Home > Statistics > Providers of education and educational institutions > 2018 > Number of educational institutions fell further, the number of joint schools continued growing

Published: 12 February 2019

Number of educational institutions fell further, the number of joint schools continued growing

According to Statistics Finland’s register of providers of education and register of educational institutions, there were 715 active providers of education and 3,236 educational institutions in which around 1.84 million students pursued studies at the end of 2018. A total of 2,234 comprehensive schools were in operation, 20 per cent of which were joint schools comprising grades 1 to 9. The share of joint schools in comprehensive schools has risen by 10 percentage points in ten years.

Number of comprehensive schools by grades 2009–2018

In 2018, there were 2,234 active comprehensive schools and they had a total of 541,200 pupils. Special education schools at the comprehensive school level numbered 70 and they had 4,200 pupils. A total of 50 comprehensive schools or comprehensive school level special education schools were closed down or merged with another educational institution. Seventeen per cent of them were educational institutions with under 20 pupils, 27 per cent had between 20 and 49 pupils while 56 per cent had at least 50 pupils. Most comprehensive schools and comprehensive school level special education schools were closed down or merged in the regions of Southwest Finland and Ostrobothnia.

Comprehensive schools are more often than earlier joint schools comprising grades 1 to 9. In ten years, the number of primary schools comprising grades 1 to 6 has gone down by 30 per cent, while the number of joint schools has grown by 49 per cent. In 2009, primary schools numbered 2,200, while the corresponding figure in 2018 was 1,543.

Educational institutions of the school system and numbers of students by type of educational institution in 2018

Type of educational institution	Number	Change from previous year 1)	Students 2)
11 Comprehensive schools	2 234	-44	541 200
12 Comprehensive school level special education schools	70	-3	4 200
15 Upper secondary general schools	336	-4	109 900
19 Comprehensive and upper secondary general level schools	42	1	28 400
21 Vocational institutes	84	-15	189 100
22 Special needs vocational institutes	5	-1	5 000
23 Specialised vocational institutes	20	-3	25 500
24 Vocational adult education centres	14	-6	18 100
28 Fire, police and security service institutes	1	-	300
29 Military vocational institutes	6	-	..
41 Universities of applied sciences	25	-	145 500
42 Universities	14	-	158 200
43 Military academies	1	-	1 000
61 Music schools and colleges	84	-	62 800
62 Sports institutes	13	-1	18 000
63 Folk high schools	72	-1	18 600
64 Adult education centres	178	-3	465 400
65 Study circle centres	12	-	28 000
66 Summer universities	19	-1	24 900
99 Other educational institutions	6	-1	500
Total	3 236	-82	1 844 600

1) The exact change is described in the appendix table 1. Changes from the previous year made to educational institutions of the school system by type of educational institution in 2018.
2) The data on the number of students are mainly as on 20 September 2018 and include the number of all students in educational institutions belonging to the type of educational institution independent of the level of education. Data on the number of students at universities, universities of applied sciences, vocational institutions and upper secondary institutions is preliminary.

In 2018, the number of providers of education was in total 13 lower than one year earlier. Of the providers of education, 47 per cent were municipalities or joint municipal authorities, six per cent were central government units and 44 per cent private. The remaining three per cent of the providers of education operated in the region of Åland. In 2018, five new providers of education were added to the Register of Providers of Education. The number of educational institutions was 82 lower than in the year before.

According to preliminary data for 2018, there were 1.29 million students in education leading to a qualification or degree. These data derive from education statistics compiled by Statistics Finland. Data on the subject matter are published on Statistics Finland’s websites on the statistics on students and qualifications of educational institutions, pre-primary and comprehensive school education, upper secondary general education, vocational education, university of applied sciences education, university education and adult education of educational institutions.

Source: Education Statistics. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Tarja Seppänen 029 551 3220, koulutustilastot@stat.fi

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

Publication in pdf-format (215.1 kB)

Tables

Appendix tables

• Appendix table 1. Changes from previous year made to educational institutions of the school system by type of educational institution 2018 (12.2.2019)

---

Updated 12.2.2019