Subject choices of completers of upper secondary general school education in 2011

According to Statistics Finland, nearly all completers of the full upper secondary general school syllabus in 2011 had studied English, and Finnish or Swedish during their attendance of upper secondary general school. German had been studied by 25 per cent, French by 17 per cent, Spanish by 16 per cent and Russian by seven per cent of the completers of upper secondary general school education. The proportions of those having studied other foreign languages remained at four per cent or below. They also vary considerably between genders in several languages.

Language choices of completers of full upper secondary general school syllabus 2011

Studied language	Compulsory A-languages	Compulsory language B1	Elective language B2, at least six courses	Elective language B3, at least six courses	Elective language, fewer than six courses	Total	Share of completers of full upper secondary general school syllabus, %
English	30 591	19	1	5	5	30 621	99.6
Swedish	2 536	25 636	0	11	157	28 340	92.2
Finnish	1 983	27	0	34	11	2 055	6.7
French	584	19	874	1 147	2 517	5 141	16.7
German	1 637	28	1 404	1 503	3 060	7 632	24.8
Russian	172	0	50	612	1 388	2 222	7.2
Sami	2	-	1	1	6	10	0.0
Latin	0	-	11	57	426	494	1.6
Spanish	52	-	76	1 653	3 048	4 829	15.7
Italian	0	-	2	192	868	1 062	3.5
Other	0	0	0	3	394	397	1.3

The completers of upper secondary general school studies had mainly taken English, Swedish or Finnish as a compulsory language subject. German, French, Spanish, Russian and other foreign languages had been mainly studied as an elective language. A total of 30,751 students completed the full upper secondary general school syllabus in spring 2011. 13,048 of the completers were men and 17,703 were women.

In spring 2011, 41 per cent of all completers of the full upper secondary general school syllabus - 34 per cent of female students and 52 per cent of male students - had taken the long syllabus in mathematics.

Source: Education. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Irma Suovirta (09) 1734 3280, Maija Sikanen (09) 1734 2292, koulutustilastot@stat.fi

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

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Tables

Appendix tables

Updated 14.12.2011

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Subject choices of students [e-publication].
ISSN=1799-1056. Subject choices of completers of upper secondary general school education 2011. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 25.11.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/ava/2011/01/ava_2011_01_2011-12-14_tie_001_en.html