Helsinki

After the end of the Ice Age and the retreat of the ice sheet, the first settlers arrived in the Helsinki area around 5000 BC. Their presence has been documented by archaeologists in Vantaa, Pitäjänmäki and Kaarela.[30] Permanent settlements did not appear until the beginning of the 1st millennium AD, during the Iron Age, when the area was inhabited by the Tavastians. They used the area for fishing and hunting, but due to the lack of archaeological finds it is difficult to say how extensive their settlements were. Pollen analysis has shown that there were agricultural settlements in the area in the 10th century, and surviving historical records from the 14th century describe Tavastian settlements in the area.[31]

The early settlements were raided by Vikings and later colonised by Christians from Sweden. They came mainly from the Swedish coastal regions of Norrland and Hälsingland, and their migration intensified around 1100.[30] Swedes permanently colonised the Helsinki region's coastline in the late 13th century after the successful Second Crusade to Finland, which led to the defeat of the Tavastians.[32][31]

Written chronicles from 1417 mention the village of Koskela near the rapids at the mouth of the River Vantaa, where Helsinki was to be founded.[30]

A map of Helsinki in 1645

Helsinki was founded by King Gustav I of Sweden on 12 June 1550 as a trading town called Helsingfors, which he intended to be a rival to the Hanseatic city of Reval (now Tallinn) on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland.[33][30] In order to populate the newly founded town at the mouth of the Vantaa River, the king ordered the bourgeoisie of Porvoo, Ekenäs, Rauma and Ulvila to move to the town.[34] The shallowness of the bay did not allow for the construction of a harbour, and the king allowed the settlers to leave the unfortunate location. In 1640, Count Per Brahe the Younger, together with some descendants of the original settlers, moved the centre of the town to the Vironniemi peninsula by the sea, today's Kruununhaka district, where the Senate Square and Helsinki Cathedral are located today.[35]

During the second half of the 17th century, Helsinki, as a wooden town, suffered from regular fires, and by the beginning of the 18th century the population had fallen below 1,700. For a long time, Helsinki was mainly a small administrative town for the governors of Nyland and Tavastehus County, but its importance began to grow when a more solid naval defence began to be built in front of the town in the 18th century.[34] Little came of the plans, however, as Helsinki remained a small town plagued by poverty, wars and disease. The plague of 1710 killed most of Helsinki's population.[33] After the Russians conquered Helsinki in May 1713 during the Great Northern War, the retreating Swedish administration set fire to parts of the town.[36][37] Despite this, the town's population grew to 3,000 by the beginning of the 19th century.[30] The construction of the naval fortress of Sveaborg (Viapori in Finnish, now also called Suomenlinna) in the 18th century helped improve Helsinki's status. However, it wasn't until Russia defeated Sweden in the Finnish War and annexed Finland as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland in 1809 that the town began to develop into a substantial city. The Russians besieged the Sveaborg fortress during the war, and about a quarter of the town was destroyed in a fire in 1808.[38]

Emperor Alexander I of Russia moved the Finnish capital from Turku to Helsinki on 8 April 1812 to reduce Swedish influence in Finland and to bring the capital closer to St Petersburg.[39][40][41] Following the Great Fire of Turku in 1827, the Royal Academy of Turku, the only university in the country at the time, was also moved to Helsinki and eventually became the modern University of Helsinki. The move consolidated the city's new role and helped set it on a path of continuous growth. This transformation is most evident in the city centre, which was rebuilt in the neoclassical style to resemble Saint Petersburg, largely according to a plan by the German-born architect C. L. Engel. As elsewhere, technological advances such as railways and industrialisation were key factors in the city's growth.

By the 1910s, the population of Helsinki was already over 100,000, and despite the tumultuous nature of Finnish history in the first half of the 20th century, Helsinki continued to grow steadily. This included the Finnish Civil War and the Winter War, both of which left their mark on the city. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were roughly equal numbers of Finnish and Swedish speakers in Helsinki; the majority of workers were Finnish-speaking. The local Helsinki slang (or stadin slangi) developed among Finnish children and young people from the 1890s as a mixed Finnish-Swedish language, with influences from German and Russian, and from the 1950s the slang began to become more Finnish.[42] A landmark event was the 1952 Olympic Games, which were held in Helsinki. Finland's rapid urbanisation in the 1970s, which occurred late compared to the rest of Europe, tripled the population of the metropolitan area, and the Helsinki Metro subway system was built. Helsinki's relatively low population density and peculiar structure have often been attributed to its late growth.

Helsinki central urban area, an officially recognized urban area

A map of Helsinki's capital region (in orange) and its sub-regional municipalities (in light orange)

The Helsinki metropolitan area, also known as the Capital Region (Finnish: Pääkaupunkiseutu, Swedish: Huvudstadsregionen) comprises four municipalities: Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, and Kauniainen.[48] The Helsinki urban area is considered to be the only metropolis in Finland.[49] It has a population of over 1.1 million, and is the most densely populated area of Finland. The Capital Region spreads over a land area of 770 square kilometres (300 sq mi) and has a population density of 1,418 inhabitants per square kilometre (3,670/sq mi). With over 20 percent of the country's population in just 0.2 percent of its surface area, the area's housing density is high by Finnish standards.

The Helsinki Metropolitan Area (Greater Helsinki) consists of the cities of Helsinki Capital Region and ten surrounding municipalities: Hyvinkää, Järvenpää, Kerava, Kirkkonummi, Nurmijärvi, Sipoo, Tuusula, Pornainen, Mäntsälä and Vihti.[50] The Metropolitan Area covers 3,697 square kilometres (1,427 sq mi) and has a population of over 1.4 million, or about a fourth of the total population of Finland. The metropolitan area has a high concentration of employment: approximately 750,000 jobs.[51] Despite the intensity of land use, the region also has large recreational areas and green spaces. The Greater Helsinki area is the world's northernmost urban area with a population of over one million people, and the northernmost EU capital city.

