Espoo (Esbo in Swedish) is a city on the Southern coast of Finland. It is part of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area along with Helsinki, Vantaa and Kauniainen. Espoo shares its western border with Helsinki and Vantaa, while enclosing Kauniainen. Other bordering municipalities are Nurmijärvi and Vihti in the north and Kirkkonummi in the west.

Espoo encompasses 528km², 312km² of which land. The current population is 227,472 (as of 2004-12-31).

Even though Espoo received its first permanent inhabitants during the 12th and 13th century, it would take until the 1950s for major developments to start. Due to its proximitity to Helsinki, Espoo soon became popular amongst the people working in the capital. The population grew from 22,000 in 1950 to 210,000 in 2000. The population growth still continues, albeit at a slower rate.

The purpose of the city has always been to preserve nature, while developing, which has led to the creation of several local 'city-centers'. Espoo is thus divided into the following major areas: Espoon keskus , Espoonlahti , Kalajärvi , Kauklahti, Leppävaara , Matinkylä-Olari , and Tapiola.

This decentralised nature has led to Espoo being jocularily called "Finland's only highway with city privileges".

The Helsinki University of Technology is based in Otaniemi, Espoo along with a thriving science community that includes numerous startups and organizations such as VTT - the Techical Research Center of Finland. Nokia, the telecommunications company, operates from Keilaranta , Espoo, along with other high-tech companies such as Kone , Fortum and the mobile telephony branch of Elisa.

External links

• City Website
• Helsinki University of Technology - located in Espoo