Local time
Thu, 7:31 PM GMT+2Europe/HelsinkiCityCapital
Helsinki
60.18° N, 24.93° E
- Population
- 1,115,000
- Population from Natural Earth (POP_MAX). The source does not state which year the figure belongs to, so no year is shown.
- Population rank
- 1 of 15
- Rank by Natural Earth population among the 15 cities of Finland in Terratlasia that have a population figure. Terratlasia does not list every city of Finland, so this is not a national ranking.
- Founded
- 1550
- Year of founding from Wikidata (P571). Only the year is known, not the day; a city whose sources give more than one year shows no row.
- Elevation
- 17 m
- Elevation above sea level from Wikidata (P2044), rounded to the metre. A city whose sources give two different elevations shows no row.
- Administrative unit
- Uusimaa
- The administrative unit Wikidata files this city under (P131), one level below the state. The state itself is shown on its own row and is not repeated here; a city filed under more than three units shows no row at all.
- Time zone
- Europe/Helsinki
Traveler brief
Only what this atlas can source — no hours, prices, visas or safety advice.
Practical bearings for Helsinki, from the same records as the rest of this page.
No places in Helsinki have been recorded yet. The map and the country page still carry its context.
Overview
Name
The modern name is a Finnish derivation; King Gustav Vasa of Sweden founded the city in 1550 as Helsingfors. "Helsing" was the Old Norwegian name for a local people, while "fors" means "waterfall" and refers to a waterfall at the city's original location on the Vantaa River.
Source: CIA World Factbook · 2026-02-01 · text generated from this source, approved by a person
-2_(s%C3%A4%C3%A4t%C3%B6).jpg){kind=link}