Finland numbers some five million inhabitants and has an average population density of 17 inhabitants per square kilometre. This makes it, after Norway and Iceland, the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Population distribution is very uneven. About 60 per cent live in towns and cities, with 1.2 million living in Helsinki Metropolitan Area alone. In arctic Lapland, on the other hand, there are only 2 people to every square kilometre. The original inhabitants of Finland are the Sami (formerly known as the Lapps). There 4,500 of them living in Finland today and they are recognised as a minority with their own language. They have been living north of the Arctic Circle for more than 7,000 years now. In the 1960's many Finns abandoned rural areas for Sweden, while most immigrants into Finland itself come from other European countries. With 84 per cent of Finns in its congregation, the Lutheran church is the largest in the country. The official languages are Finnish and Swedish, the latter being the native language of about six per cent of the Finnish population. There is a historical explanation for the status of Swedish as an official language: from the 13th to the 19th century Finland was part of the Kingdom of Sweden.

Demographics

• Population: 5,183,545 (July 2002 est.)
• Life expectancy at birth: 78.05 years (2002 est.)
  • male: 74.6 years
  • female: 81.5 years
• Total fertility rate: 1.7 children born/woman (2000 est.)

Age structure

• 0-14 years: 47.9% (male 471,920; female 454,082)
• 15-64 years:36.9% (male 1,752,493; female 1,717,544)
• 65 years and over: 15.2% (male 306,216; female 481,290) (2002 est.)

• Population growth rate: 0.14% (2002 est.)
• Birth rate: 10.6 births/1,000 population (2002 est.)
• Death rate: 15.9 deaths/1,000 population (2002 est.)
• Net migration rate: 0.62 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2002 est.)

Ethnic groups

• Finnish 92 %
• Swede 5.6 %
• Sami 0.11%
• Roma 0.12%
• Russians 0.6 %
• Tatars 0.02%

Languages

• Finnish language 92 % (official)
• Swedish language 5.6 % (official)
• Russian language 0.6 %
• Sami language 0.03% (semi-official)

Religions

• Evangelical Lutheran 84 % (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, state church)
• Russian Orthodox 1 % (Finnish Orthodox Church, second state church)
• other ca. 2 %
• none 13.1 %

Literacy

• definition: age 15 and over can read and write
• total population: 100% (1980 est.)

Urbanization

References

• CIA World Factbook