Puolanka is a municipality in Finland, located in the Kainuu region. It is a sparsely populated area in the country's north-central interior, and it is unilingually Finnish.
The municipality covers a total area of 2,598.68 square kilometres (1,003.36 sq mi), of which 137.3 square kilometres (53.0 sq mi) is water. With a population of 2,322 as of 31 December 2025, its population density is 0.94 inhabitants per square kilometre (2.4/sq mi), reflecting the dispersed settlement typical of the region.