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Concepts and definitions

Age

Age refers to a person's age in whole years as at 31 December. The data are obtained from the Population Information System.

Age is also used as an auxiliary variable. For example, only people between 15 and 74 can be in the labour force.

Average size of dwelling

The average size of dwellings is obtained by dividing the total floor area of dwellings by their number.

Building

A building refers to any independent structure permanently constructed or erected on its site. It has its own entrance and contains covered space intended for different purposes, usually enclosed within outer walls or walls separating it from other structures (buildings).

Caves and other subterranean spaces which are mainly enclosed within rock or similar walls and/or which do not contain structures comparable to the interior structures of buildings proper, for example underground oil tanks, are not buildings.

Stalls, kiosks, etc. that do not contain space separated by closed walls, and transportable caravans, ships, etc. are not classified as buildings.

The building stock statistics do not include:

• free-time residences
• buildings intended for storing liquids
• buildings used only in agricultural production
• sauna buildings belonging to residential buildings
• outhouses of residential buildings
• buildings entirely controlled by foreign missions
• buildings of the Armed Forces
• air raid shelters

except in cases where such buildings are occupied or contain business premises.

The data on buildings come from the Population Information System of the Population Register Centre.

Building material

The building material refers to the material from which the vertical supporting structures of the building are mainly made. The classification is as follows:

• concrete, light concrete
• brick
• steel
• wood
• other, unknown.

Child

In the family statistics children comprise the following persons living with their parents:

• biological children,
• adopted children,
• biological children, adopted children and confirmed children of one of the spouses.

Foster children and children in the care of the family are not classified as children.

The definition of child has changed since 1990. A child is now defined as a person who lives with his or her parents irrespective of his or her marital status, unless the person has a spouse or children who live in the same household-dwelling unit. In 1990 only unmarried persons were counted as children. So while in 1990 widowed or divorced persons living with their parents were classified as not belonging to families, since 1992 they have been regarded as members of the family.

Cohabiting couple

A cohabiting couple is defined as two spouseless adults of different sex aged 18 and over and occupying the same dwelling on a permanent basis, provided their age difference is less than 16 years and they are not siblings. In case the couple has a common child these specifications do not apply. Persons of the same sex living together are not regarded as cohabiting couples unless the household-dwelling unit consists of two women who are the biological mother of the child living in the same dwelling and the second mother confirmed for the child.

Commuting

Commuting refers to going to work outside the area where a person is resident. Net commuting refers to the difference between the numbers working outside the area and the numbers coming into the area to work from elsewhere. A positive net commuting value indicates that the number of people coming into the area to work exceeds the number of those going to work elsewhere from it. Net commuting can also be expressed as a value between two individual areas.

Conscript

Conscripts are defined as persons who according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces have been doing their military service during the last week of the year. Persons taking part in refresher courses during the reference week are not regarded as conscripts.

Consumption unit (OECD)

The size of the consumption unit represented by the household-dwelling unit is indicated as the sum of the weights of its members. In accordance with international recommendations the value of each member of a household-dwelling unit is determined as follows:

• first adult aged 18 and over = 1.0
• subsequent adults aged 18 and over = 0.7
• each person aged under 18 = 0.5.

If all persons in the household-dwelling unit are aged under 18, the weight of the first member is 1.0 and that of subsequent members 0.5.

Degree of urbanisation

Degree of urbanisation refers to the proportion of people living in localities or urban settlements among the population of a municipality whose place of residence can be defined by coordinates. Before the 2000 census and locality delimitation the degree of urbanisation was calculated by proportioning the population living in localities to the total population of the municipality, which also included the persons without coordinates (e.g. homeless and institutional population). Since the 2000 census the institutional population with coordinates has been included in the population living in localities if the institution belongs to a locality or forms a locality on its own.

The degree of urbanisation is expressed in decimals, separated by a decimal point.

The degree of urbanisation is calculated annually, when the population of the year concerned is combined to the localities of the latest delimitation of localities.

Dependency ratio (economic)

Population structure is measured with the so-called economic dependency ratio which gives the numbers of persons unemployed or outside the labour force per one employed persons.

Dwelling

A dwelling refers to a room or a suite of rooms which is intended for year-round habitation; is furnished with a kitchen, kitchenette or cooking area; and has a floor area of at least 7 square metres. Every dwelling must have its own entrance. A single-family house may be entered through an enclosed porch or veranda. If a dwelling is entered through the premises of another dwelling, it is not regarded as a separate dwelling but instead those two constitute one dwelling.

Dwelling density

Dwelling density is the ratio between the size of the dwelling and the number of persons living in it. Dwelling size is expressed either as the number of rooms or as the floor area of the dwelling.

