Southwest Finland, also known in English as Finland Proper (Finnish: Varsinais-Suomi, Swedish: Egentliga Finland) is the region in south-western Finland that borders the regions of Satakunta and Tavastia Proper. Its capital and biggest city is Turku with 182,000 inhabitants, which was also the most important city in Finland from its establishment around the 13th century until the 1840s.

The area comprising the southwest is largely the same as the historical province of Finland Proper, so named because it is the original home of the tribe known as the Finns. 5.7% of population of the region speaks Swedish natively.

The name of Finland Proper has a historial function. In historic times, in the area of the present southern Finland lived three tribes, which were the Finns, the Tavastians and the Karelians. The southwestern part of the country, the province where the Finns lived, was called simply Finland (Finnish: Suomi). In the 17th century the name began to be used to refer to the whole land and a specified name for the lesser Finland was required. The first notes Fennigia specialiter dicta and Fennigia presse dicta were recorded in Latin in the 1650s and the Swedish Finland för sig sielft and Egenteliga Finland later in the 18th century the modern form Egentliga Finland being in official use at the end of the century. The Finnish term Varsinais-Suomi became established only around the 1850s.

The region of Southwest Finland is made up of 27 municipalities, of which 11 have city status (marked in bold).

Åboland–Turunmaa sub-region:

Salo sub-region:

Turku sub-region:

Loimaa sub-region:

Vakka-Suomi sub-region:

Results of the Finnish parliamentary election, 2015 in Finland Proper:

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Wikipedia