Joensuu (lit. "mouth of the river") is a city and municipality in North Karelia in the province of Eastern Finland. It was founded in 1848. The population of Joensuu is 75,557 (March 31, 2016), although the economic region of Joensuu has a population of 115,000.

Joensuu is a lively student city with over 15,000 students enrolled at the University of Eastern Finland and a further 4,000 at the North Karelia University of Applied Sciences.

The largest employers are the municipal City of Joensuu, North Karelian Hospital District Federation of Municipalities, Abloy and Punamusta.

The European Forest Institute, the University and many other institutes and export enterprises such as Abloy and John Deere Forestry give Joensuu an international flavour. Joensuu is as typical of cities in Eastern Finland monolingually Finnish.

The city of Joensuu, which was founded by the Czar Nicholas I of Russia in 1848, is the regional centre and the capital of North Karelia. During the 19th century Joensuu was a city of manufacture and commerce. When in 1860 the city received dispensation rights to initiate commerce, former restrictions against industry were removed and the local sawmills began to prosper and expand. Water traffic was improved by the building and opening of the Saimaa Canal in 1856. Consequently, a lively commerce between the regions of North Karelia, St. Petersburg and Central Europe was enabled. At the end of the 19th century Joensuu was one of the largest harbour cities in Finland.

Throughout the centuries Karelian traders have plied the Pielisjoki River. The river has always been the lively heart of the city. Canals – completed by 1870 – increased the river traffic. Thousands of steamboats, barges and logging boats sailed along the river during the golden age of river traffic. The Pielisjoki River has also been an important log raft route, providing wood for the sawmills and for the entire lumber industry.

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