Dwelling occupancy

Dwelling units are classified according to their occupancy status into dwellings permanently occupied, dwellings temporarily occupied and dwellings not in residential use:

• A dwelling is considered permanently occupied if according to the Population Information System of the Population Register Centre it is permanently occupied by one or more people.
• A dwelling is considered temporarily occupied if according to the Population Information System of the Population Register Centre it is occupied by temporary but not permanent residents.
• A dwelling is not in residential use if according to the Population Information System of the Population Register Centre it is not occupied by either permanent or temporary residents.

The Population Information System of the Population Register Centre's buildings and dwellings data include details on units that in reality are not in residential use or that are incorrectly registered. Such dwellings are not included in the dwelling stock statistics in cases where it has been possible to infer that they are errors or that they should be removed on the basis of other information.

Dwelling population

The dwelling population comprises those persons who according to the Population Information System of the Population Register Centre resided permanently in dwellings on 31 December. Persons permanently institutionalised, living in residential homes and abroad and homeless people are not included in the dwelling population. Likewise, persons living in buildings classified as residential homes whose living quarters do not meet the definition of dwelling, are not included.

The basic family population differs from the dwelling population in that it also includes those living in residential homes.

Economic activity

This item indicates whether a person has been in the economically active population for most of the year. The economically active population is defined as comprising all persons aged betweeen 15 and 74 who were employed or unemployed for at least six months during a year.

Since the 1985 population census, main type of activity has been determinded on the basis of the concept of labour force, in which the reference period is the last week of the year (instead of the full year). However, the concept of economic activity provides complementary information on employment.

Under this concept the population is divided into the following groups:

Economically active

• employed
• unemployed

Economically inactive

• children aged 0-14
• students
• pensioners
• conscripts, conscientious objectors
• other economically inactive

Economic activity is determined on the basis of monthly data on employment and unemployment from different sources. Part of the population has been classified as economically active on the basis of their earned income.

Educational structure of the population

Educational structure of the population describes distribution of the population aged 15 and over to attainers of primary, secondary and tertiary level qualifications and degrees. Attainers of tertiary degrees are further divided into attainers of lowest level tertiary, lower university level, higher university level and doctorate level degrees.

Educational system

The Finnish educational system is comprised of the following:

Pre-primary education is provided in Finland to 6-year-old children, usually at children's day care homes. Some 6-year-old children receive pre-primary education in comprehensive schools. Attendance of pre-primary education has been compulsory since 2015.

Comprehensive school education is general knowledge education provided for entire age cohorts. All children permanently resident in Finland must attend compulsory education. Compulsory education starts in the year of the child's seventh birthday.

Compulsory education finishes when the syllabus of comprehensives school education has been completed (9-year comprehensive school), or 10 years from the start of compulsory education. In exceptional cases compulsory education may start already at the age of six and last 11 years due to a disability or illness. A student who has received a leaving certificate from comprehensive school in the same year or in the year before it may continue to attend optional additional education (10th grade).

Post-comprehensive school education, or upper secondary general education and vocational education represent secondary level of education. Upper secondary general school education is education leading to a matriculation examination. Its scope is three years and it gives general eligibility to further education. Vocational education can be either educational institution-based or apprenticeship training. In apprenticeship training, most of the studying is comprised of learning through practical work tasks at a workplace. The qualifications are initial vocational qualifications attained in three years, which also give general eligibility to further polytechnic or university studies.

Further and specialist vocational qualifications represent further vocational education. They, as well as initial vocational qualifications can be attained in a skills examination that can be taken irrespective of the way of acquisition of professional skills, and in which skills can be proven on the basis of preparatory education for a skills examination or work experience.

Attainment of university of applied sciences degrees takes 3.5 to 4.5 years and higher university of applied sciences degrees requiring work practice 1-1.5 years. Attainment of lower university degrees takes three years while higher university degrees take two years longer. Attainers of higher level university degrees may continue their studies to licentiate and doctorate level degrees.

Elderly household-dwelling unit

An elderly household-dwelling unit is one in which there is at least one person over 65 years.

Employed

The employed labour force includes all persons aged 18 to 74 who were in gainful employment in the last week of the year and were not registered as unemployed job seekers in the job seeker register of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment or performing mandatory military or non-military service. Data on employment are based on the information of employment pension authorities and the tax administration.

Employed labour force resident in the area

Employed labour force resident in the area refers to all employed persons in the area concerned irrespective of the location of their workplaces. Employed labour force resident in the area forms the so-called employed night population.

Employer sector

The classification of employer sectors describes the ownership and corporate form of the workplace. It can be used for distinguishing between the public and private sector.

The classification used is as follows:

• Public sector

- state

- municipality

• State-controlled companies
• Private sector
• Other or unknown.

The information on the employer sector is based on data from Statistics Finland's Business Register on the type of owner and juridical (legal) form. The classifications relating to these are presented in the publication 'Classification of sectors'.

Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurs are defined as persons aged 18-74 who during the last week of the year had a self-employed person's pension insurance and who were not unemployed on the last working day of the year and were not conscripts or conscientious objectors during the last week of the year. If, in addition to having a self-employed person's pension insurance, the person is in an employment relationship, his/her entrepreneurial income must exceed his/her wage income. The category of entrepreneurs also includes people whose entrepreneurial income exceeds a specified level of earnings, provided that they are not retired during the reference week. This limit is set each year by means of inference using data from the Labour Force Survey.

Facilities

Data on the facilities of dwellings and buildings are derived from the dwelling and building data of the Population Information System of the Population Register Centre.

Facilities in a dwelling:

• sewage
• running water
• toilet
• hot water
• washing facilities (shower, bathroom or sauna)
• sauna in the dwelling
• central or electric heating.

The data on dwelling facilities have been used in determining the standard of equipment of the dwelling.

Facilities in a building:

• electricity
• sewage
• running water
• hot water
• lift
• sauna in the building
• swimming pool
• mechanical ventilation
• air raid shelter.

Family status

Family members are grouped by family status as follows:

• spouse, no children
• spouse with children
• cohabiting partner, no children
• cohabiting partner with children
• partner in a registered partnership, no children
• partner in a registered partnership with children
• father/mother without spouse
• child.

In the family statistics children comprise all persons, regardless of age, who live with their parents, or the spouse's biological, adopted or confirmed children, but not foster children or children in the care of the family.

Family with underage children

A family with underage children is a family comprising at least one child aged under 18 living at home.

Floor area

The floor area of a dwelling is measured from the inner surfaces of its walls. The figure includes the floor areas of the utility room, walk-in cupboard, bathroom, hobby room, sauna, washroom and dressing room, as well as the floor areas of rooms used for working unless used by hired employees.

The following are not counted in the dwelling's floor area: garage, cellar, sauna facilities in an unfurnished basement, unheated storage space, balcony, porch, veranda and attic space unless used as a living space.

The floor area of a freetime residence refers to its gross floor area.

Free-time residence

A free-time residence refers to a recreational building constructed permanently on the site of its location or to a residential building that is used as a holiday dwelling. Holiday cottages serving business purposes, buildings in holiday villages and allotment garden cottages are not counted as free-time residences.

Free-time residences comprise all buildings the intended use of which on 31 December was as a free-time residential building or which on the said date were used as holiday residences.

Free-time residences are not included in the building stock. The floor area of free-time residences refers to the gross floor area of the whole building.

The data on free-time residences are obtained of the Population Information System, maintained by building project notices from municipal building supervision authorities.

Gross floor area

The gross floor area of a building comprises the floor areas of the different storeys and the area of attic or basement storeys in which there are dwelling or working rooms or other space conforming to the principal intended use of the building.

The gross floor area is the horizontal area enclosed by the outer surfaces of the walls of the storeys or their imagined continuation for openings and decorations on the surface of the outer walls.

Heating fuel/ source of heat

Heating fuel or source of heat refers to the main fuel or energy source used in heating a building. There are also data on the heating fuel of dwellings. Data on the heating fuel have been obtained from the Population Information System, which receives them from municipal building supervision authorities.

Information about change in heating fuel is mainly transmitted to the Population Information System only if such alterations have been done to a building which require a building permit.

The classification is as follows:

• district heating
• oil
• gas
• coal
• electricity
• wood
• peat
• ground heating
• other, unknown

Heating system

Heating system refers to the main method of heating used in the heating of a building. There are also data on the heating fuel of dwellings. Data on the heating fuel have been obtained from the Population Information System, which receives them from municipal building supervision authorities by way of building project notices. Information about change in the heating system is only transmitted to the Population Information System if such alterations have been done to a building which require a building permit.

The classification is as follows:

• central heating, water
• central heating, air
• direct electric heating
• stove heating
• no fixed heating installation
• unknown.

In a water central heating system, the building is heated with circulating water, and in an air central heating system with circulating air. In direct electric heating the building is heated with the aid of a fixed radiator, etc. connected directly to the electricity network.

In stove heating, heating takes place by burning wood or other fuels in a fireplace (stove) that stores heat. Stove heating also includes electric heating reservoirs, separate fixed oil heaters and heatpreserving fireplaces. Stoves used for heating saunas are not regarded as heating equipment.

Holiday resident

The number of holiday residents by municipality has been counted from the total number of persons in the household-dwelling units of the free-time residence owners. If the same person owns more than one freetime residence in the same municipality, the persons in that household-dwelling unit have been taken into account only once. If the household-dwelling unit owns a freetime residence in more than one municipality the said persons have been counted as holiday residents in both municipalities.

When counting the number of holiday residents it has not been possible to take account of the free-time residences owned by death estates or foreigners, or of those in joint ownership.

