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Other quirkiness: - Finland has 45 firearms per 100 people (3rd highest in the world) yet is was ranked the safest country in the world. - Enough saunas that

Other quirkiness: - Finland has 45 firearms per 100 people (3rd highest in the world) yet is was ranked the safest country in the world. - Enough saunas that the whole population could do it at the same time. - Most heavy metal bands, per population. - Annual championships in wife-carrying, air-guitar, boot and phone throwing, sauna, cattle calling, swamp soccer, mosquito swatting, ant nest sitting, etc. - Mämmi: food that looks like diarrhea. - Candies made of tar. - Birch branches are used to whip yourself with in sauna. - New years tradition of throwing melted tin in water. The shape tells of the future. - Easter tradition of kids dressing up as witches and going trick-or-treating. - No trespassing laws, so you can roam and camp anywhere (although not too close to anyone's home). - Finland is a 3rd world country by the original cold war definition (politically non-aligned with either NATO or the Communist block).

doikor 8y ago
> - Annual championships in wife-carrying, air-guitar, boot and phone throwing, sauna, cattle calling, swamp soccer, mosquito swatting, ant nest sitting, etc. We stopped doing the sauna world championships after one guy died and another ended up in a coma. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Sauna_Championships#2010_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Sauna_Championships#2010...
pimeys 8y ago
And a tendency to meet at the market square every time somebody mentions the country.
digi_owl 8y ago
> - Finland has 45 firearms per 100 people (3rd highest in the world) yet is was ranked the safest country in the world. I wonder what the ratio between hunting and handguns are...
- AltVanilla 8y ago
  I googled a bit. Officially Finland has 1.5 million firearms. Mainly for hunting and sport. Handguns make up only 0.2 million, which is about 13%. Most all murders in Finland are done with a knife while drunk. (The Finnish police, which keeps a database of firearm permits, objected to the mentioned study that Finland is ranked 3rd in the world. The study was updated and now Finland is ranked "only" 8th: http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/T-Briefing-Papers/SAS-BP-Civilian-Firearms-Numbers.pdf http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/T-Briefing-Pap... )
- P5Wl 8y ago
  That statistic is not correct, anyway. It's an outdated estimate by a single entity, with an unsubstantiated claim for a huge number of unregistered weaponry. More commonly accepted estimates put Finland in line with many other European countries at around 30 firearms per 100 people. Most of those are indeed hunting rifles. (In Finland, like perhaps most other European countries, you need a license to buy or legally own a firearm. A gun license requires an acceptable reason like hunting or sports; notably, self defense is not one for the general public.)
usr1106 8y ago
> yet is was ranked the safest country in the world. Don't trust any statistics you haven't fabricated yourself. While you are unlikely to be shot in a robbery in Finland there are many categories where Finland is far from being the safest country in the world: * suicide rate is still very high. e.g. 50% higher than Sweden (despite having gone down a lot in the last 20 years). Is it a safe society were people end up killing themselves? * murder rate is one of the highest ones in Western Europe. Well, Finland would like belong to Western Europe, although geographically it is far in the East, deep in the vodka belt, which is part of the explanation. Firearms might well be "underrepresented" in the murders, but that doesn't make it any safer for those being murdered. * drowning rate is high (a combination of too much alcohol and many lakes) * dying in building fires is more common than in many other countries (again too much alcohol so you cannot leave the bed lit by a cigarette is not a good starting point) * road traffic is at most mid-range in European comparison. Nothing close to being the safest one.

doikor 8y ago

> - Annual championships in wife-carrying, air-guitar, boot and phone throwing, sauna, cattle calling, swamp soccer, mosquito swatting, ant nest sitting, etc. We stopped doing the sauna world championships after one guy died and another ended up in a coma. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Sauna_Championships#2010_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Sauna_Championships#2010...

pimeys 8y ago

And a tendency to meet at the market square every time somebody mentions the country.

digi_owl 8y ago

> - Finland has 45 firearms per 100 people (3rd highest in the world) yet is was ranked the safest country in the world. I wonder what the ratio between hunting and handguns are...

AltVanilla 8y ago
I googled a bit. Officially Finland has 1.5 million firearms. Mainly for hunting and sport. Handguns make up only 0.2 million, which is about 13%. Most all murders in Finland are done with a knife while drunk. (The Finnish police, which keeps a database of firearm permits, objected to the mentioned study that Finland is ranked 3rd in the world. The study was updated and now Finland is ranked "only" 8th: http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/T-Briefing-Papers/SAS-BP-Civilian-Firearms-Numbers.pdf http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/T-Briefing-Pap... )
P5Wl 8y ago
That statistic is not correct, anyway. It's an outdated estimate by a single entity, with an unsubstantiated claim for a huge number of unregistered weaponry. More commonly accepted estimates put Finland in line with many other European countries at around 30 firearms per 100 people. Most of those are indeed hunting rifles. (In Finland, like perhaps most other European countries, you need a license to buy or legally own a firearm. A gun license requires an acceptable reason like hunting or sports; notably, self defense is not one for the general public.)

usr1106 8y ago

> yet is was ranked the safest country in the world. Don't trust any statistics you haven't fabricated yourself. While you are unlikely to be shot in a robbery in Finland there are many categories where Finland is far from being the safest country in the world: * suicide rate is still very high. e.g. 50% higher than Sweden (despite having gone down a lot in the last 20 years). Is it a safe society were people end up killing themselves? * murder rate is one of the highest ones in Western Europe. Well, Finland would like belong to Western Europe, although geographically it is far in the East, deep in the vodka belt, which is part of the explanation. Firearms might well be "underrepresented" in the murders, but that doesn't make it any safer for those being murdered. * drowning rate is high (a combination of too much alcohol and many lakes) * dying in building fires is more common than in many other countries (again too much alcohol so you cannot leave the bed lit by a cigarette is not a good starting point) * road traffic is at most mid-range in European comparison. Nothing close to being the safest one.