The Helsinki urban area is an officially recognized urban area in Finland, defined by its population density. The area stretches throughout 11 municipalities, and is the largest such area in Finland, with a land area of 669.31 square kilometres (258.42 sq mi) and approximately 1.2 million inhabitants.

Helsinki has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb).[52] Owing to the mitigating influence of the Baltic Sea and North Atlantic Current (see also Extratropical cyclone), temperatures during the winter are higher than the northern location might suggest, with the average in January and February around −4 °C (25 °F).[53]

Winters in Helsinki are notably warmer than in the north of Finland, and the snow season is much shorter in the capital, due to it being in extreme Southern Finland and the urban heat island effect. Temperatures below −20 °C (−4 °F) occur a few times a year at most. However, because of the latitude, days last 5 hours and 48 minutes around the winter solstice with very low sun (at noon, the sun is a little bit over 6 degrees in the sky), and the cloudy weather at this time of year exacerbates darkness. Conversely, Helsinki enjoys long daylight during the summer; during the summer solstice, days last 18 hours and 57 minutes.[54]

The average maximum temperature from June to August is around 19 to 22 °C (66 to 72 °F). Due to the marine effect, especially during hot summer days, daily temperatures are a little cooler and night temperatures higher than further inland. The highest temperature ever recorded in the city was 33.2 °C (91.8 °F) on 28 July 2019 at Kaisaniemi weather station,[55] breaking the previous record of 33.1 °C (91.6 °F) that was observed in July 1945 at Ilmala weather station.[56] The lowest temperature ever recorded in the city was −34.3 °C (−29.7 °F) on 10 January 1987, although an unofficial low of −35 °C (−31 °F) was recorded in December 1876.[57] Helsinki Airport (in Vantaa, 17 kilometres (11 mi) north of the Helsinki city centre) recorded a temperature of 33.7 °C (92.7 °F) on 29 July 2010 and a low of −35.9 °C (−33 °F) on 9 January 1987. Precipitation is received from frontal passages and thunderstorms. Thunderstorms are most common in the summer.

An aerial view of Malmi in the northern part of Helsinki

Helsinki is divided into three major areas: Helsinki Downtown (Finnish: Helsingin kantakaupunki, Swedish: Helsingfors innerstad), North Helsinki (Finnish: Pohjois-Helsinki, Swedish: Norra Helsingfors) and East Helsinki (Finnish: Itä-Helsinki, Swedish: Östra Helsingfors). Of these, Helsinki Downtown means the undefined core area of capital, as opposed to suburbs. The designations business center and city center usually refer to Kluuvi, Kamppi and Punavuori.[62][63] Other subdivisional centers outside the downtown area include Malmi (Swedish: Malm),[64][65] located in the northeastern part of city, and Itäkeskus (Swedish: Östra centrum),[66] in the eastern part of city.

Carl Ludvig Engel, appointed to plan a new city centre on his own, designed several neoclassical buildings in Helsinki. The focal point of Engel's city plan was the Senate Square. It is surrounded by the Government Palace (to the east), the main building of Helsinki University (to the west), and (to the north) the large Helsinki Cathedral, which was finished in 1852, twelve years after Engel's death. Helsinki's epithet, "The White City of the North", derives from this construction era. Most of Helsinki's older buildings were built after the 1808 fire; before that time, the oldest surviving building in the center of Helsinki is the Sederholm House (1757) at the intersection of Senate Square and the Katariinankatu street.[35] Suomenlinna also has buildings completed in the 18th century, including the Kuninkaanportti on the Kustaanmiekka Island (1753–1754).[67] The oldest church in Helsinki is the Old Church (1826) designed by Engel.[68]

Helsinki is also home to numerous Art Nouveau-influenced (Jugend in Finnish) buildings belonging to the Kansallisromantiikka (romantic nationalism) trend, designed in the early 20th century and strongly influenced by Kalevala, which was a common theme of the era. Helsinki's Art Nouveau style is also featured in central residential districts, such as Katajanokka and Ullanlinna.[69] An important architect of the Finnish Art Nouveau style was Eliel Saarinen, whose architectural masterpiece was the Helsinki Central Station. Opposite the Bank of Finland building is the Renaissance Revivalish the House of the Estates (1891).[70]

The only visible public buildings of the Gothic Revival architecture in Helsinki are St. John's Church (1891) in Ullanlinna, which is the largest stone church in Finland, and its twin towers rise to 74 meters and have 2,600 seats.[71] Other examples of neo-Gothic include the House of Nobility in Kruununhaka and the Catholic St. Henry's Cathedral.[72][73]

In addition to other cities in Northern Europe that were not under the Soviet Union, such as Stockholm, Sweden, Helsinki's neoclassical buildings gained also popularity as a backdrop for scenes intended to depict the Soviet Union in numerous Hollywood movies during the Cold War era, when filming within the actual USSR was not possible. Some of them include The Kremlin Letter (1970), Reds (1981), and Gorky Park (1983).[74] Because some cities in Russia like Leningrad and Moscow had also old neoclassical architecture. At the same time due to Cold War and Finnish relations with the USSR the government secretly instructed Finnish officials not to extend assistance to such film projects.[75] There are some films where Helsinki has been represented on its own in films, most notably the 1967 British-American espionage thriller Billion Dollar Brain, starring Michael Caine.[76][77] The city has large amounts of underground areas such as shelters and tunnels, many used daily as swimming pool, church, water management, entertainment etc.[78][79][80]

The Oodi library is getting attention around the world.

