Home > Statistics > Providers of education and educational institutions > 2007 > Number of comprehensive schools and comprehensive school level special education schools down by 130 from 2006; number of closures the highest in North Ostrobothnia and Pirkanmaa

Published: 22 February 2008

Number of comprehensive schools and comprehensive school level special education schools down by 130 from 2006; number of closures the highest in North Ostrobothnia and Pirkanmaa

According to Statistics Finland's Register of Educational Institutions, there were 880 active providers of education and 4,443 educational institutions in which 1.9 million students pursued studies at the end of 2007. The number of providers of education was 19 and that of educational institutions 167 lower than in 2006. Of the providers of education 54 per cent were municipalities or joint municipal boards, 7 per cent were central government units and 37 per cent private. The remaining two per cent of the providers of education operated in the Region of Åland.

In 2007, there were 3,067 active comprehensive schools which had 547,500 pupils. Special education schools at the comprehensive school level numbered 159 and they had 8,300 pupils. A total of 121 comprehensive schools or comprehensive school level special education schools were closed down or merged with another educational institution. Of these, 24 were educational institutions with under 20 pupils, 65 had between 20 and 49 pupils while 32 had at least 50 pupils. The number of closures was the highest in the regions of North Ostrobothnia and Pirkanmaa. The number of closures was the lowest in the regions of South Karelia and Central Ostrobothnia, both of which had only one merger of a comprehensive school with another educational institution.

Of all comprehensive schools 78 per cent taught grades 1 to 6, fourteen per cent taught grades 7-9 and eight per cent of comprehensive schools taught all the grades from 1 through to 9. Twenty-seven per cent of comprehensive schools had under 50 pupils and five per cent had over 500 pupils.

Educational institutions of the school system and numbers of students by type of educational institution in 2007

Type of educational institution	Number	Change from previous year	Students
11 Comprehensive schools	3,067	-113	547,500
12 Comprehensive school level special education schools	159	-17	8,300
15 Upper secondary general schools	406	-12	122,600
19 Comprehensive and upper secondary general level schools	37	0	24,400
21 Vocational institutes	161	-12	164,900
22 Special needs vocational institutes	12	-1	4,900
23 Specialised vocational institutes	37	-1	28,900
24 Vocational adult education centres	32	-2	42,700
28 Fire, police and security service institutes	2	0	1,400
29 Military vocational institutes	15	0	..
41 Polytechnics	30	-1	143,300
42 Universities	20	0	176,300
43 Military academies	1	0	..
61 Music schools and colleges	89	-2	62,600
62 Sports institutes	14	0	1,600
63 Folk high schools	89	1	14,500
64 Adult education centres	234	-6	506,900
65 Study circle centres	11	0	53,800
66 Summer universities	20	0	32,500
99 Other educational institutions	7	-1	600
Total	4,443	-167	1,937,700

Source: Education Statistics 2007. Statistics Finland.

Inquiries: Ms Aila Repo +358 9 1734 3271, koulutus.tilastot@stat.fi

Director in charge: Mr Jari Tarkoma

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Last updated 22.2.2008