Aland Islands

Aland Islands · Travel guide

Åland ( AW-lənd, Swedish: [ˈǒːland] ; Finnish: Ahvenanmaa) is an autonomous and demilitarised region of Finland. Receiving its autonomy in 1920, it is the smallest region of Finland by both area (1,580 km2 or 610 sq mi) and population (30,654), 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, and about 6,500 skerries and islands to its east, 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…