Editing Finland (section)

====Administrative divisions====
{{Main|Administrative divisions of Finland|Sub-regions of Finland|Municipalities of Finland|Historical provinces of Finland}}
[[File:Finland administrative divisions 2.svg|thumbnail|[[Municipalities of Finland|Municipalities]] (thin borders) and [[Regions of Finland|regions]] (thick borders) of Finland (2021)]]
The fundamental administrative divisions of the country are the [[Municipalities of Finland|municipalities]], which may also call themselves towns or cities. They account for half of the public spending. Spending is financed by municipal income tax, state subsidies, and other revenue. {{As of|2021}}, there are 309 municipalities,<ref name="Suomen Kuntaliitto">{{cite web|title=Kaupunkien ja kuntien lukumäärät ja väestötiedot|url=https://www.kuntaliitto.fi/tilastot-ja-julkaisut/kaupunkien-ja-kuntien-lukumaarat-ja-vaestotiedot|access-date=7 March 2021|publisher=Suomen Kuntaliitto – Association of Finnish Municipalities|language=fi|archive-date=8 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108222022/https://www.kuntaliitto.fi/tilastot-ja-julkaisut/kaupunkien-ja-kuntien-lukumaarat-ja-vaestotiedot|url-status=live}}</ref> and most have fewer than 6,000 residents.

In addition to municipalities, two intermediate levels are defined. Municipalities co-operate in seventy [[Sub-regions of Finland|sub-regions]] and nineteen [[Counties of Finland|counties]]. These are governed by the member municipalities and have only limited powers. The autonomous province of Åland has a permanent democratically elected regional council. Sami people have a semi-autonomous [[Sami native region (Finland)|Sami native region]] in Lapland for issues on language and culture.

[[Health system|Health]], [[Social services|social]] and [[emergency service]]s are organised by the [[Wellbeing services counties of Finland|Wellbeing services counties]]. Finland has 21 Wellbeing services counties and the county structure is mainly based on the region structure. The [[County council (Finland)|County council]], which is responsible for the operation, administration and finances of the area, is the highest decision-making body in the Wellbeing services county. The delegates and deputy commissioners of the county council are elected in the county elections for a term of office of four years. Wellbeing services counties are self-governing. However, they do not have the right to levy taxes and their funding is based on central government funding.<ref name="stm-wellbeing">{{cite web| url = https://stm.fi/en/wellbeing-services-counties| title = Wellbeing services counties will be responsible for organising health, social and rescue services on 1 January 2023| publisher = Ministry of Social Affairs and Health| access-date = 7 September 2023| archive-date = 7 September 2023| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230907074217/https://stm.fi/en/wellbeing-services-counties| url-status = live}}</ref>

The [[Helsinki capital region|capital region]] – comprising Helsinki, [[Vantaa]], [[Espoo]] and [[Kauniainen]] – forms a continuous [[conurbation]] of approximately {{formatnum: {{#expr: ({{Data Finland municipality/population count|Helsinki}} + {{Data Finland municipality/population count|Espoo}} + {{Data Finland municipality/population count|Vantaa}} + {{Data Finland municipality/population count|Kauniainen}}) /1000000 round 2 }}}} million people. However, common administration is limited to voluntary cooperation of all municipalities, e.g. in [[Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council]].