Homeless

Homeless people include those living out of doors, in various temporary shelters and night shelters and institutions due to lack of a dwelling (e.g. shelters, nursing homes, psychiatric hospitals, institutions for mentally handicapped). Also released prisoners with no known dwelling are included in homeless people. In addition, the homeless comprise those living temporarily with friends and relatives and itinerants.

Household-dwelling unit

A household-dwelling unit consists of the permanent occupants of a dwelling. Persons who according to the Population Information System of the Population Register Centre are institutionalised, or are homeless, or are abroad, or are registered as unknown, do not constitute household-dwelling units. Additionally, persons living in buildings classified as residential homes do not form household-dwelling units if their living quarters do not meet the definition of a dwelling. In the 1980 census household-dwelling units were also formed of these persons.

The concept of household-dwelling unit was adopted in the 1980 census. In earlier years the concept of household was used. A household consisted of family members and other persons living together who made common provision for food. A subtenant providing for his or her own food constituted a separate household. Since 1980 subtenants have been classified in the same household-dwelling units with other occupants.

Income subject to state taxation

The information is based on data in the tax files of the National Board of Inland Revenue concerning income subject to state taxation.

Average income refers to income calculated per income earner. Median income generally provides a better picture of the income level within a certain group. Median income indicates the amount of income that divides income earners into two groups of equal size. One half of the income earners have lower, and one half higher, incomes than the median.

Net income means income obtained by subtracting taxes from income subject to state taxation (income tax, wealth tax, punitive tax increase, municipal tax, church tax, social security contributions and forestry levies).

Income subject to state taxation is divided into the following categories according to source:

1. Wage income:

wages and salaries subject to preliminary collection of taxes, wages and salaries from work at sea, reimbursements of expenses by employer, holiday pay in building and construction, wages and salaries to reservists, income from abroad taxed in Finland, value of purchased services in forestry, value of purchased services in partnerships, redemptions, service charges and other income subject to advance payment of taxes

2. Entrepreneurial income:

earned income and capital income in agriculture and forestry, earned income and capital income in trade and business, income from partnerships

3. Other income subject to state taxation:

other earned income, pension income, unemployment benefits and other social security benefits.

A person's earned income consists of his or her entrepreneurial income and wage and salary earnings. Income subject to state taxation does not include scholarships and grants received from public corporations for studies or research, earned income from abroad if the person has worked abroad for at least six months, part of the social security benefits received from the public sector and tax-exempt interest income.

Statistics Finland's annual publication "Statistics on income and property" contains descriptions of the different types of income.

Intended use of building

The intended use of a building is determined according to the purpose for which the largest part of the gross floor area of the building is used. The categories are as follows:

• residential buildings
• free-time residential buildings
• commercial buildings
• office buildings
• transport and communications buildings
• buildings for institutional care
• assembly buildings
• educational buildings
• industrial and mining and quarrying buildings
• energy supply buildings
• public utility buildings
• warehouses
• rescue services buildings
• agricultural buildings and livestock shelters
• other buildings.

The classification of the intended use of buildings is given in Statistics Finland's Handbook Classification of Buildings 2018. Not all the classes in the building classification are included in the Statitics Finland's building stock.

Kitchen

A kitchen is a room furnished for cooking. A space furnished for cooking measuring less than 7 square metres is a kitchenette or cooking area.

Language

Information on language is obtained from the Population Information System. At the same time as parents register the name of their new-born, they also indicate the child's mother tongue. That language is retained in the Population Information System unless it is changed upon separate application.

Languages are classified by the Population Register Centre according to the ISO 639 standard. The future language classification ISO-639-1 was already adopted for the 2000 population census.

Level of education

Category into which programmes leading to a qualification or degree are divided on the basis of the requirement level.

Comment:

Selection to education on a particular level of education often requires completion of a lower level of education.

The level of education is measured on the basis of both the overall duration or target time of the education and the requirement level.

Levels of education: early childhood education and care and pre-primary education (duration varies), primary education (6 years), lower secondary education (3 years, in total 9 years from the beginning of comprehensive education), upper secondary education (3 years, in total 12 years from the beginning of comprehensive education), post-secondary non-tertiary education (1-2 years, in total 13-14 years from the beginning of comprehensive education), lowest tertiary education (2-3 years, in total 14-15 years from the beginning of comprehensive education), bachelor's or equivalent level (3-4 years, in total 15-16 years from the beginning of comprehensive education), master's or equivalent level (5-6 years, in total 17-18 years from the beginning of comprehensive education) and second stage of tertiary education (2-4 years, in total 19-22 years from the beginning of comprehensive education).

The level of education indicator cannot be calculated directly on the basis of the duration presented in this concept.

Level of education

In the statistics on the educational structure of the population, the population's level of education is measured with the average length of the highest level of completed education per capita. For example, level of education indicator 246 means that the theoretic duration of education per capita is 2.5 years after completion of comprehensive school education. The population's level of education is calculated from the population aged 20 and over. This is because many under the age of 20 have not yet completed their studies. The measure of level of education allows easy comparisons between regions in levels of education and monitoring of temporal changes.

