Demographics of Finland

FIRAT GULLU
Medical University Of Sofia
Source : www.stat.fi/



Finland numbers some 5.4 million and has an average population density of 17 inhabitants per square
kilometre. This makes it the third most sparsely populated country in Europe, after Iceland and Norway.
Population distribution is very uneven: the population is concentrated on the small southwestern coastal
plain. About 64% live in towns and cities, with one million living in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area alone.
In Arctic Lapland, on the other hand, there are only 2 people to every square kilometre.
The country is ethnically homogeneous, the dominant ethnicity being Finnish people. The official
languages are Finnish andSwedish, the latter being the native language of about five per cent of the
Finnish population.There is a
historical and a political
explanation for the status of
Swedish as an official language.
From the 13th to the early 19th
century Finland was a part of the
Kingdom of Sweden. The status of
the language has remained to these
days as the Swedish speaking
minority had a relatively high
degree of power in Finland
compared to its size. The Swedish-
speakers are known as Swedish-
speaking Finns(finlandssvenskar in
Swedish, suomenruotsalaiset in
Finnish).
With 79 percent of Finns in its
congregation, the Lutheran
Church is the largest in the
country.
The earliest inhabitants of most of
the land area that makes up
today's Finland and Scandinavia
were in all likehood hunter-
gatherers whose closest successors
in modern terms would probably
be the Sami people (formerly
known as the Lapps). There are
4,500 of them living in Finland
today and they are recognised as a
minority and speak three distinct languages: Northern Sami, Inari Sami and Skolt Sami. They have been
living north of the Arctic Circle for more than 7,000 years now, but today are a 5% minority in their
native Lapland Province. During the late 19th and 20th century there was significant emigration,
particularly from rural areas to Sweden and North America, while most immigrants into Finland itself
come from other European countries.

Population


At the end of
2008:
5,304,840
At the end of
2009:
5,351,427
At the end of
2010:
5,375,276







Finnish population pyramid in 2005.
* Male: left, dark blue.
*Female: right, light blue.



Age Structure

0-14 years: 16.6% (male 459,950; female 441,220)
15-64 years: 66.4% (male 1,772,600; female 1,734,450)
65 years and over: 17.0% (male 351,180; female 517,530)











Population Pie
15-64 years
65 years and over
0-14 years

Birth Rate (In 1.000 Population)

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
10.8 10.69 10.6 10.54 10.56 10.5 10.45 10.42 10.39 10.38 10.37 10.37


Death Rate (In 1.000 Population)
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
9.73 9.75 9.78 9.82 9.69 9.79 9.86 9.93 10 10.07 10.15 10.24




Population growth rate (%)
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
0.17 0.16 0.14 0.14 0.18 0.16 0.14 0.13 0.11 0.1 0.08 0.08



Life expectancy at birth (years)
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
77.41 77.58 77.75 77.92 78.24 78.35 78.5 78.66 78.82 78.97 79.13 79.27



Infant mortality rate (deaths/1,000 live births)
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
3.82 3.79 3.76 3.73 3.59 3.57 3.55 3.52 3.5 3.47 3.45 3.43


Total fertility rate (children born/woman)
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
1.7 1.7 1.7 1.7 1.73 1.73 1.73 1.73 1.73 1.73 1.73 1.73




Migration
External Migration
Demographic movement in Finland did not end with the appearance of immigrants from Sweden in the Middle
Ages. Finns who left to work in Swedish mines in the sixteenth century began a national tradition, which
continued up through the 1970s, of settling in their neighboring country. During the period of tsarist rule, some
100,000 Finns went to Russia, mainly to the St. Petersburg area. Emigration on a large scale began in the second
half of the nineteenth century when Finns, along with millions of other Europeans, set out for the United States
and Canada. By 1980 Finland had lost an estimated 400,000 of its citizens to these two countries.
A great number of Finns emigrated to Sweden after World War II, drawn by that country's prosperity and
proximity. Emigration began slowly, but, during the 1960s and the second half of the 1970s, tens of thousands
left each year for their western neighbor. The peak emigration year was 1970, when 41,000 Finns settled in
Sweden, which caused Finland's population actually to fall that year. Because many of the migrants later
returned to Finland, definite figures cannot be calculated, but all told, an estimated 250,000 to 300,000 Finns
became permanent residents of Sweden in the postwar period. The overall youthfulness of these emigrants meant
that the quality of the work force available to Finnish employers was diminished and that the national birth rate
slowed. At one point, every eighth Finnish child was born in Sweden. Finland's Swedish-speaking minority was
hard hit by this westward migration; its numbers dropped from 350,000 to about 300,000 between 1950 and
1980. By the 1980s, a strong Finnish economy had brought an end to large-scale migration to Sweden. In fact,
the overall population flow was reversed because each year several thousand more Finns returned from Sweden
than left for it.
Internal Migration
However significant the long-term effects of external migration on Finnish society may have been, migration
within the country had a greater impact--especially the migration which took place between the end of World
War II and the mid-1970s, when half the population moved from one part of the country to another. Before
World War II, internal migration had first been a centuries-long process of forming settlements ever farther to

