🇫🇮 Espoo is a city and municipality in the region of Uusimaa in the Republic of Finland. It is located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordering the cities of Helsinki and Vantaa, while surrounding the enclaved town of Kauniainen. The city is the 2nd-most populous city in Finland. Espoo forms a major part of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Helsinki.
Espoo was first settled in the Prehistoric Era, with the first signs of human settlements going back as far as 8,000 years, but the population effectively disappeared in the early stages of the Iron Age. In the Early Middle Ages, the area was resettled by Tavastians and Southwestern Finns. After the Northern Crusades, Swedish-speaking peasants started migrating en masse to the coastal areas of present-day Finland, and Espoo was established as a self-governing Catholic parish in the 15th century. In the aftermath of the Finnish War, the establishment of Helsinki as the new capital of the Russian-controlled Grand Duchy of Finland in 1812 greatly benefited the development of the municipality. However, the area remained largely agrarian, until the 20th century. 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. The municipality became a market town in 1963 and gained city status in 1972.
The cityscape is dominated by detached housing and suburban environment, and the city itself is known for its large natural areas, including its long shoreline—58 km in total—and archipelago, forests, lakes and a national park. Administratively, the city is divided into seven major districts, and each major district is further divided into smaller districts and neighbourhoods. Espoo has no traditional city centre; instead, it has five distinct city centres—Leppävaara, Tapiola, Matinkylä, Espoon keskus and Espoonlahti—and numerous local centres, many of which are formed around historical manors.
Aalto University is based in Otaniemi, Espoo, along with a thriving science community that includes numerous startups and organizations such as VTT – the Technical Research Center of Finland. 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.
1Espoo was ranked #1258 by the Nomad List which evaluates and ranks remote work hubs by cost, internet, fun and safety. Espoo has a population of over 292,913 people. Espoo also forms one of the centres of the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area which has a population of over 1,671,024 people. Espoo is the #405 hipster city in the world, with a hipster score of 1.5902 according to the Hipster Index which evaluates and ranks the major cities of the world according to the number of vegan eateries, coffee shops, tattoo studios, vintage boutiques, and record stores.
To set up a UBI Lab for Espoo see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork
Twin Towns, Sister Cities Espoo has links with:
🇨🇳 Changning, China 🇭🇺 Esztergom, Hungary 🇷🇺 Gatchina, Russia 🇺🇸 Irving, USA 🇳🇴 Kongsberg, Norway 🇸🇪 Kristianstad, Sweden 🇩🇰 Køge, Denmark 🇪🇪 Nõmme, Estonia 🇨🇳 Qingpu District, China 🇮🇸 Sauðárkrókur, Iceland 🇨🇳 Shanghai, China 🇮🇸 Skagafjörður, Iceland 🇷🇺 Sochi, Russia🇳🇴 Kongsvinger 60.233
🇷🇺 Sestroretsk 60.1
🇷🇺 Vsevolozhsk 60.033
🇧🇬 Asenovgrad 24.867
🇺🇦 Kamin-Kashyrskyi 24.95
Locations Near: Espoo 24.8134,60.1676
🇫🇮 Helsinki 24.933,60.167 d: 6.6
🇫🇮 Vantaa 25.033,60.283 d: 17.7
🇫🇮 Riihimäki 24.767,60.733 d: 63
🇪🇪 Lasnamäe 24.817,59.433 d: 81.7
🇪🇪 Kesklinn 24.75,59.433 d: 81.7
🇪🇪 Tallinn 24.733,59.433 d: 81.8
🇫🇮 Porvoo 25.67,60.396 d: 53.6
🇫🇮 Hämeenlinna 24.459,60.997 d: 94.2
Antipodal to: Espoo -155.187,-60.168
🇵🇫 Papeete -149.566,-17.537 d: 15253.4
🇹🇴 Nuku'alofa -175.216,-21.136 d: 15398.4
🇦🇸 Pago Pago -170.701,-14.279 d: 14758.5
🇼🇸 Apia -171.76,-13.833 d: 14688.4
🇺🇸 Hilo -155.089,19.725 d: 11131.4
🇺🇸 Maui -156.446,20.72 d: 11020.1
🇺🇸 Maui County -156.617,20.868 d: 11003.4
🇺🇸 Kahului -156.466,20.891 d: 11001