helsinki consists of 60 neighbourhoods ("kaupunginosa" in finnish; "stadsdel" in swedish). the division into neighbourhoods is the official division created by the city council and used for city planning and other similar purposes. most of the neighbourhoods have existed since the 19th century as numbered parts of the city, and official names were assigned to them in 1959. five neighbourhoods (numbers 55 – 59) were annexed on 1 january 2009.