the north. Later, however, beginning in the second half of the nineteenth century with the coming of Finland's
tardy industrialization, there was a slow movement from rural regions toward areas in the south where
employment could be found.
Postwar internal migration began with the resettlement within Finland of virtually all the inhabitants of the parts
of Karelia ceded to the Soviet Union. Somewhat more than 400,000 persons, more than 10 percent of the nation's
population, found new homes elsewhere in Finland, often in the less settled regions of the east and the north. In
these regions, new land, which they cleared for farming, was provided for the refugees; in more populated areas,
property was requisitioned. The sudden influx of these settlers was successfully dealt with in just a few years.
One of the effects of rural resettlement was an increase in the number of farms during the postwar years, a
unique occurrence for industrialized nations of this period.
It was, however, the postwar economic transformation that caused an even larger movement of people within
Finland, a movement known to Finns as the Great Migration. It was a massive population shift from rural areas,
especially those of eastern and northeastern Finland, to the urban, industrialized south). People left rural regions
because the mechanization of agriculture and the forestry industry had eliminated jobs. The displaced work force
went to areas where employment in the expanding industrial and service sectors was available. This movement
began in the 1950s, but it was most intense during the 1960s and the first half of the 1970s, assuming proportions
that in relative terms were unprecedented for a country outside the Third World. The Great Migration left behind
rural areas of abandoned farms with reduced and aging populations, and it allowed the creation of a densely
populated postindustrial society in the country's south.
The extent of the demographic shift to the south can be shown by the following figures. Between 1951 and 1975,
the population registered an increase of 655,000. During this period, the small province of Uusimaa increased its
population by 412,000, growing from 670,000 to 1,092,00; three-quarters of this growth was caused by settlers
from other provinces. The population increase experienced by four other southern provinces, the Aland Islands,
Turku ja Pori, Hame, and Kymi, taken together with that of Uusimaa amounted to 97 percent of the country's
total population increase for these years. The population increase of the central and the northern provinces
accounted for the remaining 3 percent. Provinces that experienced an actual population loss during these years
were in the east and the northeast-Pohjois-Karjala, Mikkeli, and Kuopio.
One way of visualizing the shift to the south would be to draw a line, bowing slightly to the north, between the
port cities of Kotka on the Gulf of Finland and Kaskinen on the Gulf of Bothnia. In 1975 the territory to the
south of this line would have contained half of Finland's population. Ten years earlier, such a line, drawn farther
to the north to mark off perhaps 20 percent more area, would have encompassed half the population. One
hundred years earlier, half the population would have been distributed throughout more than twice as much
territory. Another indication of the extent to which Finns were located in the south was that by 1980,
approximately 90 percent of them lived in the southernmost 41 percent of Finland.
Ethnic minorities & languages
No official statistics are kept on ethnicities. However, statistics of the Finnish population according to
language and citizinship are available.