Helsinki also features several buildings by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, recognized as one of the pioneers of architectural functionalism. However, some of his works, such as the headquarters of the paper company Stora Enso and the concert venue Finlandia Hall, have been subject to divided opinions from the citizens.[81][82][83]

Functionalist buildings in Helsinki by other architects include the Olympic Stadium, the Tennis Palace, the Rowing Stadium, the Swimming Stadium, the Velodrome, the Glass Palace, the Töölö Sports Hall, and Helsinki-Malmi Airport. The sports venues were built to serve the 1940 Helsinki Olympic Games; the games were initially cancelled due to the Second World War, but the venues fulfilled their purpose in the 1952 Olympic Games. Many of them are listed by DoCoMoMo as significant examples of modern architecture. The Olympic Stadium and Helsinki-Malmi Airport are also catalogued by the Finnish Heritage Agency as cultural-historical environments of national significance.[84][85]

Residential towers of Kalasatama. The 134 m (440 ft) Majakka has been built on top of the Redi shopping centre. It is currently Finland's tallest building.

When Finland became heavily urbanized in the 1960s and 1970s, the district of Pihlajamäki, for example, was built in Helsinki for new residents, where for the first time in Finland, precast concrete was used on a large scale. Pikku Huopalahti, built in the 1980s and 1990s, has tried to get rid of a one-size-fits-all grid pattern, which means that its look is very organic and its streets are not repeated in the same way. Itäkeskus in Eastern Helsinki was the first regional center in the 1980s.[86] Efforts have also been made to protect Helsinki in the late 20th century, and many old buildings have been renovated.[86] Modern architecture is represented, for example, by the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, which consists of two straight and curved-walled parts, though this style strongly divided the opinions from the citizens.[83] Next to Kiasma is the glass-walled Sanomatalo (1999).

The start of the 21st century marked the beginning of highrise construction in Helsinki, when the city decided to allow the construction of skyscrapers; prior to this, Hotel Torni (69.5 m (228 ft)), built in 1931, has generally been called Finland's first skyscraper,[87] and was at time the tallest building in Finland until 1976.[88] As of April 2017 there are no skyscrapers taller than 100 meters in the Helsinki area, but there are several projects under construction or planning, mainly in Pasila and Kalasatama. An international architecture competition for at least 10 high-rises to be built in Pasila is being held. Construction of the towers will start in 2023.[89] In Kalasatama, the first 35-story (130 m (430 ft); called Majakka) and 32-story (122 m (400 ft); called Loisto) residential towers are already completed. Later they will be joined by a 37-story, two 32-story, 31-story, and 27-story residential buildings. In the Kalasatama area, there will be about 15 high-rises within 10 years.[90] Even higher skyscrapers under the name Trigoni are planned for the Central Pasila area near the Mall of Tripla shopping centre; the highest of which is to become about 200 meters high,[91][92] and it can be seen even in good weather all the way to the Estonian coast.[93][94]

A statue of Tsar Alexander II of Russia, the Grand Duke of Finland, sculpted by Walter Runeberg and Johannes Takanen and erected in 1894 in front of the Helsinki Cathedral at the Senate Square in Helsinki. He was known as a well regarded emperor among the majority of Finns during the grand duchy times.[95]

Well-known statues and monuments strongly embedded in the cityscape of Helsinki include the Keisarinnankivi ("Stone of the Empress", 1835), the statue of Russian Emperor Alexander II (1894), the fountain sculpture Havis Amanda (1908), the Paavo Nurmi statue (1925), the Three Smiths Statue (1932), the Aleksis Kivi Memorial (1939), the Eino Leino Statue (1953), the Equestrian statue of Marshal Mannerheim (1960) and the Sibelius Monument (1967).[96]

A panoramic view over the southernmost districts of Helsinki from Hotel Torni. The Helsinki Old Church and its surrounding park are seen in the foreground, while the towers of St. John's Church (near centre) and Mikael Agricola Church (right) can be seen in the middle distance, backdropped by the Gulf of Finland.

Helsinki population pyramid in 2021

The city of Helsinki has 673,011 inhabitants, making it the most populous municipality in Finland and the third in the Nordics. The Greater Helsinki region is the largest urbanised area in Finland with 1,576,438 inhabitants. The city of Helsinki is home to 12% of Finland's population. 18.6% of the population has a foreign background, which is twice above the national average. However, it is lower than in the major Finnish cities of Espoo or Vantaa.[99]

At 53 percent of the population, women form a greater proportion of Helsinki residents than the national average of 51 percent. Helsinki's population density of 2,739.36 people per square kilometre makes Helsinki the most densely-populated city in Finland. The life expectancy for men and women is slightly below the national averages: 75.1 years for men as compared to 75.7 years, 81.7 years for women as compared to 82.5 years.[100][101]

Helsinki has experienced strong growth since the 1810s, when it replaced Turku as the capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland, which later became the sovereign Republic of Finland. The city continued its growth from that time on, with an exception during the Finnish Civil War. From the end of World War II up until the 1970s there was a massive exodus of people from the countryside to the cities of Finland, in particular Helsinki. Between 1944 and 1969 the population of the city nearly doubled from 275,000[102] to 525,600.[103]

In the 1960s, the population growth of Helsinki began to decrease, mainly due to a lack of housing.[104] Some residents began to move to the neighbouring cities of Espoo and Vantaa, resulting in increased population growth in both municipalities. Espoo's population increased ninefold in sixty years, from 22,874 people in 1950 to 244,353 in 2009.[105] Vantaa saw an even more dramatic change in the same time span: from 14,976 in 1950 to 197,663 in 2009, a thirteenfold increase. These population changes prompted the municipalities of Greater Helsinki into more intense cooperation in areas such as public transportation[106] – resulting in the foundation of HSL – and waste management.[107] The increasing scarcity of housing and the higher costs of living in the capital region have pushed many daily commuters to find housing in formerly rural areas, and even further, to cities such as Lohja, Hämeenlinna, Lahti, and Porvoo.

