Majority of comprehensive school pupils study English

According to Statistics Finland, English was the most commonly studied foreign language on grades 1 to 6 of comprehensive school in the autumn semester of 2011. Sixty-six per cent of the pupils attending grades 1 to 6 studied English either as a compulsory or optional foreign language. The percentages of pupils studying other foreign languages remained at 4 per cent or below. A total of 347,245 pupils attended grades 1 to 6. 178,209 of the pupils were boys and 169,036 were girls.

Language choices of comprehensive school pupils in 2011

		Compulsory language A1	Optional language A2	Compulsory language B1	Elective language B2	Total	Share of pupils in grades 1-6 %	Share of pupils in grades 7-9 %
Grades	Studied language
Grades 1-6	English	216 282	14 032	-	-	230 314	66.3	-
	Swedish	2 733	12 536	-	-	15 269	4.4	-
	Finnish	14 066	994	-	-	15 060	4.3	-
	French	2 312	4 764	-	-	7 076	2.0	-
	German	2 920	9 908	-	-	12 828	3.7	-
	Russian	924	1 139	-	-	2 063	0.6	-
	Spanish	177	700	-	-	877	0.3	-
	Italian	0	0	-	-	0	0.0	-
	Sami	0	192	-	-	192	0.1	-
	Other	220	30	-	-	250	0.1	-
Grades 7-9	English	166 152	13 122	236	96	179 606	-	99.4
	Swedish	2 906	11 935	151 705	7	166 553	-	92.2
	Finnish	9 430	1 176	222	0	10 828	-	6.0
	French	1 144	3 517	223	6 358	11 242	-	6.2
	German	1 600	8 162	309	9 181	19 252	-	10.7
	Russian	522	449	-	2 117	3 088	-	1.7
	Spanish	0	306	-	2 781	3 087	-	1.7
	Italian	0	0	-	57	57	-	0.0
	Sami	0	34	-	14	48	-	0.0
	Latin	0	0	-	490	490	-	0.3
	Other	37	0	-	57	94	-	0.1

Nearly all pupils attending grades 7 to 9 studied both English and Swedish or Finnish either as mother tongue, or as a compulsory, optional or elective foreign language. German was studied by 11 per cent and French by 6 per cent of the pupils attending grades 7 to 9, mainly as an optional or elective foreign language. A total of 180,715 pupils attended grades 7 to 9. 92,263 of the pupils were boys and 88,452 were girls.

Data on the language choices of students studying comprehensive education elsewhere than at comprehensive schools (1,425) are published in the database table of these statistics.

Source: Education. Statistics Finland

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

Deputy director in charge: Marja Tammilehto-Luode

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Tables

Appendix tables

Updated 25.5.2012

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Subject choices of students [e-publication].
ISSN=1799-1056. Subject choices of comprehensive school pupils 2011. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 22.12.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/ava/2011/02/ava_2011_02_2012-05-25_tie_001_en.html