Kainuu


Kainuu is one of the 19 regions of Finland. Kainuu borders the regions of North Ostrobothnia, North Savo and North Karelia. In the east, it also borders Russia.
Culturally, Kainuu is part of the larger Eastern-Finnish cultural heritage. The dialect of Kainuu resembles Savonian and Karelian dialects.

Geography

make up most of the biome in Kainuu. The forest in Kainuu mostly consists of birches, pines and spruces. The atypical regional geography and landscape consist of lakes, hills and vast uninhabited forest areas.
The largest lake in the region is the Oulujärvi, one of the largest lakes in Finland. Its shorelines, open waters and islands in Kainuu belong to the municipalities of Paltamo and Kajaani.
The highest point in Kainuu is the Iso Tuomivaara, located in the municipality of Hyrynsalmi. The regional climate is continental. The three most populous urban areas in Kainuu are Kajaani town center, Vuokatti village in Sotkamo municipality, and Kuhmo town center.

History

Pre-history

The oldest archeological finds of human inhabitation in the area of Kainuu are from around 6800–6000 BCE. The Suomusjärvi culture spread to Kainuu from the south and was strongest around Vaala, which was near the coast of Ancylus Lake. Later finds from the time of the Comb Ceramic culture prove trade connections to the area of Karelia in the east. The Comb Ceramic culture spread to Kainuu quickly, already in the Early Comb Ceramic period. A style of Comb Ceramic called Säräisniemi Ceramic 1 emerged in Kainuu, North Ostrobothnia, Southern Lapland, Karelia and Northern Norway. Half of Sär 1 discoveries in Finland are from Kainuu. It is not known where the Sär 1 style originated from, though the area around the Oulujärvi lake has been suggested. Later, when the Comb Ceramic styles of coastal and inland Finland split into two, the style used in Kainuu was Asbestos-ceramic.
Pre-historic people in Kainuu lived by hunting and fishing, most bone findings in human settlements being of beavers and moose. Findings of flax pollen from the turn of the Bronze Age suggest the cultivating of flax in Paltamo. Around the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, metallic findings from Kainuu become nearly non-existent. Despite this, it is considered to be unlikely that human inhabitation had ended in the area. It is thought that in this time period, the people spoke a Proto-Sámic language, but archaeological findings culturally linked to Sámi have not been found this south. The spread of the Asbestos-ceramic culture in the north of Fennoscandia has been thought to be a sign of the area turning Sámi. The inhabitants of Kainuu in the Early Iron Age were likely then hunter-gathering Sámi, even if genetically and linguistically differing from modern Sámi. If the population density at the time was the same as among Forest Sámi in Finland in the year 1600 CE, there would've been around 350 individuals living in pre-historic Kainuu.

Historical province

Municipalities

The region of Kainuu consists of eight municipalities, two of which have city status.

Sub-regions

Kajaani sub-region
Kehys-Kainuu
Coat of
arms		MunicipalityPopulationLand area
Density
Finnish
speakers		Swedish
speakers		Other
speakers
Hyrynsalmi % % %
Kajaani % % %
Kuhmo % % %
Paltamo % % %
Puolanka % % %
Ristijärvi % % %
Sotkamo % % %
Suomussalmi % % %
Total % % %-

Former municipalities

The administrative capital of Kainuu is Kajaani.
Vaala, formerly one of the nine municipal members of the Kainuu region became part of the Northern Ostrobothnia in the beginning of the year 2016.
''The municipality of Vaala is still counted as part of the region in the end of 2015.''

Economy

In 2012 Kainuu region had a total of 29 722 jobs. The largest sector in the employment market of Kainuu is the service sector with 73,7 % share of the regions entire employed workforce. The industrial and construction sector follow as the 2nd largest actor with 17,6 % of the employed working under these fields. Third largest sector is the forest industry and agriculture with a 7,5 % workforce. The smallest uncounted factor in these statistics are the miscellaneous jobs that do not fit easily under any of three general terms mentioned above. The miscellaneous jobs form 336 1,2 % of the region's workforce.
The total unemployment of Kainuu was in 2014 6 001 which is 16,9 % of the workforce of the area. The nationwide average at the time was 12,4 %. The worst unemployment was in the town of Kuhmo with 19,6 % people unemployed. The town with the least amount of unemployment was the municipality of Sotkamo with 14,1 % people unemployed. Kainuu has a total of 4301 firms by each sector in its economy. Three of the largest sectors are Agriculture, forestry and fishing, wholesale and retail trade and construction. The smallest three are education, mining & quarrying and information & communication.
State, municipal and private sectors are the three big players in the regions employment market. Private sector is the largest actor in the region with 51% of the workforce working on it. Municipal sector comes up to 29% and the state has 7% of the workforce. Statewide averages are 58% for the private, 23% for the municipal and 6% for the state sectors. The number of companies in the region of Kainuu is 3 429.

