Number of foreign origin children doubles in a decade

There were 402,619 persons with foreign background living in Finland at the end of 2018, which was 7.3 per cent of the entire population, according to Statistics Finland.

There were 335,414 persons of first generation with foreign background, i.e. born abroad, and 67,205 persons of second generation with foreign background, i.e. born in Finland.

The number of children with foreign background has doubled in ten years.

At the end of 2018, the share of persons with European background among first-generation immigrants was over one-half (55 per cent). The share of persons with Asian background was 29 per cent and 11 per cent for persons with African background.

The share of Europeans among persons with foreign background born in Finland was 48 per cent, that of persons with Asian background 27 per cent, and 22 per cent for persons with African background. The share of persons with African background among those with foreign background is double in the second generation.

The clearly largest group of persons with foreign background was those whose background country was Russia or the former Soviet Union. There were 85,534 such persons at the end of 2018, which is one-fifth of all persons with foreign background. The next biggest groups were people of Estonian background, 49,989 persons, persons of Iraqi background, 22,336, and persons of Somali background, 20,723.

The average age of persons with foreign background in the first generation was 38.2 in 2018, and that of the entire population was 42.9. The average age of persons with Finnish background was 43.6. The average age of persons of foreign background in the second generation was 11 years.

The share of under school-age children (aged 0 to 6) with foreign background was 10.3 per cent at the end of 2018. One in four of under school-age children are already of foreign background in Greater Helsinki.

The number of people with foreign origin was highest in the region of Åland, where their share of the population was 15.5 per cent and second highest in Uusimaa, 13.5 per cent. Of the persons with foreign origin living in Åland, 40 per cent were of Swedish origin. The share of the population with foreign origin was lowest in South Ostrobothnia, 2.3 per cent.