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Published: 24 May 2013

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 2012. 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 5 per cent or below.

Language choices of comprehensive school pupils in 2012

		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	216 981	13 865	-	-	230 846	66.3	-
	Swedish	2 975	12 944	-	-	15 919	4.6	-
	Finnish	14 074	991	-	-	15 065	4.3	-
	French	2 393	4 565	-	-	6 958	2.0	-
	German	3 026	9 927	-	-	12 953	3.7	-
	Russian	964	1 260	-	-	2 224	0.6	-
	Spanish	255	944	-	-	1 199	0.3	-
	Italian	0	0	-	-	0	0.0	-
	Sami	1	184	-	-	185	0.1	-
	Other	252	34	-	-	286	0.1	-
Grades 7-9	English	163 878	12 504	217	49	176 648	-	99.4
	Swedish	1 603	11 246	151 032	2	163 883	-	92.2
	Finnish	9 324	1 062	205	8	10 599	-	6.0
	French	1 139	3 472	188	5 748	10 547	-	5.9
	German	1 516	7 560	424	9 148	18 648	-	10.5
	Russian	532	600	-	2 302	3 434	-	1.9
	Spanish	0	427	-	2 585	3 012	-	1.7
	Italian	0	0	-	67	67	-	0.0
	Sami	1	33	-	13	47	-	0.0
	Latin	0	0	-	474	474	-	0.3
	Other	40	4	-	82	126	-	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 348,432 pupils attended grades 1 to 6. 178,723 of the pupils were boys and 169,709 were girls. A total of 177,764 pupils attended grades 7 to 9. 90,632 of the pupils were boys and 87,132 were girls.

Data on the language choices of students studying comprehensive education elsewhere than at comprehensive schools (1,650) 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

Director in charge: Riitta Harala

Publication in pdf-format (236.3 kB)

Tables

Appendix tables

• Appendix table 1. Language choices of comprehensive school pupils in 2012, boys (24.5.2013)
• Appendix table 2. Language choices of comprehensive school pupils in 2012, girls (24.5.2013)

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Updated 24.5.2013