Year of economic downturn reflected in statistics

Year 2009 was a year of recession for Finland's economy. Gross domestic product shrunk by eight per cent year-on-year last year. Households' debts also grew last year and amounted to as much as 112 per cent of their disposable income. The average size of debt per indebted household-dwelling unit was EUR 63,780. These data have been extracted from the statistics gathered into the freshly published Statistical Yearbook of Finland 2010.

Despite the economic downturn, households' disposable income and financial assets went up. Calculated per capita, households' disposable income amounted to EUR 17,500, or good EUR 400 more than in the previous year. Households' financial assets grew by good EUR 14 billion and totalled EUR 201 billion, equalling nearly EUR 38,000 per person.

Households' housing loans amounted to over EUR 71 billion, or good EUR 4 billion more than in the previous year. The stock of consumer credits households had raised also grew by EUR 0.4 billion. Last year, households' consumer credits totalled nearly EUR 14 billion.

Youth unemployment turned upwards

Youth unemployment, that is, unemployment among persons aged 15 to 24, rose to 21.5 per cent last year, whereas in 2008 it stood at 16.5 per cent. Eighty-three per cent of all employed wage and salary earners, or one percentage point fewer than in the previous year, belonged to an employee organisation or unemployment fund. The share of membership among young people aged 18 to 24 was 59 per cent, which is over 11 percentage points higher than one year earlier.

The number of offences known to the police decreased: altogether 431,598 offences, or 9,113 fewer than in the previous year, were reported to the police in 2009. The figure includes a total of 148,864 thefts or petty thefts, which is 4,582 more than in the year before. The number of offences related to narcotics also grew: 17,454 of them were reported in 2009, or 1,972 more than in the year before.

Consumption of alcohol and tobacco decreased

Alcohol consumption went down last year: converted to 100% alcohol, the consumption per capita amounted to 8.3 litres, or 0.2 litres less than in the year before. The amount of money spent on alcoholic beverages totalled EUR 4.3 billion, or EUR 809 per capita, which was EUR 15 less than in the year before last. State revenue from excise duties on alcoholic beverages totalled EUR 1.2 billion, or EUR 115 million more than one year earlier.

Smoking also decreased in 2009. Twenty-two per cent of men and 16 per cent of women were daily smokers, whereas in 2008 the respective shares were 24 and 18 per cent. Altogether 47 per cent of men and 59 per cent of women were non-smokers last year.

The Statistical Yearbook of Finland describes the Finnish society

The data derive from the statistics in the newly released Statistical Yearbook of Finland 2010. 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 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. The Yearbook is also available as an online service. The Yearbook is in three languages, Finnish, Swedish and English.

Source: Statistical Yearbook of Finland 2010. Statistics Finland
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