Up to the end of 1997, the population's level of education was calculated from the levels of educational qualifications and degrees attained by the population aged 15 and over. The indicator of level of education can range from 150 to 800. The higher the indicator figure, the higher the level of education. In the group with level of education indicator 150, everybody has completed only elementary school, middle school or comprehensive school, whereas in the group with level of education indicator 800, everyone holds a licentiate or doctorate level degree.

Level of housing

The occupancy rate and standard of equipment of the dwelling together describe the level of housing of the household-dwelling unit.

The classification of occupancy rate:

• Spacious: a household-dwelling unit of one to five persons with room units at its disposal exceeding the number of its members by at least three (kitchen is not included in the number of rooms).
• Overcrowded: more than one person per room unit (kitchen is not included in the number of rooms).
• Normal: not belonging to the above categories.

(Kitchen is not included in the number of rooms from 1989 onwards.)

Standard of equipment:

• High standard of equipment: the dwelling has running water, sewage, hot water, toilet, washing facilities (shower, bathroom or sauna) and central or electric heating.
• Low standard of equipment: the dwelling lacks washing facilities and/or central or electric heating.
• Substandard level of equipment: the dwelling lacks one of the following facilities: running water, sewage, hot water or toilet.

As from 2005 only "High standard of equipment" and "Other or unknown level of equipment" are used.

Location address

The location address of a building is formed of the street name, street number with possible specifiers and municipality of location.

Statistics Finland's building data are based on the Building and Dwelling Register of the Population Information System maintained by the Population Register Centre. In this register most buildings have a street address. Some buildings, including residential buildings, have a place name or a specifier for mail delivery in place of a street name. A building can have at most four street addresses. Such cases are buildings covering a whole block when four streets of different names go past the building. In the Population Information System addresses of buildings with many addresses are given a serial number.

Main type of activity

The concept of main type of activity describes the nature of a person's economic activity. The population is divided into people in the labour force and those outside the labour force. These categories can further be divided into subgroups. The classification is based on data on a person's main type of activity during the last week of the year.

The following classification is used:

Labour force

• employed labour force
• unemployed

Persons outside the labour force

• 0-14-year-olds
• students, pupils
• pensioners
• conscripts, conscientious objectors
• others outside the labour force.

Information on the main type of activity is based on data obtained from various registers. Where the data conflict as to whether a person is in the labour force or outside it, priority is given to the former. If, within the labour force, the data conflict as to whether a person is unemployed or employed, priority is given to the former.

The group "others outside the labour force" consists of persons who are not in the labour force and do not belong to the following groups: 0-14-year-olds, students, conscripts, conscientous objectors or pensioners.

Map co-ordinate

Map co-ordinates are numerical co-ordinate values indicating the location of an object on globe or in the national grid co-ordinate system. Map co-ordinates are given either as geographical or horizontal co-ordinates. Geographical co-ordinates are described as degrees of latitude and longitude. The location of a point situated in the horizontal co-ordinate system is given as values of X and Y co-ordinates, that is, northing and easting.

In Finland the national horizontal co-ordinate system used is the basic co-ordinate system and the uniform co-ordinate system according to the national grid co-ordinate system (KKJ). This Finnish co-ordinate system is being replaced by the pan-European EUREF 89 co-ordinate system.

NUTS division

NUTS (Nomenclature des Unités Territoriales Statistiques) is the regional classification system of the EU, according to which all common regional statistics of the EU are compiled. The official NUTS division is recommended to be used as the primary regional division in statistics. The NUTS classification is defined in the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council No. 1059/2003. This is updated by the European Commission's delegated regulation. NUTS 2021, that is valid from 1 January 2021, is based on the delegated regulation 2019/1755.

The NUTS nomenclature is used for

a) collecting, developing and harmonising Community regional statistics

b) socio-economic analyses of areas

c) defining Community regional policy.

In Finland NUTS level 1 refers to the division into Mainland Finland and Åland and NUTS level 2 major regions. Regions should correspond to the NUTS level 3 areas, but Finland's NUTS 2021 remains unchanged and corresponds to NUTS 2016 (valid from 1 January 2018 - 31 December 2020). Sub-regional units form LAU level 1 (NUTS 4) and municipalities LAU level 2 (NUTS 5). LAU (Local Administrative Unit).

In the European statistics the most important one is NUTS level 2 (major regions), on which all regional data are to be produced.

Network connection

The following network connections are identified for a building:

• sewage
• running water
• electricity
• natural gas.

Number of children

The number of children refers to the number of children who are living at home and have the status of a child. The number of children in families with underage children refers to the number of children aged under 18 living at home.

