Most Swedish speakers in Finland can be found in population centres along the central portion of the country's long Baltic coast and around the capital, Helsinki, in the far south of the country.

Because of the shared history of Finland and Sweden and its 586km mutual border, the Swedish language has been used broadly in large tracts of Finland for centuries.

Swedish, or rather 'Finland Swedish', is the first language for about 5.5 per cent of Finland's population.

The linguistic balance is moderated by law. Bilingualism of municipalities is regulated by the Language Act of 2003.

When the minority in a certain municipality has increased to at least 3,000, or 8 per cent of its inhabitants, the municipality must become bilingual, meaning, among other requirements, that road signs and municipality paperwork be presented in both languages.

If the minority falls below 3,000, or 6 per cent of municipality's inhabitants, then the municipality must become monolingual.

The status is reviewed once every 10 years and enacted by a government decree issued by the Finnish Council of State.

This system has thrown up one apocryphal 'fact' - it is said that the municipality with the highest proportion of Swedish speakers in the world, Hammarland - 96 per cent Swedish-speaking in 2004 - is in Finland, not Sweden.

However, as no official language statistics are maintained in Sweden, thereby making verification impossible, it is likely that this fact is simply the answer to a trivia question that has done the rounds.

A common mistake made by many visiting Swedes to their Baltic neighbour is to mistake Finland Swedish for Swedish with a Finnish accent, something that can be a source of ire to Swedish-speaking Finns.

Any language adopts features, especially pronunciation patterns, from other languages it is commonly exposed to, but the pronunciation of Finland Swedish by a Swedish-speaking Finn is clearly different from that of monolingual Finnish speakers using Swedish as a foreign language.

It is an issue that can usually be resolved in a convivial manner and perhaps over a few glasses of aquavit, as often observed on the Helsinki-Stockholm ferry service - the premier nexus of friendship between the two nations.

In a 2005 'Eurobarometer' survey on the languages of the European Union, 60 per cent of adult Finns claimed to have some command of English, while 38 per cent claimed to have some command of Swedish.

And this highlights an advantage for visitors from this part of the world planning to visit Scandinavia on holiday or business.

English remains the lingua franca of the Baltic Region. But a bit of Swedish will go a long way in Finland, too.