The region got its name from Pirkkala, which in the Middle Ages comprised most of present-day Pirkanmaa.

The total population of Pirkanmaa was 529,100 on 30 June 2022,[4] which makes it the second largest among Finland's regions after Uusimaa.

King Gustav III founded Tampere in 1775, and in the 1840s it became Finland's most important industrial centre.

The region of Pirkanmaa consists of 23 municipalities, 12 of which have city status (marked in bold).

The region is one of Finland's main centers of manufacturing, has a long tradition of industrial activity and a good education network.

In the western part of the region, agricultural production is dominated by dairy cattle, in the south by cereals, and in the north by forestry.

[6][7][8] Pirkanmaa is a rather linguistically homogeneous region: in 2018, almost 490,000 people, or about 95 per cent of the county's population, spoke Finnish as their mother tongue.

[9] In the 2010s, the number of Finnish-speakers has increased only in Uusimaa, Pirkanmaa and Northern Ostrobothnia, and slightly in Southwest Finland and Åland.

[10] The Swedish-speaking settlement settled in Finland in the Middle Ages did not extend to the area of present-day Pirkanmaa, so the number and share of Finno-Swedes in the province is small.