The Finnish and Swedish languages are defined as languages of the state. Additionally, Swedish is an
official municipal language in municipalities with significant Swedish-speaking populations. The three
Sami languages (North Sami, Inari Sami, Skolt Sami) are official in certain municipalities of Lapland.
Finnish people Finns speak the Finnish language, which the dominant language and is spoken
almost everywhere in the country. Native Finnish speakers are otherwise recognized as an ethnicity.
Population of mainland Finland (excluding Aland) according to language, 1990-2010

Language 1990 2000 2011
Finnish 4,674,095 4,787,259 4,856,529
Swedish 273,495 267,488 265,982
Sami 1,734 1,734 1,832
Foreign languages: 24,550 98,858 222,926
Russian 3,884 28,179 54,546
Estonian 1,394 10,153 28,355
Somali 0 6,454 12,985
English 3,518 6,850 12,758
Arabic 1,133 4,875 10,379
The classification of the Swedish-speakers as an ethnicity is controversial. The government only considers the
"working language", Finnish or Swedish, of the person, and "bilinguality" has no official standing. Significant
populations of Swedish-speakers are found only in coastal areas, from Ostrobothnia to the southern coast, and in
the archipelago of land. Several rural communities on the western and southern coast have Swedish majorities.
Coastal cities, however, are majority Finnish-speaking, with a few small towns as exceptions. There are very few
Swedish-speakers in the inland.

Generally speaking, Finnish language usage is still expanding in relative and absolute terms due to the slow but
steady language switching of the Swedish-speaking population, natural population growth, and immigration. The
immigrant population is growing faster than the general population, both naturally and by immigration, and
immigrant minorities will become more significant in the future. Currently, the percentage of immigrants is one
of the smallest in Europe.
Concerning native languages, the Finnish-speaking population has a comparatively high natural growth rate
(compared to other EU countries), while the death rate of the Swedish-speaking population is higher than its
birthrate. It is predicted that these rates will even out in 2012 and that the absolute size of the Swedish-speaking
population will remain constant, while its percentage of the total population will diminish as the total population
grows. Politically, the result is that local Swedish majorities and dominance are diminishing. Most Swedish
speakers lived in monolingually (more than 94%) Swedish areas in 1880, but the figure had dropped to 14% in
2002. However, 50% of Swedish speakers still live in communities in which they form the majority and exercise
considerable political power.
Deaths:

Deaths from dementia more than doubled in two decades
A total of 49,904 persons, 25,152 men and 24,752 women, died in 2009. As the population
ages dementia is becoming an increasingly widespread cause of death alongside ischaemic
heart diseases. In 2009, almost one in two persons who died over the age of 80, died either
of ischaemic heart diseases or memory disorders. The number of deaths caused by
dementia has more than doubled in two decades.












Deaths by specific causes of death in 198920011
Males Females
1989 1999 2008 2009 1989 1999 2008 2009
TOTAL DEATHS 24 530 24 441 24 451 25 152 24 602 24 927 24 639 24 752
Neoplasms 5 106 5 428 5 782 5 953 4 891 5 017 5 432 5 357
Dementia, Alzheimer's
disease 618 925 1 521 1 661 1 489 2 470 3 443 3 828
Ischaemic heart diseases 7 537 6 625 5 913 6 024 6 531 6 356 5 848 5 510
Cerebrovascular diseases 1 955 1 977 1 707 1 756 3 483 3 014 2 539 2 624
Alcohol related diseases and
accid. poisoning by alcohol 830 1 159 1 674 1 651 172 269 462 414
Suicides 1 119 954 801 761 295 253 232 273

Ischaemic heart diseases caused 22 per cent of all deaths. Two decades ago, the number of
deaths from ischaemic heart diseases was about one-fifth higher.
Neoplasms caused almost equally many deaths as ischaemic heart diseases in 2009. Over
the past few decades, the number of deaths from Neoplasms has remained quite stable.
Lung cancer was the commonest type of cancer among men which led to death and breast
cancer among women. Men's deaths from lung cancer have decreased in the past twenty
years. Substantially fewer women than men die of lung cancer, but the number has nearly
doubled in the past two decades. The number of deaths from breast cancer has risen slightly
in twenty years.
In 2009 there were 5,489 deaths from dementia. About 85 per cent of these deaths met
persons aged 80 or over. Those who die from dementia have often multiple sicknesses
which complicates classification of the underlying cause of death of aged persons.
The number of alcohol-related deaths has almost doubled in twenty years. The biggest
growth was seen half-way into the first decade of the 2000s when the alcohol tax was
lowered. In the past few years, the number of alcohol-related deaths has remained almost
unchanged and even fallen somewhat.
There were 1,034 suicides in Finland in 2009. Three out of four of the persons who
committed suicide were men. The number of suicides has remained quite unchanged in the
2000s but fallen clearly from the early 1990s. Persons aged between 45 and 54 committed
the largest number of suicides.
Altogether 10,652 men and 3,264 women died at working age (between the ages of 15 and
64). Eighteen per cent of the men who died at working age died of an alcohol-related
disease or alcohol poisoning. The cause of death of one in ten of the women who died
before retirement age was alcohol-related. Other most widespread causes of death of
working-age persons were ischaemic heart diseases among men and breast cancer among
women.