The city of Helsinki is officially bilingual, with both Finnish and Swedish as official languages. In 2022, the majority of the population, 76.1%, spoke Finnish as their mother tongue. There were 36,748 Swedish speakers, or 5.5% of the population. The number of people who speak Sámi, Finland's third official language, is only 63 inhabitants. In Helsinki, 18.3% of the population speak a mother tongue other than Finnish or Swedish.[99] As English and Swedish are compulsory school subjects, functional bilingualism or trilingualism acquired through language studies is not uncommon.

Although few people speak the Sámi languages as their mother tongue, there are 527 people of Sami origin.[108] There are 93 Tatar speakers in Helsinki, almost half of the total number of Tatar speakers in Finland.

Helsinki slang is a regional dialect of the city. Historically, it was a combination of Finnish and Swedish, with influences from Russian and German. Nowadays it has a strong English influence. Today, however, Finnish is the common language of communication between Finnish speakers, Swedish speakers and speakers of other languages (New Finns) in everyday public life between strangers.[109][110]

The city of Helsinki and the national authorities have specifically targeted Swedish speakers. Knowledge of Finnish is essential in business and is usually a basic requirement in the labour market.[111] Swedish speakers are most concentrated in the southern parts of the city. The district with the most Swedish speakers is Ullanlinna/Ulrikasborg with 2,098 (19.6%), while Byholmen is the only district where Swedish is the majority language (at 82.8%). The number of Swedish speakers decreased every year until 2008, and has increased every year since then. Since 2007, the number of Swedish speakers has increased by 2,351.[112] In 1890, Finnish speakers overtook Swedish speakers to become the majority of the city's population.[113] At that time, the population of Helsinki was 61,530.[114]

The number of people with a foreign mother tongue is expected to reach 196,500 in 2035, representing 26% of the population. 114,000 will speak non-European languages, or 15% of the population.[115] Today, at least 160 different languages are spoken in Helsinki. The most common foreign languages are Russian (3.1%), Somali (2,0%), Estonian (1.5%) and Arabic (1.5%).[99]

Population by country of birth (2022)[99]
Nationality	Population	%
Finland	555,109	83.6
Soviet Union	13,533	2.0
Estonia	10,400	1.6
Somalia	6,883	1.0
Iraq	5,818	0.9
Russia	3,975	0.6
China	3,876	0.6
Sweden	3,562	0.5
India	2,672	0.4
Vietnam	2,433	0.4
Philippines	2,370	0.4
Other	53,397	8.0

In 2022, there were 123,676 people with an immigrant background living in Helsinki, or 18.6% of the population.[note 1] There were 108,919 residents who were born abroad, or 16.4% of the population. The number of foreign citizens in Helsinki was 73,076.[117]

The relative share of immigrants in Helsinki's population is twice the national average, and the city's new residents are increasingly of foreign origin.[99] This will increase the proportion of foreign residents in the coming years. As a crossroads of many international ports and Finland's largest airport, Helsinki is the global gateway to and from Finland.

Most foreign-born citizens come from the former Soviet Union, Estonia, Somalia, Iraq, and Russia.[99]

In 2022, the Evangelical Lutheran Church was the largest religious group with 47.6% of the Helsinki population. Other religious groups made up 4.5% of the population. 47.9% of the population had no religious affiliation.[99]

The most important churches in Helsinki are Helsinki Cathedral (1852), Uspenski Cathedral (1868), St. John's Church (1891), Kallio Church (1912) and Temppeliaukio Church (1969).

There are 21 Lutheran congregations in Helsinki, 18 of which are Finnish-speaking and 3 are Swedish-speaking. These form Helsinki's congregationgroup. Outside that there is Finland's German congregation with 3,000 members and Rikssvenska Olaus Petri-församlingen for Swedish-citizens with 1,000 members.[118]

The largest Orthodox congregation is the Orthodox Church of Helsinki. It has 20,000 members. Its main church is the Uspenski Cathedral.[119] The two largest Catholic congregations are the Cathedral of Saint Henry, with 4,552 members, established in 1860 and St Mary's Catholic Parish, with 4,107 members, established in 1954.[120]

Helsinki Synagogue in 2020

There are around 30 mosques in the Helsinki region. Many linguistic and ethnic groups such as Bangladeshis, Kosovars, Kurds and Bosniaks have established their own mosques.[121] The largest congregation in both Helsinki and Finland is the Helsinki Islamic Center, established in 1995. It has over 2,800 members as of 2017, and it received €24,131 in government assistance.[122]

In 2015, imam Anas Hajar estimated that on big celebrations around 10,000 Muslims visit mosques.[123] In 2004, it was estimated that there were 8,000 Muslims in Helsinki, 1.5% of the population at the time.[124] The number of people in Helsinki with a background from Muslim majority countries was nearly 41,000 as of 2021, representing over 6% of the population.

