Number of primary, lower secondary students on wane in Finland

There were 47,600 pupils in pre-primary education and 537,000 pupils in primary and lower secondary education in 2025 in Finland, according to Statistics Finland.

The number of pupils in primary and lower secondary education fell by two per cent from the previous year.

A total of 50,100 pupils started their first grade and almost 63,000 pupils completed their ninth grade in the spring.

Altogether 342,000 pupils attended grades 1 to 6 and 194,000 pupils attended grades 7 to 9 in 2025.

Seven per cent of the pupils in primary and lower secondary education were of foreign background who were born abroad. The share of those with foreign background born in Finland was six per cent.

Thirty-two per cent of pupils in primary and lower secondary education and 42 per cent of home-schooled pupils were from the region of Uusimaa.

A total of 930 pupils were being home-schooled.

A total of 3,900 were studying in preparatory instruction for lower secondary education for adults and 5,600 in lower secondary education for adults.