Children and adolescents in Finland in statistics

At the end of 2008 20 per cent of the Finnish population, that is, a total of 1,091,560 inhabitants were under 18 years of age. Six per cent of the population, or 295,002 inhabitants were aged under five.

A total of 59,530 children were born in Finland last year: 30,415 of them were boys and 29,115 were girls, which is 1,045 boys for 1,000 girls. Forty-one per cent of the children were born outside of marriage. A total of 42 per cent of the babies were first-born, 34 per cent had a sibling and three per cent of the babies had at least five siblings.

At the end of last year there were 585,224 families with children, that is, families with children under 18 years of age. Forty-three per cent of the families with children had one child and 38 per cent of them two children. A total of five per cent of the families had four or more children. There were 117,099 single-parent families, and in 87 per cent of these families the children lived with their mother. Families consisting of a father and children numbered 15,382. A total of 187 families with children had a registered same-sex couple as their parents.

Last year 29,114 people moved to Finland of whom 5,001 were under 15-year-olds, a figure that represents 17 per cent of all those who moved to the country. There were more children who moved to the country than children who moved from the country; a total of 2,027 children under 15 years of age moved abroad from Finland, which was 15 per cent of all those who moved abroad. Almost every seventh child aged under 15 moved to another locality within the Finnish borders.

In 2008, in the group of adolescents aged between 15 and 24 a total of 77 per cent of men and 74 per cent of women participated in some physical exercise hobby at least two or three times a week. Nevertheless, every fifth man and every sixth woman in the age group 15-24 were overweight.

In the age group 15-24, 18 per cent of men and 14 per cent of women smoked daily while in the years 1988-1992 29 and 24 per cent of young men and women, respectively, were daily smokers. A total of 71 per cent of young men and 68 per cent of young women did not smoke at all.

In 2008, six per cent of men and three per cent of women in the age category 15-24-year-olds drank strong alcoholic beverages at least once a week. In 2007, alcohol caused the death of ten young people in the category 15-24-year-olds.

The Statistical Yearbook of Finland describes the Finnish society

The data on the life of Finnish children and adolescents are based on the statistical data in the Statistical Yearbook of Finland 2009 that has just been published. The Yearbook, published by Statistics Finland, is an extensive compilation of statistics describing society and its development in Finland. Apart from data on Finland, the book also contains abundant international comparison data. The first edition of the Statistical Yearbook of Finland was published 130 years ago.

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. The Yearbook is also available as an online service. The book is in three languages: Finnish, Swedish and English.

Source: Statistical Yearbook of Finland 2009. Statistics Finland
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