75 Facts About Espoo

Espoo is a city and municipality in the region of Uusimaa in the Republic of Finland.

Espoo experienced rapid urbanization and major demographic changes in the decades following World War II, with Finnish superseding Swedish as the language of the majority around 1950.

Several major companies are based in Espoo, including Nokia, HMD Global, Tieto, KONE, Neste, Fortum, Orion Corporation, Outokumpu, and Foreca, as well as video game developers Rovio and Remedy Entertainment.

Espoo joined the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities in 2015.

The name of Espoo is believed to have derived from the Medieval Swedish village of Espaby, which was located in the western part of the present-day city.

Related searches

Until the late 13th century, Espoo was part of a borderland region between the Southwestern Finns and Tavastian Finns.

Some artefacts found in Espoo have been traced to ancient Savo-Karelian Finnish costumes, and the Late Iron Age and Early Medieval women in the area have had similar jewellery as in the region around present-day Mikkeli.

The stone Espoo Cathedral was built in the 1480s by initiative from the peasants.

Up to the 1670s the eastern parts of Espoo belonged to the Helsinki parish, after which they were officially annexed to the Espoo parish and the slottslan of Raseborg.

Rural community in Espoo began to change in the latter half of the 19th century.

The manor houses in Espoo were ordered to send one man and one horse each to work on the construction.

Two people from Espoo are said to have fled into caves to flee from the Red power.

Damages of the Civil War in Espoo were minimal, except for one primary school which had been hit by German bombing.

In June 1918 the White Guards appealed to the municipal council of Espoo to ask for funds to travel to prison camps in order to provide expert help in judging reds from Espoo.

From 1919 to 1925 about 150 peasants and crofters in Espoo bought land for themselves with the grant given by the Finnish state.

Unlike the neighbouring city of Helsinki, Espoo failed to develop a proper city centre, forming instead into an area of multiple centres.

Rather tightly populated districts of Tapiola and Leppavaara in eastern Espoo underwent attempts to separate from the city of Espoo, from two directions: on the one hand, the inhabitants of the districts wanted them to become independent municipalities, while on the other hand, the neighbouring city of Helsinki wanted to annex the districts into Helsinki.

Non-centralised nature of Espoo led to significant differences between its districts.

Different parts of Espoo included the wealthy garden city district of Tapiola, large areas that still remained as countryside, and new suburbs such as Haukilahti, Karakallio and Soukka.

Espoo is a part of the Greater Helsinki metropolitan region and is contiguously bordered by the cities, towns and municipalities of Kirkkonummi, Vihti, Nurmijarvi, Vantaa, Kauniainen and Helsinki.

Main minerals in the Espoo bedrock include gneiss, migmatite, granite, gabbro, amphibolite and mica schist.

Sea area of Espoo is a considerably narrow strip between the sea areas of Helsinki and Kirkkonummi.

The islands closest to the Espoo shoreline include Stora Herro, Pentala, Kopplorna and Lehtisaaret.

The largest peninsula in Espoo is Soukka, fracturing into an archipelago in the south.

The nearest ship harbours are located in Helsinki, while the Espoo shoreline contains many small boat harbours, the largest being the boat harbour in Suomenoja.

Related searches

Shoreline of Espoo is about 58 kilometres long and there are 165 islands in front of it.

Land in Espoo is rising by about a quarter of a metre per century and the moist land rise shores are slowly becoming bogs.

The forests in Espoo are mainly pine barrens consisting mostly of spruces and pines, with some deciduous trees.

The ecological core area of southern Espoo is the Espoo Central Park, consisting mainly of two forest massives: Harmaakallo and Bosmalm.

Highest spot in Espoo, Mustankorvenkallio, is located in Velskola to the southwest of Saarijarvi 114 metres above sea level and over 40 metres above the water level of Saarijarvi.

The lakes in Espoo were formed when the land slowly started rising after the continental ice sheet had thawed, and water started flowing into the crevices in the bedrock.

The oldest lakes in Espoo are Kalatoin, Iso Majaslampi, Orajarvi and Pieni Majaslampi, all located over 80 metres above sea level.

One of the few inland islands in Espoo is an island of fifteen hectares in the lake Saarijarvi located near the border to Vihti.

Common mammal species present in Espoo include the European hare and the mountain hare, the raccoon dog, the red squirrel, the elk, the red fox, various bat species, the European badger, as well as the roe deer and the white-tailed deer, which was introduced to Finland in the 1930s as a gift from Finnish American migrants.