The main synagogue of Helsinki is the Helsinki Synagogue from 1906, located in Kamppi. It has over 1,200 members, out of the 1,800 Jews in Finland, and it is the older of the two buildings in Finland originally built as a synagogue, followed by the Turku Synagogue in 1912.[125] The congregation includes a synagogue, Jewish kindergarten, school, library, Jewish meat shop, two Jewish cemeteries and an retirement home. Many Jewish organizations and societies are based there, and the synagogue publishes the main Jewish magazine in Finland, HaKehila.[126]

• University of Helsinki
• Aalto University (Espoo)

• Hanken School of Economics
• University of the Arts Helsinki
• National Defence University
• Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences
• Laurea University of Applied Sciences
• Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences
• Arcada University of Applied Sciences
• Diaconia University of Applied Sciences
• HUMAK University of Applied Sciences

Helsinki is one of the co-location centres of the Knowledge and Innovation Community (Future information and communication society) of The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).[132]

The biggest historical museum in Helsinki is the National Museum of Finland, which displays a vast collection from prehistoric times to the 21st century. The museum building itself, a national romantic-style neomedieval castle, is a tourist attraction. Another major historical museum is the Helsinki City Museum, which introduces visitors to Helsinki's 500-year history. The University of Helsinki also has many significant museums, including the Helsinki University Museum "Arppeanum" and the Finnish Museum of Natural History.

The Finnish National Gallery consists of three museums: Ateneum Art Museum for classical Finnish art, Sinebrychoff Art Museum for classical European art, and Kiasma Art Museum for modern art, in a building by architect Steven Holl. The old Ateneum, a neo-Renaissance palace from the 19th century, is one of the city's major historical buildings. All three museum buildings are state-owned through Senate Properties.

The city of Helsinki hosts its own art collection in the Helsinki Art Museum (HAM), primarily located in its Tennispalatsi gallery. Around 200 pieces of public art lie outside. The art is all city property.

Helsinki Art Museum will in 2020 launch the Helsinki Biennial, which will bring art to maritime Helsinki – in its first year to the island of Vallisaari.[133]

The Design Museum is devoted to the exhibition of both Finnish and foreign design, including industrial design, fashion, and graphic design. Other museums in Helsinki include the Military Museum of Finland, Didrichsen Art Museum, Amos Rex Art Museum, and the Tram Museum.

• Museums in Helsinki
• 
  Sinebrychoff Art Museum (1842)
• 
  Helsinki University Museum "Arppeanum" (1869)
• 
  The Cygnaeus Gallery Museum (1870)
• 
  The Mannerheim Museum (1874; 1957 as museum)
• 
  The Military Museum of Finland (1881)
• 
  Classical art museum Ateneum (1887)
• 
  The Design Museum (1894)
• 
  Tram Museum (Ratikkamuseo) (1900)
• 
  The National Museum of Finland (1910)
• 
  The Helsinki City Museum (1911)
• 
  The Finnish Museum of Natural History (1913)
• 
  Kunsthalle Helsinki art venue (1928)
• 
  Didrichsen Art Museum (1964)
• 
  Helsinki Art Museum (1968)
• 
  Kiasma museum of contemporary art (1998)
• 
  Amos Rex art museum (2018)

The Finnish National Theatre (1902), designed by architect Onni Tarjanne. In front of it, the memorial statue of Aleksis Kivi.

Helsinki has three major theatres: The Finnish National Theatre, the Helsinki City Theatre, and the Swedish Theatre (Svenska Teatern). Other notable theatres in the city include the Alexander Theatre, Q-teatteri, Savoy Theatre, KOM-theatre, and Teatteri Jurkka.

Helsinki is home to two full-size symphony orchestras, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, both of which perform at the Helsinki Music Centre concert hall. Acclaimed contemporary composers Kaija Saariaho, Magnus Lindberg, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Einojuhani Rautavaara, among others, were born and raised in Helsinki, and studied at the Sibelius Academy. The Finnish National Opera, the only full-time, professional opera company in Finland, is located in Helsinki. The opera singer Martti Wallén, one of the company's long-time soloists, was born and raised in Helsinki, as was mezzo-soprano Monica Groop.

Many widely renowned and acclaimed bands have originated in Helsinki, including Nightwish, Children of Bodom, Hanoi Rocks, HIM, Stratovarius, The 69 Eyes, Finntroll, Ensiferum, Wintersun, The Rasmus, Poets of the Fall, and Apocalyptica. The most significant of the metal music events in Helsinki is the Tuska Open Air Metal Festival in Suvilahti, Sörnäinen.[134]

The city's main musical venues are the Finnish National Opera, the Finlandia concert hall, and the Helsinki Music Centre. The Music Centre also houses a part of the Sibelius Academy. Bigger concerts and events are usually held at one of the city's two big ice hockey arenas: the Helsinki Halli or the Helsinki Ice Hall. Helsinki has Finland's largest fairgrounds, the Messukeskus Helsinki, which is attended by more than a million visitors a year.[135]

Helsinki Arena hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, the first Eurovision Song Contest arranged in Finland, following Lordi's win in 2006.[136]

Havis Amanda, a fountain sculpture at the Helsinki Market Square

Strange Fruit performing at the Night of the Arts in Helsinki

The Helsinki Day (Helsinki-päivä) will be celebrated on every 12 June, with numerous entertainment events culminating in an open-air concert.[137][138] Also, the Helsinki Festival is an annual arts and culture festival, which takes place every August (including the Night of the Arts).[139]

At the Senate Square in fall 2010, Finland's largest open-air art exhibition to date took place: About 1.4 million people saw the international exhibition of United Buddy Bears.[140]

Helsinki was the 2012 World Design Capital, in recognition of the use of design as an effective tool for social, cultural, and economic development in the city. In choosing Helsinki, the World Design Capital selection jury highlighted Helsinki's use of 'Embedded Design', which has tied design in the city to innovation, "creating global brands, such as Nokia, Kone, and Marimekko, popular events, like the annual Helsinki Design Week, outstanding education and research institutions, such as the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, and exemplary architects and designers such as Eliel Saarinen and Alvar Aalto".[13]

Helsinki hosts many film festivals. Most of them are small venues, while some have generated interest internationally. The most prolific of these is the Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy film festival, also known as Helsinki International Film Festival, which features films on a wide spectrum. Night Visions, on the other hand, focuses on genre cinema, screening horror, fantasy, and science fiction films in very popular movie marathons that last the entire night. Another popular film festival is DocPoint, a festival that focuses solely on documentary cinema.[141][142][143]

Sanomatalo, a current office building of Sanoma Corporation

Today, there are around 200 newspapers, 320 popular magazines, 2,100 professional magazines, 67 commercial radio stations, three digital radio channels, and one nationwide and five national public service radio channels.

