| Description : Finland was predominantly rural until the end of the 1960s.
Finland's late industrialisation and rather weak social democracy explains the relatively late development of a Finnish
welfare state ‐ compared to Sweden and the other Nordic countries ‐ which only took place in the 1970s and 80s.
The aim of social security in the Nordic welfare model is to ensure a minimum income and adequate consumption for all
residents, including in the event of illness, unemployment, incapacity for work or old age. Some of the social security
benefits (e.g. the pension system) are based on gainful employment, while others are mainly based on residence in
Finland. Examples of residence‐based benefits are child benefits and day care. In Finland, healthcare spending
accounted for just under 10% of GDP in 2020 and social spending for 29% in 2022. In the 'World Happiness Report'
published by Columbia University, New York, since 2012, Finland ranked first among the happiest countries in the world in
2023 for the sixth year in a row ‐ not least thanks to its strong social safety net, excellent education system and
work‐life balance. The coin designer Dario Vidal has filled the outline of Finland with a meandering line
structure as a motif, which resembles the laying technique of the water pipes of an underfloor heating system. The
Åland archipelago is depicted in the form of a dot. "HYVINVOINTI VÄLFÄRD" (well‐being, in Finnish and
Swedish) is the text shown in a semicircle on the left. In the centre is the year of issue "2023", below the country
abbreviation "FI" (Finland) and on the right a lion (the heraldic animal of Finland) as the mint mark of the Finnish mint
Suomen Rahapaja OY in Vantaa. |
