Editing Finland (section)

===After the war===
[[File:Urho-Kekkonen-1975b (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Urho Kekkonen]] was Finland's longest-serving president in 1956–1982.]]
The development of trade with the Western powers, such as the United Kingdom, and the payment of reparations to the Soviet Union led to Finland's transformation from a primarily [[agrarian society]] to an industrialised one. [[Valmet]], originally a shipyard and then several metal workshops, was established to produce materials for war reparations. After the reparations were paid, Finland continued to trade with the Soviet Union as part of [[bilateral trade]].

In 1950, 46% of Finnish workers were employed in agriculture and a third lived in urban areas, but new jobs in manufacturing, services and trade quickly attracted people to the cities.<ref name="populationdevelopment">{{cite web |url=https://stat.fi/tup/suomi90/joulukuu_en.html |title=Population development in independent Finland—greying Baby Boomers |date=5 December 2007 |website= |publisher=Statistics Finland |access-date=13 May 2024 |quote=Finland 1917–2007 |archive-date=13 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240513192149/https://stat.fi/tup/suomi90/joulukuu_en.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The average number of births per woman fell from a [[baby boom]] peak of 3.5 in 1947 to 1.5 in 1973. As the baby boomers entered the workforce, the economy failed to create jobs fast enough and hundreds of thousands emigrated to more industrialised Sweden, with emigration peaking in 1969 and 1970.<ref name="populationdevelopment" /> Finland participated in trade liberalisation in the [[World Bank]], the [[International Monetary Fund]] and the [[General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade]].

During the [[Cold War]], Finland officially embraced a policy of [[Neutral country|neutrality]]. The [[Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948|YYA Treaty]] (Finno-Soviet Pact of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance) recognized Finland's desire to remain outside great-power conflicts. From 1956 president [[Urho Kekkonen]] had a virtual monopoly on relations with the Soviet Union, which was crucial to his continued popularity. In politics, there was a tendency to avoid any policy or statement that could be interpreted as anti-Soviet. This phenomenon was dubbed "[[Finlandisation]]" by the West German press.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ford|first=Hal|title=ESAU -LVI – ''FINLANDIZATION'' IN ACTION: HELSINKI'S EXPERIENCE WITH MOSCOW|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/esau-55.pdf|series=DIRECTORATE OF INTELLIGENCE|date=August 1972|access-date=16 August 2020|archive-date=1 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201201214712/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/esau-55.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:2018_Helsinki,_Finland_(41401402010).jpg|thumb|left|[[Alvar Aalto]]'s [[Finlandia Hall]] hosted the [[Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe]] in 1975.]]
A [[market economy]] was maintained in Finland. Various industries benefited from trade privileges with the Soviets. Economic growth was rapid in the post-war period, and by 1975 Finland's GDP per capita was the 15th highest in the world. During the 1970s and 1980s, Finland built one of the most extensive [[welfare state]]s in the world. In 1973, Finland negotiated a treaty with the [[European Economic Community]] (EEC) that reduced tariffs, enhancing trade relations.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Finland GDP Per Capita 1960-2025 |url=https://macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/FIN/finland/gdp-per-capita |access-date=10 April 2025 |website=macrotrends.net}}</ref>

Miscalculated macroeconomic decisions, a [[Finnish banking crisis of 1990s|banking crisis]], the collapse of its largest trading partner, the Soviet Union, and a global economic downturn caused a deep recession in Finland in the [[Early 1990s depression in Finland|early 1990s]]. The recession bottomed out in 1993 and Finland enjoyed more than a decade of steady economic growth.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Uusitalo|first=Hannu|title=Economic Crisis and Social Policy in Finland in the 1990s|journal=Working Paper Series|url=https://www.sprc.unsw.edu.au/media/SPRCFile/dp070.pdf|series=SPRC Discussion Paper No. 70|date=October 1996|issn=1037-2741|access-date=21 January 2019|archive-date=9 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809051616/https://www.sprc.unsw.edu.au/media/SPRCFile/dp070.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Finland began to integrate more closely with the West.<ref>[http://formin.finland.fi/public/default.aspx?contentid=55802&contentlan=1&culture=fi-FI formin.finland.fi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105213131/http://formin.finland.fi/public/default.aspx?contentid=55802&contentlan=1&culture=fi-FI |date=5 January 2016 }}; ''Suurlähettiläs Jaakko Blomberg: Kylmän sodan päättyminen, Suomi ja Viro – Ulkoasiainministeriö: Ajankohtaista''. Retrieved 18 May 2016.</ref> Finland [[1995 enlargement of the European Union|joined]] the [[European Union]] in 1995 and the [[euro zone]] in 1999. Much of the economic growth of the late 1990s was fuelled by the success of mobile phone manufacturer [[Nokia]].<ref name="infoFinland.fi"/><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Kelly |first=Gordon |title=Finland and Nokia: an affair to remember |url=https://www.wired.com/story/finland-and-nokia/ |access-date=10 April 2025 |magazine=Wired |language=en-US |issn=1059-1028}}</ref>