Distributions of Mn, Zn, Cu, Ni, Cr, Pb, As, and Cd in Finnish surface waters were studied by comparing two data sets: samples from 154 headwater lakes collected by the Water and Environment Administration in 1992 and samples from 1165 headwater streams collected during the environmental geochemical mapping program of the Geological Survey of Finland in 1990. It was expected that headwater lakes with catchments smaller than 1 km²; and high lake percentage (ratio of lake area to catchment size) would be more influenced by atmospheric trace metal deposition than the streams, with average catchment size of 30 km²;.The lakes with highest arsenic concentrations lie in an area with greenstones and arsenic-rich black schists. The same lakes have high copper concentrations, which evidently are derived from the Cu-rich greenstones of the catchment. The high copper concentrations of streams and lakes in the industrialized region of the southwest coast are due to several anthropogenic sources.The highest concentrations of chromium occur in brown stream and lake waters rich in humic matter, while manganese and zinc concentrations, which are controlled by acidity, tend to be elevated in low-pH waters. The high nickel concentrations in lakes in southwestern Finland probably are due to anthropogenic input, while Ni anomalies in stream and lake water in eastern Finland are correlated with high Ni contents of glacial till. The lead concentrations in lakes are mainly of airborne anthropogenic origin.The pattern of atmospheric deposition is reflected in the concentrations of Cd, As, Cu, Zn, and Ni in headwater lakes, but land-use, the natural distribution of metals in the overburden, water acidity, and the amount of humic substances influence the distribution of trace metals in both lakes and streams. Thus the trace metal distribution in headwater lakes cannot be used alone to estimate the contribution of anthropogenic atmospheric deposition to metal anomalies in Finnish surface waters.