Number of storeys

The number of storeys in a building consists of all storeys that are primarily above ground level and in which there are habitable rooms or office space or other space conforming to the intended use of the building. If the number of storeys varies in different parts of the building, the number usually refers to the largest number of storeys in the building.

For buildings completed after 1980, the number of storeys is expressed as an average number that takes into account the whole building if the share of the gross floor area of a certain storey out of the gross floor area of the main storeys is very small. For instance, if a large industrial unit is mainly a one-storey building, but office space is located on three storeys, then the number of storeys is given as one.

Occupancy rate

The classification of occupancy rate:

• Spacious: a household-dwelling unit of one to five persons with room units at its disposal exceeding the number of its members by at least three (kitchen is not included in the number of rooms).
• Overcrowded: more than one person per room unit (kitchen is not included in the number of rooms).
• Normal: household-dwelling units not belonging to the above categories.

Overcrowding

According to the norms below, a dwelling is over-crowded if it has

• Norm 1: more than two persons per room, with kitchen included in the number of rooms
• Norm 2: more than two persons per room, with kitchen excluded from the number of rooms
• Norm 3: more than one person per room, with kitchen included in the number of rooms
• Norm 4: more than one person per room, with kitchen excluded from the number of rooms.

The norms applied in the statistics have changed over the decades. Norms 1 and 2 were used in the 1970 and 1975 population censuses. Data based on norm 3 have been produced since 1980. Norm 4 was first introduced in the 1990 census. Norm 4 has also been used in the level of housing classification since the 1990 census. Prior to that norm 3 was used.

Pensioner

Pensioners comprise all persons who according to the data of the Social Insurance Institution or the Centre for Pensions receive a pension (excl. those receiving family pension or part-time pension) and are not gainfully employed. All persons over 74 are also classified as pensioners. In addition, some persons have been classified as pensioners on the basis of pension income.

Persons working in the area

Persons working in the area refers to all persons who go to work in the area concerned irrespective of their place of residence. Persons working in the area form the so-called employed day population, the size of which can be regarded as a measure of the number of workplaces in the area.

Population

The resident population of Finland on 31 December is derived from the Population Information System maintained by the Population Register Centre. Since the data for 1993, Statistics Finland and the Population Register Centre have had the same reference period, the turn of the year at midnight, which means that the number of population has been the same.

Post code area

The post code area usually refers to the area covered by one post office which is identified by a 5-digit post code. Post code areas are independent of administrative regional divisions, i.e. the same post code area may extend across municipal boundaries.

Qualification or degree

In statistics on the educational structure of the population, transition form school to further education and work and progress of studies attainers of qualifications or degrees refer to completers of matriculation examination, international matriculation examinations (IB, Reifeprüfung or Gymnasieexamen examination), and attainers of vocational qualifications, university of applied sciences degrees, higher university of applied sciences degrees or university degrees by the end of the statistical reference year. Attainers of qualifications or degrees also include attainers of qualifications or degrees in the armed services, frontier guard service or abroad. One qualification or degree per person is included in statistics: vocational qualification attained at the highest level of education/most recently attained.

The data are obtained from Statistics Finland's Register of Completed Education and Degrees. Data can only be entered into the Register for persons who have a Finnish personal ID number. For this reason data on the qualifications or degrees of persons without a personal ID number, e.g. many foreign persons, are missing from the Register.

Reconstituted family

In a reconstituted family, a child aged under 18 is a child of only one of the spouses. Not all the children aged under 18 in the family are common children.

Regional council

The country is divided into regions for the development of the areas and for the planning of their use. Regional councils are responsible for supervising the interests of the municipalities in their area and for the regional development of their territory.

According to the Government resolution (6 February 1997), the regional division of regional councils is taken as the basis for the regional divisions of State regional administrative authorities. From September 1997 onwards, the areas of regions and the regional councils representing them are exactly the same.

A region and a regional council are areas in which the municipalities form an operationally and economically functional whole for the development of the area. The Government determines the number, areas and names of regions after hearing the regional councils and municipalities concerned.

Regional division

In the regional division a geographical area is divided into smaller areas. Statistical regional divisions are such as divisions into municipalities and regions.

Registered partnership

Registered partnership of two persons of the same sex aged 18 or over (Act on Registered Partnerships of 9 Nov. 2001/950). Partnership is registered by an authority entitled to perform civil marriage ceremonies. Registered partnership is dissolved when one partner dies or is declared dead, or when it is dissolved by court order.

The possibility to register partnerships started in Finland on 1 March 2002 and ended on the last day of February 2017 (Act to amend the Act of Registered Partnerships 250/2016). Starting from the beginning of March 2017, same-sex couples have been able to enter into marriage (156/2015).

As a result of the amendment to the Marriage Act, parties to a partnership registered in Finland can convert their partnership into a marriage by making a joint notification of this to the Digital and Data Services Office. A registered partnership continues as a marriage from the day on which the Digital and Data Services Office has received the notification.

