Finland population increase driven by immigration

Recent figures show that Finland’s population has increased by roughly 13,050 people in the first half of this year – an increase driven largely by immigration.

Finnish People
According to preliminary figures released by Statistics Finland yesterday, between January and July 16,000 individuals immigrated to Finland from abroad while just 6,750 moved away from the country. The number of immigrants was 300 lower and the number of emigrants was 450 lower than in the corresponding period of the previous year. In all, 4,900 of the immigrants and 4,650 of the emigrants were Finnish citizens.

Between January to July, 34,250 children were born in the country, which is 750 children less than in the corresponding period of 2012, while the number of deaths was 30,450, which is 300 lower than one year earlier.

The country’s population is currently 5,439,74.

The latest available figures show that there are roughly 281,300 foreign-born residents living in Finland (roughly 5.2 per cent of the total population). Citizens of the former Soviet Union are the highest represented immigrant group in the country (52,310), followed by Estonia (34,832) and Sweden (29,362).