Deaths from dementia (incl Alzheimer's disease) 19852009

Suicides by sex 19852009

Injuries caused by falls the most common reason for fatal
accidents
Accidental falls were the most common accidents leading to death for both men and
women. A total of 1,188 persons died in such accidents, 57 per cent of whom were men.
Over one third of men's fatal accidents and over one half of women's were caused by
accidental falls.


Accidents caused around six per cent of all deaths in 2009. In 2009, accidents were the
cause of the death of 2,903 persons, of whom 1,986 were men and 917 women.




Fatal accidents among men aged 65 or over in 2009

The majority of the accidental falls leading to death, i.e. 80 per cent, occurred to persons aged 65 or
over. Accidental falls were among them the biggest causes of fatal accidents. Among women, aged 65
or over, three quarters of fatal accidents were caused by falls and stumbles and among men two thirds.
Fatal accidents among women aged 65 or over in 2009


A total of 1,390 persons aged 65 or over died in accidents, 762 men and 628 women. After
accidental falls the most fatal accidents occurred to men aged 65 or over in transportation
and drowning accidents and to women in transportation and poisoning by drugs.
In all, a total of 49,904 persons died in 2009, of whom 25,152 were men and 24,752
women. The longer life expectancy is visible in the change in the age distribution of deaths:
in 1989 still around 9,000, or 18 per cent, died at the age of 85 or over, while in 2009 the
corresponding figure was 15,881, i.e. 32 per cent.
The data concerning causes of death for 2009 were first released in December 2010. This
publication is a more extensive review of the previous release.
Congenital malformations:
The most recent statistical data on congenital malformations detected in fetuses and infants
born in Finland. The statistics include trend data from 1993 onwards.
Congenital anomalies 1993-2008
In 1993-2008, the prevalence of births with major congenital anomalies remained
substantially stable, being on average 336/10 000 births. The variations in the prevalence can
be explained by the reforms of the activities of the Malformation Register. Annually major
anomalies were detected in 1993 births on average. There were no significant differences
between the data for 2008 and data for previous years

An average of 236 pregnancies were terminated annually because of major foetal structural
anomalies and chromosomal defects. The total prevalence of major anomalies (births and
terminations of pregnancy) was on average 376/10 000.
Figure 1: Total prevalence of births with major congenital anomalies (1/10 000 births) in
1963-2008.

(X = the reform of the register in 1985, Y = the reform in 1993, Z = the reform in 2005).

Topography of Finland
Southern and western Finland consists of a coastal plain with a severely
indented coastline and thousands of small islands stretching out to the land
Islands. Central Finland is an extensive lake plateau with a majority of the
country's 60,000 lakes; 24.5% of the area of Mikkelin Province is water.
Northern Finland is densely forested upland. The highest elevations are in the
Norwegian border areas; northwest of Enonteki rises Haltia, a mountain 1,328
m (4,357 ft) above sea level. Extensive, interconnected lake and river systems
provide important natural waterways.
Seasons in Finland
The annual changes in temperature are of crucial importance for Finland's climate. It is natural to distinguish seasons
using a thermal criteria, with seasons defined by the daily mean temperatures of 0C and 10C. With this criteria the
lengths of seasons can vary greatly from year to year.
Winter
In winter, the mean temperature remains below 0C, but warm airflows can raise the daily high above 0C at times. Winter
usually begins in mid-October in Lapland and during November in the rest of Finland, though not until December in the
southwestern archipelago. It thus takes about two months for winter to proceed from Lapland to land. The sea and large
lakes slow down the progress of winter. Winter is the longest season in Finland, lasting for about 100 days in southwestern
Finland and 200 days in Lapland.

North of the Arctic Circle, part of winter is the period known as the "polar night", when the sun does not rise above the
horizon at all. In the northernmost corner of Finland, the polar night lasts for 51 days. In southern Finland, the shortest day is
about 6 hours long.

