.ax Aland Islands Domain Country Information - .ax Aland Islands Country Information

.ax Aland Islands Country Information

The Aland Islands form an archipelago in the Baltic Sea. It is situated at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia and forms an autonomous, demilitarized, monolingually Swedish-speaking administrative province, region and historical province of Finland. It is the smallest province of Finland, comprising 0.50% of Finland's population and 0.49% of land area.

The islands consist of the main island Fasta Aland (where 90% of the population resides) and an archipelago to the east that consists of over 6,500 skerries and islands. Fasta Aland is separated from the coast of Sweden by forty kilometers (twenty-five miles) of open water to the west. In the east, the Aland archipelago is virtually contiguous with the Finnish Archipelago Sea. Aland's only land border is short and strangely shaped; it is located on the uninhabited island of Market, which it shares with Sweden. That border was re-negotiated in 1985.

Due to Aland's autonomous status, the powers exercised at the provincial level by representatives of the central state administration in the rest of Finland are largely exercised by the Government of Aland in Aland.

The Aland Islands occupy a position of great strategic importance, as they command one of the entrances to the port of Stockholm, as well as the approaches to the Gulf of Bothnia, in addition to being situated near the Gulf of Finland.

The Aland archipelago consists of nearly three hundred habitable islands, of which about eighty are inhabited; the remainder are merely some 6,000 skerries and desolate rocks. The archipelago is connected to Aboland archipelago in the east, the archipelago adjacent to the southwest coast of Finland. Together they form the Archipelago Sea.

The surface of the islands is generally rocky, the soil thin, and the climate keen. There are several excellent harbors.