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Published: 12 May 2017

Record number of Finnish citizenships was granted in 2016

According to Statistics Finland, Finnish citizenship was granted in 2016 to 9,375 foreign citizens permanently resident in Finland. The number is the highest during Finnish independence. Altogether, 1,454 more citizenships were granted than in 2015.

Persons having received Finnish citizenship in 1966 to 2016

Finnish citizenship was granted most often to Russian citizens

In 2016, Finnish citizenship was granted by far most often to citizens of Russia, numbering 2,028 among those having been granted Finnish citizenship. This was 300 more than in the year before. Somali citizens were the second largest group of recipients of Finnish citizenship, numbering 1,066. The third most Finnish citizenships were granted to citizens of Iraq (534) and fourth most to Estonian citizens (459).

The average age of persons having received Finnish citizenship was under 30 years

Of the persons receiving Finnish citizenship, 4,914 were women and 4,461 men. The average age for women was 28.4 years and 26.4 years for men. Among the persons having been granted Finnish citizenship, 2,944 were aged under 18 and 231 were aged 65 or over.

Nearly 105,000 persons living in Finland have dual citizenship

In 2016, altogether 96 per cent of those having been granted Finnish citizenship retained their former citizenship. At the end of 2016, there were 104,997 persons permanently resident in Finland who held the citizenship of some other country in addition to Finnish citizenship. Of them, 20,324 were native-born Finnish citizens who had been granted citizenship in another country, and 84,673 persons were foreign citizens who had been granted Finnish citizenship.

The largest dual nationality groups at the end of 2016 were citizens of Russia (27,456), Sweden (7,380), Somalia (4,650), Estonia (4,601) and the United States (3,934).

Source: Population and Justice Statistics. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Katariina Heikkilä 029 551 3638, Matti Saari 029 551 3401

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

Publication in pdf-format (234.3 kB)

Tables

Tables in databases

Pick the data you need into tables, view the data as graphs, or download the data for your use.

• Database tables and their variables
• Archived tables

Figures

• Appendix figure 1. Naturalized foreigners by previous citizenship in 2016 (12.5.2017)
• Appendix figure 2. Largest dual nationality groups permanently resident in Finland by their second nationality in 2016 (12.5.2017)

Quality descriptions

• Quality description, naturalized foreigners 2016 (12.5.2017)

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Updated 12.5.2017