Permanent snow covers open grounds about two weeks after winter begins. The snow cover is deepest around mid-March,
with an average of 60 to 90 cm of snow in eastern and northern Finland and 20 to 30 cm in southwestern Finland. The lakes
freeze over in late November and early December. The ice is thickest in early April, at about 50 to 65 cm. In severe winters,
the Baltic Sea may ice over almost completely, but in mild winters it remains open except for the far ends of the Gulf of
Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland.

The coldest day of winter is usually well after perihelion, at the end of January everywhere except the maritime islands and
coastal regions, where the slower cooling of the sea delays the coldest period until the beginning of February. The coldest
temperatures in winter are from -45C to -50C in Lapland and eastern Finland; from -35C to -45C elsewhere; and -25C to

-35C over islands and coastal regions. The lowest temperature recorded in Helsinki is -34.3C (1987). The lowest
temperature recorded at any weather station in Finland as of 2010 is -51.5C (1999).
Spring
In spring, the mean daily temperature rises from 0C to 10C. Spring begins in early April in land and the southwestern
archipelago and later in April elsewhere, except for northernmost Lapland, where it does not begin until early May. Thus,
spring begins a month earlier in the south than in the north. Its duration ranges from 45 to 65 days, being longest in the
maritime islands and coastal regions, because of the coolness of the sea. Once the mean daily temperature exceeds 5C, the
thermal growing season is considered to have begun. This takes place about one month after the beginning of spring: at the
end of April in southern Finland and at the end of May in northernmost Lapland.

For the real growing season to begin the snow must melt; this depends on the amount of snow, elevation and the position of
the region relative to the sea. Open areas lose their snow cover within two to three weeks of the beginning of spring, whereas
on average the snow in the forest smelts about two weeks later. The lakes usually become ice-free soon after the growing
season begins in April in southwestern Finland, in May in the interior and in June in Lapland.
Summer
In summer the mean daily temperature is consistently above 10C. Summer usually begins in late May in southern Finland
and lasts until mid-September. Summer in Lapland starts about one month later and ends a month earlier than the south coast.

The regions north of the Arctic Circle are characterized by "polar days", when the sun does not set at all. The northernmost
parts of Finland have 73 such days every year. Even in southern Finland, the longest day (around Midsummer) is nearly 19
hours long. The warmest day of the year comes about one month after aphelion, i.e. around July 20, in the whole of Finland.

The highest summer temperatures in the Finnish interior are from 32C to 35C. Near the sea and over the maritime islands,
temperatures over 30C are extremely rare; the highest temperature ever recorded in Helsinki is 31.6C. The highest
temperature ever recorded was on July 29th, 2010, when 35C was exceeded in several places (the maximum being 37.2C in
Joensuu). Heat waves, with a maximum daily temperature exceeding 25C, occur on an average of 10 to 15 days per summer
inland in southern and central Finland, and 5 to 10 days in northern Finland and on the coast. In the course of the summer,
thunderstorms occur on 8 to 14 days in the interior and 4 to 8 days in coastal areas and northern Lapland.
Autumn
In autumn the daily mean temperature remains below 10C. Autumn begins around the last week of August in northern
Finland and about one month later in southwestern Finland. The growing season ends in autumn when the mean daily
temperature drops below 5C. This occurs around the last week of September in northern Finland and in late October or early
November in southwestern Finland.

Thus the average length of the growing season is 180 days in the southwestern archipelago, 140 to 175 days elsewhere in
southern and central Finland and 100 to 140 days in Lapland. The first snow falls in northern Finland in September and
elsewhere in October.


Religions
Lutheran Church of Finland 82.5%, Orthodox Church 1.1%, other Christian 1.1%,
other 0.1%, none 15.1% (2006)
School life expectancy (primary to tertiary
education)
total: 17 years
male: 16 years
female: 18 years (2008)
Education expenditures
5.9% of GDP (2007)
In Finland, the basic right to education and culture is recorded in the
Constitution of Finland. Public authorities must secure equal
opportunities for every resident in Finland to get education also after
compulsory education and to develop themselves, irrespective of their
financial standing.

Legislation provides for compulsory education and the right to free pre-
primary and basic education. Most other qualifying education is also free
of charges for the students, including postgraduate education at
universities.