An Overview of Public Administration

At the core of central government are Parliament, the Government and the President of the Republic. Central government also includes the ministries and the agencies and institutions operating under them.

Municipalities are the basic units of local self-government. They are responsible for education, early childhood education and care, and local infrastructure, among other things. A municipality may have several service units, municipal enterprises and municipally owned companies, as well as joint organisations established by several municipalities. These joint organisations are known as joint municipal authorities.

Wellbeing services counties, in turn, organise social welfare and healthcare services as well as rescue services.

Public administration also includes what is known as indirect public administration, such as the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela), the Bank of Finland and universities. These organisations are not always public authorities, but they perform public functions or exercise public authority.

Only 16% of public administration employees work in central government, while the remaining 84% work in local government, namely in municipalities and wellbeing services counties. The number of employees in central government has declined significantly. You can explore central government personnel statistics in the Central Government section.