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Ethnic Finns share a common language and culture, although it is common to make a sub-division between Eastern and Western Finns. The Eastern Finns are more influenced by Karelian cultural traits, while the Western Finns are more influenced by Finland-Swedish and Scandinavian culture and language.

It's a matter of definition whether the Karelians are to be counted as part of the more narrow concept Ethnic Finns or to the wider concept of Finnic peoples. As a legacy of the important FennomanThe Fennomans were the most important political movement in the 19th century Grand Duchy of Finland. After the Crimean War, they founded the Finnish Party and intensified the language strife attempting to rise the Finnish language and culture from peasant Movement, Karelians are thought of as the "purest source" for Finnishness, particularly East KareliaEast Karelia also Eastern Karelia or Russian Karelia is a name for the part of Karelia that since the Treaty of Stolbova in 1617 has remained Christian Orthodox under Russian supremacy. It is separate from the western part of Karelia, called Finnish Karelns — but religiously the East Karelians are Russian Orthodox while the Finns in Finland and Scandinavia are of Lutheran faith.

Also the Ingrian FinnsThe Ingrian Finns inkerilainen or inkerin suomalainen is a Lutheran Finnic people traditionally inhabiting the Saint Petersburg area and Northern Estonia ( Ingria). They are primarily distinguished by their Protestant religion from other Finnic peoples of are Lutherans, which may have contributed to their survival as an ethnos of their own despite harsh treatment in Stalinist and post-Stalinist Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR ( Russian: ; tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik (SSSR) also called the Soviet Union ( ; tr. Sovetsky Soyuz , was a state in much of the northern region of Eurasia that existed from 1922 until 1, contrary to that of the Finnic Izhorians of IngriaHistorically Ingria Inkeri comprises the area along the basin of the river Neva, between the Gulf of Finland, the Narva River, Lake Peipsi in South-West, and Lake Ladoga in North-East. The traditional border to Karelia followed the Sestra Rajajoki /Syster. Many of the Ingrian Finns descend from 17th century settlers arriving in IngriaHistorically Ingria Inkeri comprises the area along the basin of the river Neva, between the Gulf of Finland, the Narva River, Lake Peipsi in South-West, and Lake Ladoga in North-East. The traditional border to Karelia followed the Sestra Rajajoki /Syster from Savonia and Finnish Karelia, which may speak for including them among the ethnic Finns.

The Sami people are seen neither as ethnic Finns nor as Finnic, but as one of the more distantly akin Finno-Ugric peoples. The chief distinction made by the Finns is that the Finnic culture is traditionally an agrarian culture &mdasn; and north of the Gulf of Finland, one dominated by small distantly located farms &mdasn; while the Sami culture is thought of as traditionally (Pastoralist) nomadic, living and moving in larger extended families.