Sanoma publishes Finland's journal of record, Helsingin Sanomat, the tabloid Ilta-Sanomat, the commerce-oriented Taloussanomat, and the television channel Nelonen. Another Helsinki-based media house, Alma Media, publishes over thirty magazines, including the tabloid Iltalehti, and the commerce-oriented Kauppalehti.

Finland's national public-broadcasting institution Yle operates five television channels and thirteen radio channels in both national languages. Yle is headquartered in the neighbourhood of Pasila. All TV channels are broadcast digitally, both terrestrially and on cable. Yle's studio area houses the 146-metre (479 ft) high television and radio tower, Yle Transmission Tower (Pasilan linkkitorni),[144] which is the third tallest structure in Helsinki and one of Helsinki's most famous landmarks, from the top of which, in good weather, can be seen even as far as Tallinn over the Gulf of Finland.[145]

The commercial television channel MTV3 and commercial radio channel Radio Nova are owned by Nordic Broadcasting (Bonnier and Proventus).

Café Ekberg, the oldest coffeehouse of Helsinki, along the Bulevardi in the Kamppi district

Helsinki was already known in the 18th century for its abundant number of inns and pubs, where both locals and those who landed in the harbor were offered plenty of alcoholic beverages.[146] At that time, taxes on the sale of alcohol were a very significant source of income for Helsinki, and one of the most important sellers of alcohol was Johan Sederholm (1722–1805), a trade councilor who attracted rural merchants with alcohol and made good deals.[146] Gradually, a new kind of beverage culture began to grow in the next century, and as early as 1852, the first café of Finland, Café Ekberg,[147][148] was established by confectioner Fredrik Ekberg (1825–1891) after attending his studies in St. Petersburg. Ekberg has also been said to have created Finland's "national pastry tradition".[149] At first, café culture was only a prerogative of sophisticated elite, when it recently began to take shape as the right of every man.[150] Today, there are several hundred cafés in Helsinki, the most notable of which is Cafe Regatta, which is very popular with foreign tourists.[151][152][153]

As an important port city on the Baltic Sea, Helsinki has long been known for its fish food, and it has recently started to become one of the leading fish food capitals in Northern Europe.[154] Helsinki's Market Square is especially known for its traditional herring market, which has been organized since 1743.[155][156][157][158] Salmon is also a typical Helsinki fish dish, both fried and souped.[159] The most prestigious restaurants specializing in seafood include Restaurant Fisken på Disken.[160][161]

A terrace of the Restaurant Roslund at the Teurastamo area

Helsinki is currently experiencing a period of booming food culture, and it has developed into an internationally acclaimed food city, receiving recognition for promoting food culture.[158][162][163] The local food culture is made up of cuisines from around the world and the fusions they form. Various Asian restaurants such as Chinese, Thai, Indian and Nepalese are particularly prominent in Helsinki's cityscape, but over the past couple of years, restaurants serving Vietnamese food have been very popular.[154] Sushi restaurant buffets have also made their way into the city's restaurant offerings in one fell swoop.[154] The third prominent trend is restaurants serving pure local food, many of which specialize primarily in serving pure Nordic flavors.[154] In past years Middle Eastern food culture rose in its popularity. Especially Helsinki's eastern part offers many different options for Middle Eastern cuisine lovers.[164] There is also some touches of Russian cuisine, one of which is the Finnish version of blinis, a thick pancakes that are usually fried in a cast iron pan.[165] One of the most significant food culture venues in Helsinki is the general public area known as Teurastamo in the Hermanni district, which operated as the city's slaughterhouse between 1933 and 1992, to which the name of the place also refers.[158][166][167]

A nationwide food carnival called Restaurant Day (Ravintolapäivä) has begun in Helsinki and has traditionally been celebrated since May 2011.[168] The purpose of the day is to have fun, share new food experiences and enjoy the common environment with the group.[158]

A Finnish May Day celebration called vappu in Helsinki in May 2018

Vappu is an annual carnival for students and workers on 1 May. The last week of June marks the Helsinki Pride human rights event, which was attended by 100,000 marchers in 2018.[169]

Helsinki region roads

The backbone of Helsinki's motorway network consists of three semicircular beltways, Ring I, Ring II, and Ring III, which connect expressways heading to other parts of Finland, and the western and eastern arteries of Länsiväylä and Itäväylä respectively. While variants of a Keskustatunneli tunnel under the city centre have been repeatedly proposed, as of 2017 the plan remains on the drawing board.

Many important Finnish highways leave Helsinki for various parts of Finland; most of them in the form of motorways, but a few of these exceptions include Vihdintie. The most significant highways are:

• Finnish national road 1/E18 (to Lohja, Salo and Turku)
• Finnish national road 3/E12 (to Hämeenlinna, Tampere and Vaasa)
• Finnish national road 4/E75 (to Lahti, Jyväskylä, Oulu and Rovaniemi)
• Finnish national road 7/E18 (to Porvoo and Kotka).

