Roads in Finland comprise 78,141 kilometres (48,555 mi) of highways, paved and gravel roads which are divided in four to five classes according to their local importance. The first-class highways are called Finnish: valtatiet or Swedish: riksvägar.
The total amount of public roads, private and forest roads and streets in Finland is about 454,000 kilometres (282,000 mi).
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The classification and numbering system of state-maintained roads of Finland is as follows:
Streets are maintained by the local municipality. Winter maintenance of roads and streets is managed by a local authority. Regional roads and connecting roads cf. county highways and roads. Main roads cf. Interstates or U.S. routes.
All main roads and almost all regional roads are paved. They are generally greater than 7 metres (23 ft) wide. About half of the connecting and local roads are paved. They are generally smaller, and care must be taken with regards to oncoming traffic, despite the general speed limit of 80 kilometres per hour (50 mph). Connecting and local roads are not usually marked with numbers, but with ordinary traffic signs.
The main highways are all paved and have at least two lanes; further, they are better maintained than main and regional roads. Historically they were labelled as causeways. Highways numbered from 1 to 7 radiate from the capital Helsinki (Highways 2, 5 and 6 diverge from 1, 4 and 7, respectively), while highways 8 to 10 radiate from Turku on the south-western coast of Finland. Highways 11 and 12 originate in Tampere. The rest of the highways start from other major cities.
Sections of highways between major cities have often been upgraded to motorways, for example between Helsinki and Tampere. Since Finland is a large and sparsely populated country, there is no reason to upgrade all highways to motorways.
Many private roads may be used as public ones, and may have different speed limits and different regulations from public roads. These are usually dead ends in the countryside. Private roads are maintained by the community using them, and maybe not be public rights of way (and denied communal subsidies). There is about 100,000 kilometres (62,000 mi) of these servicing the inhabitants of rural areas. Cottage roads comprise about as much and forest roads about 120,000 kilometres (75,000 mi). Some of these are not public rights of way, which is usually indicated by a sign. Forest roads are not regularly maintained, nor addressed for emergency services. Some ice roads, which form seasonally, depending on temperature, are maintained by the state, the longest one being the 7 km (4 mi) Koli Ice Road, which cuts 50 km (31 mi) off the distance between Lieksa and Koli. Private ice roads are also sometimes built by the inhabitants of lakeland and archipelago.
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