Subject choices of completers of upper secondary general school education in 2017

According to Statistics Finland, nearly all completers of the full upper secondary general school syllabus in 2017 had studied English, and Finnish or Swedish during their attendance of upper secondary general school. German had been studied by 19 per cent, Spanish by 16 per cent, French by 12 per cent and Russian by 10 per cent of the completers of upper secondary general school education. The proportions of those having studied other foreign languages remained below two per cent. They also vary considerably between genders in several languages.

Language choices of completers of full upper secondary general school syllabus 2017

Studied language	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	28 429	4	0	2	10	28 445	98.0
Swedish	2 418	22 473	76	0	684	25 651	88.4
Finnish	1 617	103	0	44	21	1 785	6.2
French	371	17	492	836	1 679	3 395	11.7
German	721	21	998	1 162	2 674	5 576	19.2
Russian	181	7	134	839	1 597	2 758	9.5
Sami	1	.	0	17	8	26	0.1
Latin	0	.	4	55	247	306	1.1
Spanish	21	.	118	1 408	3 056	4 603	15.9
Italian	0	.	0	113	395	508	1.8
Other	5	0	0	24	321	350	1.2

The completers of upper secondary general school studies had mainly taken English, Swedish or Finnish as a compulsory language subject. German, Spanish, French, Russian and other foreign languages had been mainly studied as an elective language. A total of 29,019 students completed the full upper secondary general school syllabus in spring 2017. 12,251 of the completers were men and 16,768 were women.

In spring 2017, 42 per cent of all completers of the full upper secondary general school syllabus - 36 per cent of female students and 50 per cent of male students - had taken the long syllabus in mathematics.

Source: Education. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Vesa Hämäläinen 029 551 2594, koulutustilastot@stat.fi

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

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Tables

Appendix tables

Updated 14.12.2017

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 2017. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 22.12.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/ava/2017/01/ava_2017_01_2017-12-14_tie_001_en.html