Old American cars assemble at the Market Square on the evening of the first Friday of every month

Helsinki has some 390 cars per 1000 inhabitants.[176] This is less than in cities of similar population and construction density, such as Brussels' 483 per 1000, Stockholm's 401, and Oslo's 413.[177][178]

Central railway station, inaugurated 1919

Helsinki Central Railway Station is the main terminus of the rail network in Finland. Two rail corridors lead out of Helsinki, the Main Line to the north (to Tampere, Oulu, Rovaniemi), and the Coastal Line to the west (to Turku). The Main Line (päärata), which is the first railway line in Finland, was officially opened on 17 March 1862, between cities of Helsinki and Hämeenlinna.[179] The railway connection to the east branches from the Main Line outside of Helsinki at Kerava, and leads via Lahti to eastern parts of Finland.

A majority of intercity passenger services in Finland originate or terminate at the Helsinki Central Railway Station. All major cities in Finland are connected to Helsinki by rail service, with departures several times a day. The most frequent service is to Tampere, with more than 25 intercity departures per day as of 2017.

Until 2022 there also was an international services from Helsinki to Saint Petersburg and Moscow. The Saint Petersburg to Helsinki route was operated by Allegro high-speed trains.

A Helsinki to Tallinn Tunnel has been proposed[180] and agreed upon by representatives of the cities.[181] The rail tunnel would connect Helsinki to the Estonian capital Tallinn, further linking Helsinki to the rest of continental Europe by Rail Baltica.

Air traffic is handled primarily from Helsinki Airport, located approximately 17 kilometres (11 mi) north of Helsinki's downtown area, in the neighbouring city of Vantaa. Helsinki's own airport, Helsinki-Malmi Airport, is mainly used for general and private aviation. Charter flights are available from Hernesaari Heliport.

The South Harbour

Like many other cities, Helsinki was deliberately founded at a location on the sea in order to take advantage of shipping. The freezing of the sea imposed limitations on sea traffic up to the end of the 19th century. But for the last hundred years, the routes leading to Helsinki have been kept open even in winter with the aid of icebreakers, many of them built in the Helsinki Hietalahti shipyard. The arrival and departure of ships has also been a part of everyday life in Helsinki. Regular route traffic from Helsinki to Stockholm, Tallinn, and Saint Petersburg began as far back as 1837. Over 300 cruise ships and 360,000 cruise passengers visit Helsinki annually. There are international cruise ship docks in South Harbour, Katajanokka, West Harbour, and Hernesaari. In terms of combined liner and cruise passengers, the Port of Helsinki overtook the Port of Dover in 2017 to become the busiest passenger port in the world.[182]

Ferry connections to Tallinn, Mariehamn, and Stockholm are serviced by various companies; very popular MS J. L. Runeberg ferry connection to Finland's second oldest city, medieval old town of Porvoo, is also available for tourists.[183] Finnlines passenger-freight ferries to Gdynia, Poland; Travemünde, Germany; and Rostock, Germany are also available. St. Peter Line offers passenger ferry service to Saint Petersburg several times a week.

The Helsinki Metro with its characteristic bright orange trains is the world's northernmost subway.

A tram at the Esplanadi in Kaartinkaupunki, Helsinki

In the Helsinki metropolitan area, public transportation is managed by the Helsinki Regional Transport Authority, the metropolitan area transportation authority. The diverse public transport system consists of trams, commuter rail, the metro, bus lines, two ferry lines and a public bike system.

Helsinki's tram system officially began in Helsinki in 1891, when the first trams were horse-drawn; with electric drive, it has been in operation continuously since 1900.[184] 13 routes that cover the inner part of the city are operated. As of 2017, the city is expanding the tram network, with several major tram line construction projects under way. These include the Jokeri light rail (replacing the 550 bus line), roughly along Ring I around the city center, and a new tramway to the island of Laajasalo. Tram line 9 is planned to be extended from Pasila to Ilmala, largely along the new line, and line 6 from Hietalahti first to Eiranranta, later to Hernesaari. New line sections are also planned for the Kalasatama area;[185] construction work on the new tram as the number line 13 (Nihti–Kalasatama–Vallilanlaakso–Pasila) has begun in May 2020, and the line is scheduled for completion in 2024.[186] In August 2016, the city council decided to implement the Crown Bridges project, and the goal for the completion of the entire tram connection of the Crown Bridges is 2026.[187]

The commuter rail system includes purpose-built double track for local services in two rail corridors along intercity railways, and the Ring Rail Line, an urban double-track railway with a station at the Helsinki Airport in Vantaa. Electric operation of commuter trains was first begun in 1969, and the system has been gradually expanded since. 15 different services are operated as of 2017, some extending outside of the Helsinki region. The frequent services run at a 10-minute headway in peak traffic.

Helsinki is officially the sister city of Beijing, China (since 2006).[188][189][190] In addition, the city [188] has a special partnership relation with:

Karl Fazer, the chocolatier and Olympic sport shooter best known for founding the Fazer company

Erkki Karu, film director and producer

• Peter Forsskål (1732–1763), Swedish-Finnish naturalist and orientalist
• Axel Hampus Dalström (1829–1882), architect
• Maria Tschetschulin (1850–1917), clerk
• Augusta Krook (1853–1941), politician and teacher
• Agnes Tschetschulin (1859–1942), composer and violinist
• Jakob Sederholm (1863–1934), petrologist
• Karl Fazer (1866–1932), baker, confectioner, chocolatier, entrepreneur, and sport shooter
• Emil Lindh (1867–1937), sailor
• Oskar Merikanto (1868–1924), composer
• Signe Lagerborg-Stenius (1870–1968), architect and member the Helsinki City Council
• Maggie Gripenberg (1881–1976), dancer
• Gunnar Nordström (1881–1923), theoretical physicist
• Väinö Tanner (1881–1966), politician
• Walter Jakobsson (1882–1957), figure-skater
• Mauritz Stiller (1883–1928), Russian-Swedish director and screenwriter
• Karl Wiik (1883–1946), Social Democratic politician
• Lennart Lindroos (1886–1921), swimmer, Olympic games 1912
• Erkki Karu (1887–1935), film director and producer
• Kai Donner (1888–1935), linguist, anthropologist and politician
• Gustaf Molander (1888–1973), Swedish director and screenwriter
• Johan Helo (1889–1966), lawyer and politician
• Minna Craucher (1891–1932), socialite and spy
• Artturi Ilmari Virtanen (1895–1973), chemist (Nobel Prize, 1945)
• Rolf Nevanlinna (1895–1980), mathematician, university teacher and writer
• Elmer Diktonius (1896–1961), Finnish-Swedish writer and composer
• Yrjö Leino (1897–1961), communist politician
• Toivo Wiherheimo (1898–1970), economist and politician

