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Geographic names

National Land Survey's geographic names are available as interfaces and files. Interfaces and file products comprise of place name products and map name products.

The place name products include data about approximately 800,000 named places and their names in different languages. Data about place are among others place type, plane location and height above sea level, and data about names are among others the spelling that has been checked by the Institute for the Languages of Finland and language (Finnish, Swedish, Northern Sami, Inari Sami or Skolt Sami. In the place name products, every place and its name or names appear only once.

The map name products contain the place names that have been selected for the National Land Survey's nine standard map products and information about the cartographical presentation of them. The information includes the location of the name on the map, for instance the coordinates of the left lower corner of the map text, the direction and bending of the text as well as typographical information, such as font type, size and colour. The name of a particular place, such as a river, can appear several times in the same map product.

The product is a part of the open data of the National Land Survey.

Purpose:

Checked and up-to-date geographic names information serve for instance the accurate communication between authorities and media, geocoding, spatial data systems, map production, map applications and their location searches, national and international standardisation of place names, geographical names planning, research in various fields and all those who need information about what is the correct or recommended way to spell the name of a particular place.

Geographic location
Entire Finland
Reference system
ETRS89 / TM35FIN(E,N) (EPSG:3067)
Spatial representation
Vector
Spatial representation info
Geometry only
Data content

Geographic names search service and file products containing geographic names

The Geographic names interface service is the Geographic names (OGC API Features) https://www.maanmittauslaitos.fi/en/maps-and-spatial-data/expert-users/kartta-ja-paikkatietojen-rajapintapalvelut/paikkatiedon.

Interface products for Geographic names search service (OGC API Features) are

• Places

• Place names

• Place names, simple

• Map names.

The contents of the products are equivalent to the interface products and their schema in the Geographic names (OGC API Features) https://www.maanmittauslaitos.fi/nimiston-kyselypalvelu-ogc-api. One file always contains the data about the entire country.

File products are

• Places

• Place names

• Place names, simple (only OGC API Features schema)

• Map names 1:25 000

• Map names 1:50 000

• Map names 1:100 000

• Map names 1:250 000

• Map names 1:500 000

• Map names 1:1 million

• Map names 1:2 million

• Map names 1:4,5 million

• Map names 1:8 million

The geographic names in Basic map 1:25 000 (Map names 1:25 000). Also available as a GML geographic names element of the Topographic database, see sub-elements of Topographic database (in Finnish):

https://www.maanmittauslaitos.fi/sites/maanmittauslaitos.fi/files/attachments/2020/06/Maastotietokannan%20sis%C3%A4ll%C3%B6n%20kuvaus%20teemoittain_p%C3%A4ivitys_2020.pdf

The geographic names in Topographic map 1:100,000 and 1:250,000 (Map names 1:100,000 and Map Names 1:250,000) and in General map 1:1,000,000 and 1:4,500,000 (Maps names 1:1,000,000 and Map names 1:4,500,000) are also available as a part of the corresponding map series in vector products, see

https://www.maanmittauslaitos.fi/en/maps-and-spatial-data/expert-users/product-descriptions/topographic-map-series-vector

Maintenance

The data in the product is updated every night.

The dataset in the Geographic names search service (OGC API Features) is updated once a day.

The GML file products according to the Geographic names search service (OGC API Features) in the NLS MapSite Download geospatial data -section are updated three times a year: in January, May, and September.

Lineage

The geographic names products are based on the National Land Survey's Place Name Register and the data checked by the Institute for the Languages of Finland.

Responsible party

National Land Survey of Finland

Conditions applying to access and use
Mention the name of the Licensor (the National Land Survey of Finland), the name of the dataset(s) and the time when the National Land Survey has delivered the dataset(s) (e.g.: contains data from the National Land Survey of Finland Topographic Database 06/2014).
Distribution format
XML/GML, GeoJSON

Processing fees for Geographic names

Product Price € (excl. VAT) Price € (incl. VAT)
7710306791
Processing of Geographic names, EUR per hour
101,21 125,50
Not based on a decree