Åland has been an independent and demilitarized area of Finland since 1920, according to a League of Nations resolution. It is Finland's smallest region in terms of area and population, with 1,580 square kilometers and a population of 30,129, accounting for 0.51 percent of its land area and 0.54 percent of its population. Its sole official language is Swedish, and the capital city is Mariehamn.
Åland is part of the Åland Islands archipelago, which is located near the entrance to Finland's Gulf of Bothnia in the Baltic Sea. It consists of Fasta Åland, where 90 percent of the population lives, and 6,500 skerries and islands to the east. Around 60-80 of Åland's hundreds of islands are inhabited. Fasta Åland is separated from the Swedish shore of Roslagen by 38 kilometers (24 miles) of open sea to the west. The Åland archipelago is connected with the Finnish archipelago towards the east. Åland has its sole land boundary with Sweden on the deserted skerry of Märket. A ferry ride from Mariehamn takes around 160 kilometers (99 miles) to Turku, a seaside city on mainland Finland, as well as to Stockholm, Sweden's capital.
Because of the independent position of Åland, the province functions ordinarily held by representatives of the central Finnish government are mostly exercised by its own administration. Åland's present demilitarized, neutral status goes back to the days of the Paris Peace Treaty after the Åland War in the 1850s. The autonomous status celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2021.