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Published: 23 May 2014

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 2013. 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 2013

		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	218 473	13 765	.	.	232 238	66.0	.
	Swedish	2 996	12 885	.	.	15 881	4.5	.
	Finnish	14 038	872	.	.	14 910	4.2	.
	French	2 671	4 491	.	.	7 162	2.0	.
	German	3 053	10 227	.	.	13 280	3.8	.
	Russian	1 034	1 850	.	.	2 884	0.8	.
	Spanish	345	1 081	.	.	1 426	0.4	.
	Italian	0	0	.	.	0	0.0	.
	Sami	2	220	.	.	222	0.1	.
	Other	298	154	.	.	452	0.1	.
Grades 7-9	English	161 619	13 072	201	92	174 984	.	99.4
	Swedish	1 580	11 114	149 740	4	162 438	.	92.3
	Finnish	9 220	1 086	163	15	10 484	.	6.0
	French	1 185	3 557	175	5 069	9 986	.	5.7
	German	1 591	7 092	451	8 322	17 456	.	9.9
	Russian	530	763	.	2 999	4 292	.	2.4
	Spanish	15	651	.	2 764	3 430	.	1.9
	Italian	0	0	.	142	142	.	0.1
	Sami	1	47	.	8	56	.	0.0
	Latin	0	0	.	415	415	.	0.2
	Other	55	57	.	18	130	.	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 10 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 351,663 pupils attended grades 1 to 6. 180,041 of the pupils were boys and 171,622 were girls. A total of 176,008 pupils attended grades 7 to 9. 90,267 of the pupils were boys and 85,741 were girls.

Data on the language choices of students studying comprehensive education elsewhere than at comprehensive schools (1,627) 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 2013, boys (23.5.2014)
• Appendix table 2. Language choices of comprehensive school pupils in 2013, girls (23.5.2014)

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Updated 23.5.2014