In the statistics, registered partnerships that have been converted into marriages based on such notification are not included as contracted marriages in the annual statistics.

Residential home

A residential home refers to a building intended for dormitory accommodation. Residents share the same kitchen, living lounge and/or washing facilities. This type of residential home does not normally have separate dwelling units proper.

In terms of structural engineering a residential home hardly differs from an accommodation building. A residential home is intended for specific groups of people, such as the elderly, disabled, etc. Ordinary residential dwellings built for these groups with no special uses of space (communal kitchens, etc.) are not residential homes.

A dwelling unit within a building classified as a residential home is regarded as a normal dwelling if the dwelling has

• more than one room, including kitchen,
• a kitchen or kitchenette,
• toilet, and
• shower, bath or sauna.

Dwellings in residential homes are not classified as a separate category, but they are counted as part of the regular housing stock. Dwellings in residential homes that do not meet the above conditions are not included in the dwelling stock statistics.

Room and number of rooms

A room is a space with one or more windows that has a floor area of at least 7 square metres and an average height of at least 2 metres. A hall, porch, bed recess, etc. are not counted as rooms. Kitchen is not normally counted in the number of rooms.

Sex

The information about sex has been obtained from the Population Information System.

Spatial data

Spatial data is a characteristic that describes the location, geometrics or topology of a spatial object. Spatial data are given as coordinates, an address, locality or other known object.

See also geographic information and attribute data

Stage in life

The classification of stages in life is used to distinguish between the stages of a household-dwelling unit, which usually differ in terms of income and consumption. The classification is based on type of household-dwelling unit, age of reference person and age of children.

The household-dwelling unit's stage in life is described by the age of the reference person in cases where the household-dwelling unit does not comprise a family (single-person households, non-family households comprising at least two persons) or where the family consists of a married or cohabiting couple without children. The stage in life of a family with children is determined by the age of the children belonging to the household-dwelling unit. Since 1993 families consisting of a cohabiting couple with children have been classified separately from families consisting of a married couple with children.

Standard of equipment

As from 2005, only two categories are used to describe the standard of equipment:

• High standard of equipment: the dwelling has running water, sewage, hot water, toilet, washing facilities (shower/bathroom or sauna) and central or electric heating
• Other or unknown level of equipment.

In the previous years, three categories have been used to describe the standard of equipment in a dwelling:

• High standard of equipment: the dwelling has running water, sewage, hot water, toilet, washing facilities (shower/bathroom or sauna) and central or electric heating
• low standard of equipment: the dwelling only lacks washing facilities and/or central heating (or electric heating)
• substandard of equipment: the dwelling lacks one of the following facilities: running water, sewage, hot water or toilet.

Statistical grouping of municipalities

Statistics Finland introduced a new statistical grouping of municipalities in 1989. The classification groups municipalities according to their degrees of urbanisation and rurality. The municipal classification divides municipalities into three categories according to the proportion of people living in urban settlements and the population of the largest urban settlement: urban municipalities, semi-urban municipalities, rural municipalities.

Urban municipalities include those municipalities in which at least 90 per cent of the population lives in urban settlements or in which the population of the largest urban settlement is at least 15,000.

Semi-urban municipalities are municipalities in which at least 60 per cent but less than 90 per cent of the population lives in urban settlements and in which the population of the largest urban settlement is at least 4,000 but less than 15,000.

Rural municipalities include those municipalities in which less than 60 per cent of the population lives in urban settlements and in which the population of the largest urban settlement is less than 15,000; and those municipalities in which at least 60 per cent but less than 90 per cent of the population lives in urban settlements and in which the population of the largest settlement is less than 4,000.

A list of all municipalities, types of municipality and the changes that have occurred in them are included in Statistics Finland's Regional Divisions Based on Municipalities publication.

Statistical locality

All clusters of buildings with at least 200 inhabitants where the distance between buildings does not exceed 200 metres are defined as statistical localities. In defining localities, not only residential but also business, office and other buildings used as workplaces are taken into account. Administrative regional divisions do not have an effect on the formation of localities.

A statistical locality is also referred to as 'locality' in connection with Statistics Finland's data.

Structure of household-dwelling unit

Household-dwelling units are divided according to their structure into two categories:

Family household-dwelling units comprise:

• 1 family, no other persons
• 1 family and other persons
• at least 2 families, no other persons
• at least 2 families and possibly other persons.

Other household-dwelling units comprise:

• 1 person
• 2 persons, both of the same sex
• 2 persons, male and female
• at least 3 persons, all of the same sex
• at least 3 persons, male and female.

Sub-area (of municipality)

Municipal sub-areas are formed of operationally functional wholes defined by the municipality itself, which are the basis of the municipality's regional planning and monitoring. Statistics Finland is responsible for digitising new sub-area boundaries and for maintaining name files. Municipalities have the opportunity to check their sub-area division once a year.

