Kajaani is a town and municipality in Finland.
It is the capital of the Kainuu region. It is located southeast of Oulujärvi (Lake Oulu), which drains to the Gulf of Bothnia along the Oulujoki (river Oulu). There are 37,941 (30 September 2012) inhabitants and city surface area is 2,264.01 square kilometers (874.14 sq mi) of which 428.94 km2 (165.61 sq mi) is water. The population density is 20.68 inhabitants per square kilometer (53.6 /sq mi) . The town is unilingual Finnish.
Kajaani is in the center of the region of Kainuu. Folklorist Elias Lönnrot began his travels from here when collecting folklore in Karelia
