Joensuu

Joensuu (; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Karelia. It is located in the eastern interior of the country and in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Joensuu is approximately , while the sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the -most populous municipality in Finland, and the 9th-most populous urban area in the country.

OverviewAI-generated

Joensuu is a city and municipality in Finland, situated in the North Karelia region and the Joensuu sub-region. It has at various times been part of the Northern Karelia Province and the Kuopio Province. The city was founded on January 1, 1848, by Nicholas I of Russia. Its official name is Joensuun kaupunki, and Finnish is the official language.

The municipality covers an area of 2750.96 square kilometers and has a population of 79,129. It shares borders with Lieksa, Ilomantsi, Tohmajärvi, and Rääkkylä. Joensuu is located in the Europe/Helsinki time zone, which corresponds to UTC+02:00 and UTC+03:00. The city’s elevation is 82 meters above sea level.

Joensuu is twinned with Linköping Municipality, Hof, Vilnius, and Ísafjörður. The local postal codes range from 80100 to 80199 and 80200 to 80299.

Synthesized by Vinony from 49 facts across 7 sources: Wikidata, Open Meteo, Openweathermap, OpenStreetMap, Firecrawl, Vinony graph, Geo. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Weather now

cached 15h ago

8°clear sky

100% 0.5 m/s OpenWeatherMap

7-day forecast

via Open-Meteo

Place details

Locality: Joensuu
Region: Pohjois-Karjala
Country: Suomi / Finland

via OpenStreetMap · GeoNames

Air quality

37US AQIGood

PM2.5: 3.9 µg/m³
PM10: 4.3 µg/m³

As of 2026-08-11 03:00 · Open-Meteo

Key facts

Settlement.subdivision_type: Country
Settlement.subdivision_type1: Region
Settlement.subdivision_name1: North Karelia
Settlement.subdivision_type2: Sub-region
Settlement.name: Joensuu
Settlement.nicknames: Jönssi, Jenssi
Settlement.settlement_type: City
Settlement.image_skyline: Joensuu 2021 Montage.jpg
Settlement.image_caption: Clockwise from top-left: the Joensuu Arena, the North Karelia Central Hospital, the Joensuu Airport, the Joensuu Railway Station, and the fountain in the park; in the middle from top to bottom: the Joensuu City Hall, The Gate of Joensuu (Joensuun portti) near the market square, and the Statue of Liberty in the Park of Liberty
Settlement.image_flag: Joensuu.lippu.svg
Settlement.flag_size: 120x70px
Settlement.image_shield: Joensuu.vaakuna.svg
Settlement.shield_size: 120x80px
Settlement.image_map: Joensuu sijainti Suomi.svg
Settlement.map_caption: Location of Joensuu in Finland
Settlement.mapframe: yes
Settlement.mapframe marker: city
Settlement.subdivision_name2: Joensuu

via Wikipedia infobox

Official website

Joensuu - Helppo hengittää

joensuu.fi →

Link to the official site · 16,973 chars · not written by Vinony

Travel guide

Understand

Joensuu ("River's mouth" in Finnish) is near the point where the Pielisjoki river flows into the Lake Pyhäselkä. It is one of the relatively fast growing centres in Eastern Finland. The University of Eastern Finland supplies a constant stream of fresh student meat from all over the country and exchange students from abroad. Joensuu's industry, as well as a large part of the University programs, is dominated by forestry.

See

thumb|The City Hall of Joensuu

Do

Football: JIPPO plays soccer in Ykkösliiga, the second tier. Their home ground Mehtimäki (capacity 1000) is 500 m west of town centre. The playing season is April-Oct.

Buy

thumb|Commerce at the Market Place

Drink

There are plenty of pubs around the city centre.

Go next

Ski resort and national park of Koli north of the city. You can reach Koli ski resort by bus of Matkahuolto.

Travel guide from Wikivoyage (CC BY-SA 4.0)

~14 min read

Encyclopedic overview

19 sections

Contents

Heraldry
History
Geography
Climate
Demographics
Population
Languages
Immigration
Religion
Economy
Transport
Sports
Education
Notable people
Friendship cities
See also
Notes
References
External links

Joensuu was founded in 1848 by the Russian Emperor Nicholas I during Grand Duchy of Finland period. The city is located on the northern shore of Lake Pyhäselkä, the northern part of Lake Saimaa, at the mouth of the River Pielinen. The nearest major city, Kuopio in North Savo, is located to the west. From Joensuu, the distance to Lappeenranta, the capital of South Karelia, is along Highway 6.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Joensuu” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.