Subject choices of completers of upper secondary general school education in 2015

According to Statistics Finland, nearly all completers of the full upper secondary general school syllabus in 2015 had studied English, and Finnish or Swedish during their attendance of upper secondary general school. German had been studied by 20 per cent, Spanish by 18 per cent, French by 14 per cent and Russian by 10 per cent of the completers of upper secondary general school education. The proportions of those having studied other foreign languages remained below three per cent. They also vary considerably between genders in several languages.

Language choices of completers of full upper secondary general school syllabus 2015

Studied language	Compulsory A-languages	Compulsory language B1	Elective language B2, at least six courses	Elective language B3, at least six courses	Elective language, fewer than six courses	Total	Share of completers of full upper secondary general school syllabus, %
English	28 959	44	2	0	5	29 010	99.2
Swedish	2 243	24 327	47	4	5	26 626	91.0
Finnish	1 892	79	2	41	26	2 040	7.0
French	461	28	627	935	2 002	4 053	13.9
German	910	30	970	1 287	2 734	5 931	20.3
Russian	213	3	122	809	1 684	2 831	9.7
Sami	6	.	0	1	0	7	0.0
Latin	0	.	23	48	305	376	1.3
Spanish	30	.	140	1 543	3 448	5 161	17.6
Italian	6	.	2	143	539	690	2.4
Other	8	0	3	19	374	404	1.4

The completers of upper secondary general school studies had mainly taken English, Swedish or Finnish as a compulsory language subject. German, Spanish, French, Russian and other foreign languages had been mainly studied as an elective language. A total of 29,252 students completed the full upper secondary general school syllabus in spring 2015. 12,435 of the completers were men and 16,817 were women.

In spring 2015, 41 per cent of all completers of the full upper secondary general school syllabus - 34 per cent of female students and 51 per cent of male students - had taken the long syllabus in mathematics.

Source: Education. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Vesa Hämäläinen 029 551 2594, koulutustilastot@stat.fi

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

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Tables

Appendix tables

Updated 16.12.2015

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Subject choices of students [e-publication].
ISSN=1799-1056. Subject choices of completers of upper secondary general school education 2015. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 28.12.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/ava/2015/01/ava_2015_01_2015-12-16_tie_001_en.html