Finland Trivia
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59 free Finland trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
56 free Finland trivia questions with answers. How well do you really know Finland? This quiz covers the whole country, not just the postcard version: the geography of a land with 180,000 lakes and the world's largest archipelago, the long centuries under Sweden and Russia, the fight for independence, the Winter War, and the modern nation that keeps topping the World Happiness Report. You will meet the people and things Finland gave the world: Nokia phones and the Linux kernel, the Moomins and the Kalevala, Sibelius and Lordi, Marimekko prints and orange-handled Fiskars scissors, plus the sauna, salmiakki, Karelian pasties and a wife-carrying championship paid out in beer. Questions run from easy warm-ups to genuinely hard ones about Åland, the Sámi languages and Aalto's architecture. Every answer has been checked against a source you can read yourself, mostly Wikipedia and official Finnish sites, so you can settle arguments with confidence. Play alone or use the set for a pub quiz, classroom or Nordic-themed party night.
30 of 59 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Finland shares land borders with Sweden, Norway and which other country?
Russia
The Russian border runs about 1,300 km along Finland's entire eastern flank, which is why NATO's land frontier with Russia more than doubled when Finland joined.
Q 02Which two languages are Finland's official national languages?
Finnish and Swedish
Swedish is the mother tongue of only about 5% of Finns, yet it keeps equal legal status, and street signs in bilingual towns carry both languages.
Q 03Roughly how many recorded lakes does Finland have?
Over 180,000
Finland has over 180,000 lakes — the standard count is 187,888 bodies of water larger than 500 square metres — and together they cover about a tenth of the country's area.
Q 04Lake Saimaa, Finland's largest lake, is the only home of which endangered animal?
A freshwater ringed seal
The Saimaa ringed seal has been cut off from the sea for around 9,500 years, since the land rose after the last ice age, and only about 500 remain.
Q 05Which Finnish company, rooted in an 1865 mill, was the world's largest mobile phone vendor from 1998?
Nokia
The company took its name from a second mill by the town of Nokia in 1871, and spent decades making rubber boots, tyres and cables before phones.
Q 06What is the highest point in Finland, at 1,324 metres?
Halti
Halti's summit is actually just over the border in Norway; the highest peak entirely inside Finland is neighbouring Ridnitšohkka, eight metres lower.
Q 07In which year did Finland declare its independence?
1917
Finland declared independence on 6 December 1917, a month after the Bolshevik revolution, and 6 December has been celebrated as Independence Day ever since.
Q 08Which arm of the Baltic Sea separates the country's south coast from Estonia?
Gulf of Finland
The Gulf of Finland is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea; Finland's capital and Tallinn face each other across it, about 80 km apart, with fast ferries crossing in around two hours.
Q 09Finnish Lapland promotes itself as the official hometown of which famous figure, with a village in Rovaniemi?
Santa Claus
Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi opened in 1985 on the Arctic Circle, beside a cabin built for Eleanor Roosevelt's 1950 visit, and visitors can step across the painted Circle line outside Santa's office.
Q 10In December 2020, Finnish sauna culture was inscribed on which UNESCO list?
Intangible Cultural Heritage
UNESCO inscribed sauna culture in Finland on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2020, recognising a tradition kept alive in millions of saunas nationwide.
Q 11What is the national sport of Finland?
Pesäpallo
Pesäpallo is a Finnish take on baseball in which the pitcher lobs the ball straight up beside the batter, though ice hockey draws far bigger crowds.
Q 12By what nickname is Teemu Selänne, the highest-scoring Finn in NHL history, known?
The Finnish Flash
The Finnish Flash was the nickname Selänne earned for his speed after scoring 76 goals as a Winnipeg Jets rookie in 1992–93, an NHL record for a first-year player.
Q 13In which year did Finland formally become a member of NATO?
2023
Finland formally joined NATO on 4 April 2023, less than a year after its parliament voted 188–8 to apply in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.
Q 21Which Finnish company, founded in 1649, is best known for its orange-handled scissors?
Fiskars
Fiskars began as an ironworks chartered in 1649 and made its first orange-handled scissors in 1967, after prototypes in black, red, green and orange were put to a staff vote.
Q 22Which future first lady wore Marimekko dresses through the 1960 presidential campaign?
