU	438	212	360	36.4	14.0
Mariehamn	AX.MH	478	211	11,757	11.8	4.6
Saltvik	AX.SV	736	212	1,793	159.6	61.6
Sottunga	AX.ST	766	213	111	28.1	10.8
Sund	AX.SD	771	212	1,001	112.5	43.4
Vårdö	AX.VR	941	213	451	102.1	39.4
Total				30,359	1,583	611
Swedish name: Name of municipality in Swedish. As of 2023, these were all rural municipalities except Mariehamn, which is a town. HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. mun: Municipality code (administrative and statistical code). src: Code for the sub-region containing the municipality (see below). Population: 2022-12-31 census and estimates from Statistics Åland. Areas: for municipalities: land + freshwater; total area, with the territorial waters: 13,324.5 km² or 5,144.793 mi² (source: [2]; [3])

Postal codes: 

Åland uses five-digit postal codes from the Finnish system, always beginning with '22'. Postal codes for addresses in Åland can be identified by prefixing them with "AX-".

Further subdivisions:

The Finland Interior Ministry assigns Åland a region code of 20. It is divided into three sub-regions. Their Swedish names, with English glosses and sub-region codes, are Ålands landsbygd (countryside, 212), Ålands skärgård (archipelago, 213), and Mariehamns stads (Mariehamn city, 211). Before 2001-01-01 there were only two sub-regions: Föglö (containing the same municipalities as Ålands skärgård) and Mariehamn (the rest of Åland).

Territorial extent: 

Åland includes islands west of the Skiftet, or Kihti (channel), and east of Ålands Hav. The largest is Åland island. Among the easternmost are Kökar and Brändö.

The UN LOCODE page  for Åland lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Population history:

Municipality	Pop. 1910	Pop. 1930	Pop. 1950	Pop. 1970	Pop. 1990	Pop. 2010	Pop. 2023
Brändö	1,147	1,021	927	612	529	488	450
Eckerö	1,082	1,050	942	690	811	943	939
Finström	2,105	2,014	2,089	1,678	2,206	2,502	2,588
Föglö	1,457	1,418	1,188	684	606	580	504
Geta	969	783	775	471	478	475	507
Hammarland	1,669	1,338	1,454	1,024	1,233	1,508	1,628
Jomala	2,418	2,176	3,413	2,051	3,025	4,098	5,610
Kökar	879	785	683	369	296	259	223
Kumlinge	917	860	788	523	465	364	306
Lemland	1,615	1,342	1,342	691	1,269	1,814	2,131
Lumparland	564	419	448	312	322	394	360
Mariehamn	1,015	1,469	3,273	8,546	10,263	11,190	11,757
Saltvik	2,595	2,529	2,041	1,469	1,634	1,802	1,793
Sottunga	366	348	299	175	133	119	111
Sund	1,521	1,376	1,382	949	948	1,019	1,001
Vårdö	1,037	777	646	422	386	452	451
Totals	21,356	19,705	21,690	20,666	24,604	28,007	30,359

Sources: 

1. [1] Autonomy status of Åland 
2. [2] Åland Statistics and Research Bureau 
3. [3] Statistical Yearbook of Åland 2021