The division into sub-areas is a hierarchical three-level classification which has a 1-digit major area level, a 2-digit statistical area level and a 3-digit small area level. Sub-areas are numbered consecutively using these three hierarchical levels. The 6-digit sub-area code is bound to the 3-digit municipality code, so the sub-area code consists of a total of nine characters.

Tenure status

Dwellings are classified according to tenure status as follows:

Owner-occupied dwelling

• occupant of the dwelling owns the house
• occupant of the dwelling owns shares in housing corporation

Rented dwelling

• rented dwelling subsidised by the State
• rented dwelling with interest support loan
• other rented dwelling

Right of occupancy dwelling

Other tenure status

• e.g. life annuity, kinship

Tenure status unknown

In the dwelling stock statistics the tenure status is mainly defined for permanently occupied dwellings.

Type of building

Residential buildings are classified according to type of building as follows:

• Detached houses: residential buildings containing 1 to 2 dwellings, including semi-detached houses and other comparable detached residential buildings (e.g. permanently occupied free-time residences)
• Terraced houses: residential buildings with at least three adjoining dwellings
• Blocks of flats: residential buildings of at least three dwellings in which at least two dwellings are located on top of each other and which do not belong to the previous categories
• Other buildings: also includes buildings whose type is unknown.

Type of family

Families are grouped into the following types:

- married opposite-sex couple without children

- married same-sex couple without children

- cohabiting opposite-sex couple without children

- married opposite-sex couple with children

- married same-sex couple with children

- cohabiting opposite-sex couple with children

- cohabiting same-sex couple with common children (biological mother and confirmed mother)

- registered male couple without children

- registered male couple with children

- registered female couple without children

- registered female couple with children

- mother with children

- father with children.

A married or cohabiting couple without children refers to a couple who has never had any children or whose children no longer live with their parents. ‘Cohabiting couple with children’ contains couples who have common children and also couples whose children are not common.

For reasons of data protection, married and cohabiting same-sex couples and registered same-sex couples are classified together with married opposite sex couples in municipal tables.

Type of ownership of building

Buildings are divided into the following categories by tenure status:

• private person/ death estate
• housing corporation or co-operative
• real estate corporation
• private company
• company controlled by the State or municipality
• State or municipal corporation
• bank or insurance company
• municipality
• State
• social security fund
• religious community, foundation, party, etc.
• other or unknown.

Uniform co-ordinate

The basis for Finland's national mapping and for defining horizontal co-ordinates is the national grid co-ordinate system, which is abbreviated as KKJ. This grid co-ordinate system is based on the Gauss-Krüger projection. Co-ordinates according to the KJJ can be defined and presented either in the basic co-ordinate system or in the uniform co-ordinate system (YKJ). Co-ordinates in the uniform co-ordinate system are referred to as uniform co-ordinates.

In the national grid co-ordinate system the area of Finland is divided into six 3-degree wide projection zones or bands. In practice, there are four bands because the outermost ones are located right in the eastern and western borders of the country.

The central meridians of four bands are 21, 24, 27 and 30 degrees east longitude. The projection bands are at their widest in Southern Finland and narrow towards the north. The easting of the location of an object is determined by its distance to the central meridian. The northing is formed of the distance to the equator.

In the basic co-ordinate system the location is described in projections according to band as so-called band co-ordinates. The uniform co-ordinate system differs from the basic co-ordinate system in that there Finland is described as one wide band in place of four bands. The central meridian of this band is 27 degrees, which is the same as the third band of the basic co-ordinate system. The uniform co-ordinate system is used when viewing the whole of Finland or areas crossing the bands of the basic co-ordinate system.

The uniform co-ordinate system is usually used as the co-ordinate system of Statistics Finland's geographic information data unless otherwise stated.

University degree, university of applied sciences degree

In the statistics on the educational structure of the population, tertiary degrees comprise all lower, higher and doctorate level tertiary degrees.

Up to the end of 2001, only degrees obtained at universities and experimental or permanent university of applied sciences in accordance with the decree on universities (464/1998) were included in tertiary degrees.

With a family

A man with a family is a married or cohabiting partner, a father with children and both partners of a registered male couple.

A woman with a family is a married or cohabiting partner, a mother with children and both partners of a registered female couple.

Working-age population

The working-age population consists of all persons aged between 15 and 74 years.

Workplace self-sufficiency

Self-sufficiency in workplaces indicates the ratio between the number of people working in the area and the employed labour force living in the area. If the ratio exceeds 100%, the number of workplaces in the area is greater than the number of employed people living in the area. If the figure is below 100%, the opposite is true.

Year of construction

The year of construction refers to the year in which the building was completed and was ready for use. If the building was completed prior to 1980, the year of renovation may have been entered as the year of construction.