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Building stock 2018

Most of the building stock was residential buildings

At the end of 2018 there were 1,5 buildings in Finland (excluding free-time residences and agricultural buildings). Most of the building stock, particularly residential buildings was built after the 1970s. The gross floor area of the building stock totalled about 488 million square metres. The average gross floor area of all buildings was about 321 square metres; in other than residential buildings the average gross floor area was about 835 square metres. Residential buildings accounted for 62 per cent of the total gross floor area.

Table 3. Building by intended use, 31 December 2018

  Buildings Per cent of total buildings (%)
BUILDINGS TOTAL 1 530 474 100,0
A.Residential buildings 1 300 528 85,0
Detached houses 1 157 072 75,6
Attached houses 81 981 5,4
Blocks of flats 61 475 4,0
C-X Other bulldings 229 946 15,0
C Commercial buildings 44 032 2,9
D Office buildings 10 751 0,7
E Traffic buildings 57 757 3,8
F Institutional buildings 9 207 0,6
G Buildings for assembly 14 603 1,0
H Educational buildings 8 957 0,6
J Industrial buildings 46 492 3,0
K Warehouses 32 759 2,1
X Other buildings 5 388 0,4

The building stock grew by 7,300 buildings

There were 1,530,500 buildings in Finland at the end of 2018. The building stock grew by 7,300 from the year before. The number of buildings has increased by 368,000 or by about 32 per cent, from 1990. There are about 80,000 old buildings completed prior to 1921, i.e. only 5 per cent of the building stock. Three-quarters of the building stock were detached houses. Blocks of flats and terraced houses accounted for only one-tenth of the total number of buildings. Blocks of flats accounted for about one-third of the total gross floor area of all residential buildings.

Two-thirds one-storey buildings

66 per cent of the building stock were one-storey buildings. That is because three-quarters of the building stock were detached houses. One and two-storey buildings account for altogether 95 per cent of the total building stock. A total of 3,6 million, i.e. 67 per cent, of the population in Finland live in buildings with one or two storeys. There were 29,500 buildings with four storeys or more and just over one million (1,272,000) Finns lived in them. Buildings with ten storeys and more are quite rare. There are approximately 326 such landmarks in Finland, 236 of them blocks of flat. There were 102 buildings with more than twelve storeys, 68 of them were listed in register as residential buildings.


Source: Buildings and Free-time Residences, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Otto Kannisto 029 551 3044, Marja Hermiö 029 551 3211, info@stat.fi

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma


Updated 21.5.2019

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Buildings and free-time residences [e-publication].
ISSN=1798-6796. 2018, Building stock 2018 . Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 7.11.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/rakke/2018/rakke_2018_2019-05-21_kat_002_en.html