Average life in Finland in 2006

Women's average age in Finland is 42 and men's 39. According to statistics, their life expectancies at that stage are nearly equal at 41.7 years for women and 38.5 years for men. On the average, a woman in Finland enters her first marriage at the age of 30 and a man at the age of 32. A woman has her first child at the age of 28. The average family with children has 1.8 children.

An average person in Finland lives in a block of flats in an owner-occupied home of 78.4 m² consisting of 3 to 4 rooms, and pays a monthly maintenance charge of EUR 2.5 per square metre for it. Housing loan in Finland totals EUR 22,400, and consumer and other credits EUR 9,400 per household. Housing costs account for a quarter of households' total consumption expenditure.

An average Finn participates in working life and has completed at least upper secondary level education. A man works in the private sector in building, repairing or production tasks and earns around EUR 2,300 per month. A woman works in the local government sector in a service, sales or care occupation and her monthly pay is just short of EUR 2,000.

People in Finland take physical exercise at least twice a week, with walking, cycling and skiing the favourite forms of activity. A man of average age is overweight, but a woman is not. A man drinks beer at least once a week, a woman less frequently. Calculated per capita, people in Finland drink 78 litres of medium strength beer and consume 9 kilos of coffee, 47 kilos of fresh fruit, 61 kilos of potatoes and 72 kilos of meat per year.

This description of average life in Finland is based on data in the freshly published Statistical Yearbook of Finland 2007. The Yearbook, published by Statistics Finland, is an extensive collection of statistics describing Finnish society and its development. Apart from data on Finland, the book also contains abundant international comparison data. The Yearbook has been published since 1879.

The Yearbook is accompanied by a CD-ROM containing the publication in PDF format, all its tables in Excel format, as well as its thematic maps. It is also available as an online service version. The Yearbook is in three languages, Finnish, Swedish and English.

Source: Statistical Yearbook of Finland 2007. Statistics Finland
Price EUR 75 (EUR 65 as a permanent order)

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