Arctic Capital

The number of citizens is 63 000. The number of reindeers is 12 450.

In terms of geographic area, Rovaniemi is the largest town in Europe, spanning 8017 km² in all – Corsica is about the same size.

This total area comprises 7601 km² of land and 415 km² of water.

The town is surrounded by approximately 30 villages.

Rovaniemi is the second most international travel destination in Finland according to the amount of visitors per year.

Rovaniemi welcomes over 600,000 international visitors every year.

The total number of overnight stays was 740 000 in 2019.

Most of our international visitors in 2019 came from China (56 000 overnight stays, including Hong Kong), France (41 200), United Kingdom (37 600), Germany (32 000) and Israel (31 000).

Home to many award-winning luxury hotels, holiday villages and resorts, Rovaniemi is also home to more glass igloos and glass wall accommodations than any other destination in Lapland.

Rovaniemi offers plenty of entertainment, including several international events around the year: for example Arctic Lapland Rally, Arctic Design Week and the Grand Christmas Opening and of course on 23^rd of December when Santa Claus sets on his annual mission.

As the most connected place in Lapland, Rovaniemi has an international airport with connections to other airports in Finland, Europe and the world at large.

A reliable and versatile service structure has made Rovaniemi become one of the most significant business centres in the whole of the Arctic region.

Rovaniemi boasts a versatile sports culture. The town’s 380 sports facilities range from winter golf course and skating rinks to swimming halls and snowmobile routes (600 miles). The total number of sports clubs is over 200. Ounasvaara is Rovaniemi’s green oasis – or white in winter, when the hill becomes a resort for skiers and snowboarders.

City of Rovaniemi is the commercial, administrative, educational, cultural and sports centre of the province of Lapland. Lapland has three territorial borders: with Norway (more than 700 km), Sweden (more than 600 km) and Russia (almost 400 km).

Lapland is known to be borderless: business is carried on across borders, people commute from one country to another, and you can go to school in the neighbouring country. In addition, Lapland’s tourism, industry, and research, training and innovation activities (RTI) have brought thousands of new residents to Lapland from throughout the world.

Lapland is the northernmost region of Finland. The distance from Simo, the southernmost municipality of Lapland on the shore of the Bay of Bothnia, to Nuorgam in Utsjoki at the top of Finland is more than 500 kilometres.

The area of Lapland, 100,366 square kilometres, is almost one-third of the total area of Finland. At the same time, Lapland is among the most sparsely populated areas in our country: just under 180,000 residents (in 2017) account for about three per cent of Finland’s population. This means that in Lapland there is an abundance of space to live and breathe the air that has been proven to be the purest in the world.