Population of Helsinki to increase to 700 000 by 2026

Helsinki’s population will be 820 000 in 2050, said a press release of the City of Helsinki.

According to the “rapid growth” alternative of the projection, it would be no less than 880 000.

Helsinki is forecast to continue growing almost as fast as earlier. According to the basic alternative of the latest population projection made by the Urban Studies and Statistics Unit at Helsinki City Executive Office, the new population projection for Helsinki and the Helsinki Region extends to 2050 and the one for Helsinki’s districts to 2034. Both contain separate forecasts for the Swedish-language population.

Annual population growth in Helsinki is expected at 6,700 on average well into the 2030s, then gradually turning slower with rising numbers of deaths – although not as much slower as in Statistics Finland’s new projection for the reason that, in the city’s projection, more dwellings are expected to be built than earlier in Helsinki.

Over the next five years, the number of small children is forecast to decrease as birth rates fall. The number of 7-15 year olds, on the other hand, rises rapidly up until the mid 2020s, by even more than 1,500 a year.

With the large post-war age groups getting older, the number of 75 year olds or older is starting to grow rapidly, by as much as 3,000 per annum in the early 2020s.

The number of people of working age is forecast to continue to grow by 3,000-4,000 per annum up until the 2040s, but gradually only the over 50 year olds will be increasing in numbers. A large proportion of population growth will come from immigration.