Tarja Halonen, former president of Finland

Kim Hirschovits, ice hockey player

Linus Torvalds, the software engineer best known for creating the popular open-source kernel Linux

Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor and composer

Sam Lake, the video game creative director known for the Max Payne games

• Aku Ahjolinna (born 1946), ballet dancer and choreographer
• Lars Ahlfors (1907–1996), mathematician, Fields medalist
• Ella Eronen (1900–1987), actress and poetic recite
• Tuomas Holopainen (born 1976), songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer
• Helena Anhava (1925–2018), poet, author and translator
• Paavo Berglund (1929–2012), conductor
• Laci Boldemann (1921–1969), composer
• Irja Agnes Browallius (1901–1968), Swedish writer
• Bo Carpelan (1926–2011), Finland-Swedish writer, literary critic and translator
• Tarja Cronberg (born 1943), politician
• Jörn Donner (1933–2020), writer, film director and politician
• George Gaynes (1917–2016), American television and film actor
• Ragnar Granit (1900–1991), Finnish-Swedish neurophysiologist and Nobel laureate
• Mika Waltari (1908–1979), writer
• Elina Haavio-Mannila (born 1933), social scientist and professor
• Tarja Halonen (born 1943), President of Finland
• Reino Helismaa (1913–1965), writer, film actor and singer
• Kim Hirschovits (born 1982), ice hockey player
• Bengt Holmström (born 1949), Professor of Economics, Nobel laureate
• Shawn Huff (born 1984), basketball player
• Ville Husso (born 1995), ice hockey goaltender
• Kirsti Ilvessalo (1920–2019), textile artist
• Tove Jansson (1914–2001), Finland-Swedish writer, painter, illustrator, comic writer, graphic designer
• Kaapo Kähkönen (born 1996), ice hockey goaltender
• Aki Kaurismäki (born 1957), director, screenwriter and producer
• Emma Kimiläinen (born 1989), racing driver
• Kiti Kokkonen (born 1974), Finnish actress and writer
• Petteri Koponen, basketball player
• Lennart Koskinen (born 1944), Swedish, Lutheran bishop
• Sam Lake (born 1970), writer and actor; the creative director at Remedy Entertainment
• Olli Lehto (1925–2020), mathematician
• Samuel Lehtonen (1921–2010), bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland
• Juha Leiviskä (born 1936), architect
• Magnus Lindberg (born 1958), composer and pianist
• Esa Lindell (born 1994), professional ice hockey player
• Lill Lindfors (born 1940), Finland-Swedish singer and TV presenter
• Jari Mäenpää (born 1977), founder, former lead guitarist and current lead singer in melodic death metal band Wintersun, former lead singer and guitarist of folk metal band Ensiferum
• Klaus Mäkelä (born 1996), cellist and conductor
• Susanna Mälkki (born 1969), conductor
• Georg Malmstén (1902–1981), singer, musician, composer, orchestra director and actor
• Tauno Marttinen (1912–2008), composer
• Vesa-Matti Loiri (1945-2022), actor, comedian, singer
• Abdirahim Hussein Mohamed (born 1978), Finnish-Somalian media personality and politician
• Hanno Möttölä, Finnish basketball player
• Väinö Myllyrinne (1909–1963), acromegalic giant and at time (1940–1963) the world's tallest living person
• Peter Nygård (born 1941), businessman, arrested in December 2020 for sex crimes
• Markku Peltola (1956–2007), actor and musician
• Kimmo Pikkarainen (born 1976), professional ice hockey player
• Anne Marie Pohtamo (born 1955), actress, model, Miss Suomi 1975 and Miss Universe 1975
• Elisabeth Rehn (born 1935), politician
• Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928–2016), composer
• Susanne Ringell (born 1955), writer and actress
• Miron Ruina (born 1998), Finnish-Israeli basketball player
• Kaija Saariaho (born 1952), composer
• Riitta Salin (born 1950), athlete
• Sasu Salin, Finnish basketball player
• Esa-Pekka Salonen (born 1958), composer and conductor
• Asko Sarkola (born 1945), actor
• Heikki Sarmanto (born 1939), jazz pianist and composer
• Teemu Selänne (born 1970), Hall of Fame ice hockey player
• Ann Selin (born 1960), trade union leader
• Birgit Sergelius (1907–1979), stage and film actress
• Teuvo Teräväinen (born 1994), professional ice hockey player
• Märta Tikkanen (born 1935), Finland-Swedish writer and philosophy teacher
• Linus Torvalds (born 1969), software engineer, creator of Linux
• Elin Törnudd (1924–2008), Finnish chief librarian and professor
• Klaus Törnudd (born 1931), diplomat and political scientist
• Sirkka Turkka (1939–2021), poet
• Jarno Tuunainen (born 1977), footballer
• Ville Valo (born 1976), lead singer of the rock band HIM
• Ulla Vuorela (1945–2011), professor of social anthropology
• Lauri Ylönen (born 1979), lead singer of the rock band The Rasmus