Education

The regional education qualification level is at 67,4 % between the age groups of 15 years and over. The average of women in the region for the educational qualification is 67,4 % and for men 67,3 %. The nationwide average is 69,4% for the whole age group and the nationwide average for women is 70,1 % and for men 68,7%. Based on these numbers Kainuu has the 8th lowest educational level out of the 19 regions of Finland.
Kainuu has several further education institutes and organizations that are centralized in the town of Kajaani. These are Kajaani University of Applied Sciences, AIKOPA and Kainuu Vocational College. Many of the municipalities and towns also offer education for the upper secondary education.
Kajaani University of Applied Sciences offers education, research, development and innovation services. These happen in the fields of activity tourism, nursing and health care, business and innovation, information systems and mechanical engineering. The students number at 2000 in the KAMK and the staff at 235.
AIKOPA is part of KAMK's and University of Oulu's service that is provided for joint adult and continuing education. AIKOPa offers services like education, expertise, research and development at the higher education level.
The Kainuu Vocational College has a goal to give training, vocational and basic skills for both the young people and adults who number approximately at 2600. KAO has six different field of education through which students and the adults alike can receive qualification and training. These are technology and transportation, tourism, catering and domestic services, natural resources, healthcare, culture and business and administration.

Transportation

Kainuu has a total of 4 732 kilometers of road network and the average of 505 private cars / 1000 inhabitants.
The air traffic of Kainuu had 81 854 cumulative passengers of which 77 981 were domestic and 3 873 were international passengers. The only major airport in the region is the Kajaani airport which is located some 7 kilometers northwest from the Kajaani town center.
The Kajaani railway station works as the central hub for the Kainuu regions train passenger and freight transportation. The passenger traffic from and to Kajaani railway station runs between the line 13 of Helsinki-Kajaani and the line 14A of Oulu-Kontiomäki.

Tourism and culture

Tourism is a significant factor in the regional economics of Kainuu. The region is marketed as the Arctic Lakeland, where features of Lapland and the Finnish lake district overlap. The two most important seasons for the region's tourism are winter and summer. Winter season is the more popular one amongst the tourists and travelers, although the single most popular month for the overnight stays in Kainuu is July. The count for the nights spent in the Kainuu region was 970 953 in the year of 2014. Domestic tourism forms a major part of the annual tourism. Around 10% of the annual tourism of the regions comes from the international tourism. The variation of this number is dependent on the economic turns that have caused drops in the Russian tourism towards the Kainuu region in which the Russians have been the single largest customer group.
Kainuu region has three major sports and ski resorts, which are Paljakka, Ukkohalla and Vuokatti. These resorts offer various sport possibilities for different seasons such as skiing, downhill skiing and hiking among others.
Outside the sport resorts there are also tourism related service clusters and networks such as Wild Taiga which offers various services from different actors of Kuhmo and Suomussalmi municipalities. Other significant regional points of interest from the perspective of tourism are the areas around Oulujärvi, Kajaani and Ristijärvi.
In tourism Oulujärvi is concentrated on offering services in water and culture based tourism around the lake. Kajaani, the town on the shores of the lake, is the capital of Kainuu and the central transportational hub in the area. The town is central for the tourists who come to the Kainuu region either by train or by plane to the Kajaani Airport.
Kajaani offers many commercial and culturally related services for tourists. The historical village of Paltaniemi in Kajaani is well known as the birthplace of the Finnish poet Eino Leino, and Elias Lönnrot lived in the same village when he compiled the Finnish national epic Kalevala. The writer Ilmari Kianto also influenced the Kainuu region, and through his works, Kianto made known the description of the Kainuu poor people at the time. Other examples of these cultural services includes the Town Theater, Kaukametsä Culture and Congress Center, Kainuu Museum and the Kajaani Art Museum and many others. Kajawood, a film production company, also known as the "Finnish Hollywood", is located in Sotkamo, Kainuu.