Life in Finland in 2012

The newly published Statistical Yearbook of Finland 2013 describes precisely society and its development in Finland. The statistics in the Yearbook reveal, for example, what the year 2012 was like in Finland.

At the end of 2012, Finland's population was 5,426,674. Finland's population grew by 0.5 per cent or 25,407 persons from the year before. There were 93,430 more women than men.
The total number of families was 1,465,733. Of these families, 726,555 were married or cohabiting couples without children. There were 578,409 families with children, that is, families with children under 18 years of age. Of these, the majority were families with one child that represented 44 per cent of all families with children.
Every sixth person moved during the year. There were nearly 900,000 moves within and between municipalities. Some 31,000 persons moved to Finland from abroad and nearly 14,000 persons moved abroad from Finland so the migration gain was good 17,000 persons.
Housing and energy accounted for 27 per cent of households' expenditure. Of the expenditure, 12.5 per cent were used on food and non-alcoholic beverages, 11 per cent on culture and recreation, and another 11 per cent on transport.
Of all employed wage and salary earners, 88 per cent belonged to an employee organisation or unemployment fund, 84 per cent of men and 92 per cent of women.
Visits to public libraries increased but lending decreased. Nearly 95 million loans were taken out from public libraries, which is some 2.5 million fewer than in 2011. There were 46 loans per borrower. Library visits amounted to 53 million, nearly 10 visits per inhabitant.
Average loans of household-dwelling units with housing loans amounted to EUR 111,000.
Finns consumed 4.2 kg of butter per inhabitant, which was 200 grams more than in 2011. Nearly 22 kg of cheese was consumed, or almost one kilogram more, 10.6 kg of eggs, or good half a kilogram more, and 51.5 kg of fresh fruit, or over half a kilogram more than in the year before. A good five kilograms less of fresh vegetables were consumed than in 2011, i.e. 57.4 kg.
Last year, Finns drank 404 million litres of medium strength beer, i.e. around 90 million bottles less than in 2011. Altogether, 64 million litres of light wines was consumed and 32 million litres of strong alcoholic beverages. Converted to 100% alcohol, the consumption per capita amounted to 7.8 litres, nearly half a litre less than in the year before.
In total, 11 per cent of working-age men and 13 per cent of working-age women had not consumed any alcohol in the past year. Fifteen per cent of men and three per cent of women drank strong alcoholic beverages at least once a week.

Statistical Yearbook of Finland is a basic reference book for statistics

The Statistical Yearbook of Finland 2013, 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 Excel tables, figures and maps of the Yearbook are available in electronic format in the web service at: tilastokeskus.fi/vuosikirja2013. The Yearbook can also be downloaded in PDF format at the same address. The publication is in three languages, Finnish, Swedish and English.

Source: Statistical Yearbook of Finland 2013. Statistics Finland. Price EUR 80 (incl. VAT).
The Yearbook can be ordered from the customer service of Edita Publishing Oy, tel. +358 20 450 05 or from Edita's NetMarket online store

Inquiries: Eila Laakso +358 9 1734 2509