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Students in education leading to a qualification or degree numbered 1.4 million in 2021

release | Students and qualifications 2021

Change

Changes in database tables in these statistics. New tables will be published on 25 October 2022 and old tables will be transferred to the archive.
Read more about the change

According to Statistics Finland, the total number of students in education leading to a qualification or degree was 1.38 million in 2021. The number of students grew by seven per cent in vocational education, by five per cent in university of applied sciences education, by two per cent in university education and by 0.5 per cent in general upper secondary education. The number of pupils in basic education decreased by one per cent.

The horizontal bar chart shows the numbers of students in education leading to a qualification or degree in different sectors of education in 2020 and 2021. There were more students in all other sectors of education in 2021 than in 2020, except in basic education. Vocational education had increased most.

Key points

  • In 2021, there were 315,700 new students and altogether 1,381,000 students in education leading to a qualification or degree, and 220,100 qualifications or degrees were completed.
  • Fifty-two per cent of students and 55 per cent of attainers of qualifications or degrees were women.
  • Technology and health and welfare were the biggest fields of education in post-comprehensive school education.
  • Altogether 88,400 students had a nationality other than Finnish. There were 174 different nationalities among those studying in Finland.
  • Foreign-language speaking students numbered 146,500 and they spoke 140 different native languages.

The horizontal bar chart (100%) shows the numbers of students at each level of education by gender. Men's shares are on the left, women's shares on the right, 50 per cent in the middle of the horizontal bar. The share of women is higher in all other levels of education except in the two top ones, which are licentiate degree and initial vocational education.

Change

Changes in database tables in these statistics. New tables will be published on 25 October 2022 and old tables will be transferred to the archive.
Read more about the change

Tables

See key statistical data in the tables.
25.10.2022

New students, students and qualifications in education leading to a qualification 2021

Database tables

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Updated database tables
11c3
Classifications used:
  • Education
  • Sector of Education
Statistics:
Updated:
11c4
Classifications used:
  • Sector of Education
  • Area
Statistics:
Updated:
11c5
Classifications used:
  • Age
  • Type of Education
Statistics:
Updated:
12dc
Classifications used:
  • Type of Education
  • Field of education
Statistics:
Updated:
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koulutustilastot@stat.fi
Heli Hiltunen
Senior Statistician
029 551 3314
Head of Department in charge