Suomenoja Bird Reserve in Finnoo, southern Espoo, is considered to be nationally significant for its bird diversity.

Espoo is located in a hemiboreal zone, known as the oak zone.

Air quality in Espoo is considerably good despite the negative effect of the traffic.

Espoo is located at a latitude of 60 degrees north, which causes the duration of daylight to vary considerably.

Espoo is among the northernmost places to have nautical dusk even at summer solstice, meaning the sun is at least six degrees below the horizon at the darkest hour of the night.

Postal codes in Espoo start with the digits "02", like in Kauniainen, Kirkkonummi and Siuntio as well.

Politically, Espoo is a clearly bourgeois city, with the largest party being the National Coalition Party.

Espoo contains many high income suburbs, and six out of the ten highest average income postal code areas in Finland are in Espoo.

The number of foreign language speakers in Espoo is smaller than in Vantaa, but larger than in Helsinki.

Still in the middle 19th century, Espoo was a rural community living in subsistence economy.

Espoo parish was not a neighbour of the city of Helsinki in the 19th century - there were lands of the Helsinki parish in between.

Related searches

Espoo is home to the head offices of several global companies and many high technology companies.

Espoo has signed the principles of responsible investment of the United Nations.

The city of Espoo has five investment funds: the basic services and land acquisition fund, the development fund of basic services, the development fund of entrepreneurship and employment, the investment fund and the accident fund.

Characteristic feature of Espoo is that the city manages its investments through its daughter companies.

Average income level in Espoo is higher than that in the rest of the capital region and particularly higher than that in the rest of Finland.

The unemployment rate in Espoo is high, but still lower than the average in Finland.

City of Espoo is not particularly segregated by major districts, instead the differences in income are significantly higher within the major districts as between them.

Espoo has several old manors of which two are open to the general public.

Cultural landscape in Espoo started developing in river valleys and on plantations cleared on bays revealed by upthrust of land.

Typical rural village in Espoo was small: two or three houses in an asymmetric group on a hill.

The building tradition in Espoo remained old-fashioned for a long time: low paired houses were common up to the late 19th century.

The Espoo manor was founded at the start of the new era, but most of the manor houses in Espoo had formed without an official founding in the late 18th century.

The manor houses in southern Espoo were mostly torn down to make way for new buildings and roads.

The rural landscapes in Espoo started gradually changing in the late 19th century as new villas were founded on the coast because of regular steamship traffic.

Espoo was seen as a healthy alternative to Helsinki, but new settlement coming from the east was diverse and new residential areas were very different from each other.

Espoo Blues was a successful hockey club; between 1998 and 2016 it iced a men's hockey team which played at the men's premier SM-liiga and a women's hockey team which played at the women's premier Naisten SM-sarja.

The Espoo United women's hockey team played at the highest level, Naisten Liiga, and won silver in the 2017 league championships.

Espoo United was active in basketball and the men's basketball team played at the second highest level; the women's basketball team played at the highest level, Naisten Korisliiga.

Espoo has two floorball teams playing at highest level Salibandyliiga.

Espoo is home to the Lansivaylajuoksu, an annual running event that starts and finishes in Otaniemi.

Related searches

Espoo is the birthplace of 2007 Formula One World Champion Kimi Raikkonen, former Dallas Stars forward Jere Lehtinen, former Formula One driver JJ Lehto, professional downhill mountain biker Matti Lehikoinen, professional ten-pin bowling star Osku Palermaa and 2009 European Figure Skating Champion Laura Lepisto.

Nationally, Espoo is a part of the constituency of Uusimaa.

Espoo is the home for the former Finns Party chairman Timo Soini.

Otaniemi campus of the Aalto University is located in Espoo, containing all six colleges of the university starting from Feburary 2019.

Espoo is home to the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences and local colleges of the Laurea University of Applied Sciences.

Jorvi Hospital is located in Karvasmaki in Espoo, cooperating with the Helsinki University Central Hospital and belonging to the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa.

The Finnish regional road 120 goes through northern Espoo, forming part of the old route of the Finnish national road 2.

Espoo is well-served by public transport, through the Helsinki commuter rail network, the Helsinki Metro's Lansimetro extension opened in November 2017, and buses provided by Helsingin seudun liikenne.

Data communications in Espoo have been handled by sixteen broadcast frequencies.

All local trains travelling through Espoo stop at Pasila railway station, with connections to Tampere and Saint Petersburg in Russia, and at Huopalahti railway station, with a P train connection to the Helsinki Airport in northern Vantaa.