Welcome to Oulu!
Oulu (Swedish: Uleåborg) is the biggest city in Northern Finland, with a bit more than 200,000 inhabitants (counting by the administrative borders, the city itself has a little less).
1 Oulu Tourist Information, Hallituskatu 36 B (right next to the railway station), ☏ +358 8 558 41330, touristinfo@ouka.fi. M–Th 09:00–17:00, F 09:00–16:00. Can help visitors to Oulu city and the wider region.
Oulu is a city, municipality, and seaside resort of 208,939 inhabitants (31 December 2021) in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in Northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, and Vantaa, and the fourth largest urban area in the country after Helsinki, Tampere, and Turku. Oulu's neighbouring municipalities are: Hailuoto, Ii, Kempele, Liminka, Lumijoki, Muhos, Pudasjärvi, Tyrnävä, and Utajärvi.
Due to its large population and geopolitically economic and cultural-historical location, Oulu has been called the "capital of Northern Finland". Oulu is also considered one of Europe's "living labs", where residents experiment with new technology (such as NFC tags and Ubi-screens) on a community-wide scale, especially the University of Oulu is internationally well known in the field of information technology. Oulu has also been very successful in recent urban image surveys, in a study published by the Finnish Economic Survey in 2008, it received the best ranking of large cities in image ratings across the country, including ratings from respondents in all provinces. Once known for wood tar and salmon, Oulu has evolved into a major high-tech center, particularly in IT and wellness technology. Other prominent industries include wood refining, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, paper, and steel. Oulu is chosen as the European Capital of Culture in 2026.