List of Famous people born in South Karelia, Finland

Marja-Liisa Kirvesniemi is a Finnish former cross-country skier.

Hanna Helena Pakarinen is a Finnish pop and pop-rock singer who rose to fame as the winner of the first series of the Finnish singing competition Idols in 2004. Since then she has represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2007 on homeland, and has sold over 91,000 certified records in Finland, which places her among the top 50 best-selling female soloists in her home country.

Ville Heimo Antero Itälä is the Director-General of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and a former a Finnish politician. He was elected member of the Finnish Parliament (Eduskunta) from the district of Southwest Finland in 1995. Itälä served as the Minister of the Interior under Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen from September 2000 to April 2003. He was elected chairman of the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) in 2001. Following his resignation as party leader in 2004, he was succeeded by Jyrki Katainen. Itälä was a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 until 29 February 2012. He was a member of the European Court of Auditors from 2012 until February 2018. Since August 2018 he is the Director-General of OLAF.

Ivan Fedotov is a Russian professional ice hockey goaltender. He is currently playing with HC CSKA Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).

Jaska Raatikainen is a Finnish musician, he is best known as the former drummer and co-founder of the band Children of Bodom from 1993 until his departure in 2019. He is currently in the project called Mercury Circle.

Jaakko Hänninen is a Finnish cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam AG2R Citroën Team. Having competed for French amateur teams from 2016, Hänninen joined AG2R La Mondiale in August 2019. In October 2020, he was named in the startlist for the 2020 Giro d'Italia.

Jukka Paarma was the Archbishop of Turku and Finland, and the spiritual head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. He retired as Archbishop on 1 June 2010.