Jacqueline Kennedy
Jacqueline Kennedy was photographed in Marimekko for a December 1960 Sports Illustrated cover; the brand's most famous print, Maija Isola's Unikko poppy, did not yet exist and arrived in 1964.
Q 23Which country launched the Winter War against Finland on 30 November 1939?
The Soviet Union
Q 14What was Finland's currency before it adopted the euro?
The markka
The markka was introduced in 1860 while Finland was a grand duchy under the tsar, and in 1865 it was tied to silver, separating it from the rouble and bolstering Finnish autonomy.
Q 15Which monster-masked rock band won the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest for Finland?
Lordi
Frontman Mr Lordi makes the band's costumes himself and redesigns them for every album; the winning song was Hard Rock Hallelujah.
Q 16Which Finnish writer and illustrator created the Moomins?
Tove Jansson
Jansson wrote in Swedish, and the first book, The Moomins and the Great Flood, appeared in 1945 in the shadow of the war.
Q 17Which Finnish studio created Angry Birds, the 2009 game that saved the company from bankruptcy?
Rovio Entertainment
Rovio Entertainment released Angry Birds in December 2009 after dozens of its earlier games had flopped; designer Jaakko Iisalo drew the birds, and Sega later bought the studio for about $776 million.
Q 18Which Finnish-born software engineer created both the Linux kernel and the version control system Git?
Linus Torvalds
Linus Torvalds began Linux in 1991 as a 21-year-old student after buying an Intel 386 PC, wrote Git in 2005 to manage kernel development, and shared the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize.
Q 19Which Sibelius tone poem grew from the final tableau of an 1899 patriotic pageant?
Finlandia
Sibelius reworked the tableau 'Finland Awakens' from the 1899 Press Celebrations into Finlandia, premiered in its final form in 1900; its hymn section later gained words and serves as an unofficial second anthem.
Q 20What is Finland's national epic, compiled by Elias Lönnrot and published in 1835?
The Kalevala
The Kalevala was assembled by Lönnrot, a district physician, from folk poetry gathered on eleven collecting trips; the 1835 first edition was expanded into the 1849 version that later influenced Tolkien.
The Soviet Union attacked on 30 November 1939 after Finland refused to cede border land; the assault got it expelled from the League of Nations two weeks later, and the war ended in March 1940.
Q 24By what nickname is Finnish Winter War sniper Simo Häyhä best known?
The White Death
Häyhä was dubbed The White Death after reportedly killing around 500 enemy soldiers in under 100 days of the Winter War; he preferred iron sights so his head stayed lower and no lens could glint.
Q 25What did Finns sarcastically call Soviet cluster bombs, mocking the foreign minister's claim they were dropping food?
Molotov bread baskets
Finns named the RRAB-3 cluster bombs Molotov bread baskets after foreign minister Molotov claimed the planes were dropping food; the petrol bombs thrown at tanks became Molotov cocktails, 'a drink to go with the food'.
Q 26In 1906 Finland became the first country in Europe to do what?
Grant universal suffrage
Finland's 1906 reform was to grant universal suffrage, making it the first in Europe to give women the vote and the first anywhere to let them stand for parliament; 19 women won seats in 1907.
Q 27Which Finnish city hosted the 1952 Summer Olympics?
Helsinki
Helsinki staged the 1952 Summer Olympics after its 1940 Games were cancelled by war; Paavo Nurmi lit the stadium cauldron at the opening ceremony.
Q 28Which autonomous and demilitarised Finnish island region has Swedish as its sole official language?
Åland
Åland's thousands of islands stayed Finnish in 1921 when the League of Nations confirmed Finnish sovereignty with wide autonomy for the Swedish-speaking islanders, keeping the 1856 demilitarisation.
Q 29How many Olympic gold medals did the 'Flying Finn' Paavo Nurmi win?
Nine
At the 1924 Paris Games he won the 1,500 m and 5,000 m finals within about an hour of each other, running with a stopwatch in his hand.
Q 30Kimi Räikkönen won the 2007 Formula One World Drivers' Championship driving for which team?
Ferrari
Räikkönen took the 2007 title in his first season with Ferrari, beating McLaren's Alonso and Hamilton by a single point with victory in the Brazilian finale.