Share of pupils studying English is growing in the lower grades of comprehensive schools

According to Statistics Finland, studying English grew in grades 1 to 6 in 2019. Eighty-three per cent of students in grades 1 to 6 studied English. The share of pupils studying English increased by nine percentage points from the previous year in grades 1 to 6. Almost all students in grades 7 to 9 studied English.

Language choices of comprehensive school pupils in 2019

Grades	Studied language	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 1-6	English	289 992	18 013	38	.	308 043	83.0	.
	Swedish	3 775	11 927	52 521	.	68 223	18.4	.
	Finnish	20 005	1 183	1	.	21 189	5.7	.
	French	3 965	3 894	20	.	7 879	2.1	.
	German	3 649	10 800	18	.	14 467	3.9	.
	Russian	1 100	1 016	.	.	2 116	0.6	.
	Spanish	1 031	6 762	.	.	7 793	2.1	.
	Italian	0	0	.	.	0	0.0	.
	Sami	4	220	.	.	224	0.1	.
	Other	382	132	0	.	514	0.1	.
Grades 7-9	English	168 922	13 158	85	69	182 234	.	99.5
	Swedish	2 023	10 879	156 379	3	169 284	.	92.5
	Finnish	9 266	1 341	213	2	10 822	.	5.9
	French	1 643	3 321	97	3 428	8 489	.	4.6
	German	1 774	7 608	301	7 346	17 029	.	9.3
	Russian	534	983	.	1 448	2 965	.	1.6
	Spanish	230	2 137	.	4 326	6 693	.	3.7
	Italian	0	0	.	75	75	.	0.0
	Sami	2	51	.	1	54	.	0.0
	Latin	0	7	.	373	380	.	0.2
	Other	178	47	6	63	294	.	0.2

According to the updated curriculum for basic education, starting from the beginning of 2020 all pupils start studying their first foreign language or a second national language at the latest in the spring of the first grade.

Eighteen per cent of pupils in grades 1 to 6 and 93 per cent of pupils in grades 7 to 9 studied Swedish as a foreign language.

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 nine per cent and French by five per cent of the pupils attending grades 7 to 9, mainly as an optional or elective foreign language.

A total of 371,102 pupils attended grades 1 to 6, of whom 189,974 were boys and 181,128 girls. Grades 7 to 9 had a total of 183,063 pupils, of whom 93,684 were boys and 89,379 girls.

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 20.5.2020

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Subject choices of students [e-publication].
ISSN=1799-1056. Subject choices of comprehensive school pupils 2019. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 22.12.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/ava/2019/02/ava_2019_02_2020-05-20_tie_001_en.html