The largest city in Finland is Helsinki with 684,018 inhabitants. Helsinki is the capital of Finland, and it is located in the south within the Uusimaa region. In 2024, the second largest city was Espoo, a city located in the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area, which had approximately 320,900 inhabitants. After the cities of Helsinki and Espoo, the third largest and most populous city outside the capital region was Tampere, with roughly 280,200 inhabitants. The Finnish population is highly concentrated in southern Finland The total population of Finland is roughly 5.64 million. Finland is one of the most sparsely populated countries in Europe, and the population is highly concentrated in the southern and southwestern parts of the country. Since 1915 the population of Finland grew steadily from 3.1 million to more than 5.64 million inhabitants. But the upwards trend slowed down in recent years. The median age of the Finnish population is rising While the population growth slowed down the Finnish population also got older. The media age increased from 38.4 years in 2000 to 43 years in 2024. The estimated median age for the Finnish population in 2035 was 45.3 years.

Population in largest city in Finland was reported at 1346810 in 2024, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Finland - Population in largest city - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on June of 2025.

Finland FI: Population in Largest City data was reported at 1,259,875.000 Person in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 1,240,942.000 Person for 2016. Finland FI: Population in Largest City data is updated yearly, averaging 820,866.000 Person from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,259,875.000 Person in 2017 and a record low of 448,192.000 Person in 1960. Finland FI: Population in Largest City data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Finland – Table FI.World Bank: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population in largest city is the urban population living in the country's largest metropolitan area.; ; United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.; ;

The most populous area in Finland is the capital region of Uusimaa, with almost 1.8 million inhabitants as of 2024. Almost one third of the 5.64 million population lived in the capital city and the surrounding Greater Helsinki area. The second-largest region in terms of population was Pirkanmaa, inhabited by 545,406 people. Three out of the ten largest cities located in Uusimaa The Uusimaa region also has Finland's highest population density with roughly 195.7 inhabitants per square kilometer. Pirkanmaa's population density is only 41.2 inhabitants per square meter. Out of the 10 largest cities in the country, three are located in the Uusimaa region, including the capital city Helsinki. Changing population structure The population of Finland is expected to grow in the following decade, reaching 6.18 million in 2050. However, the population is aging rapidly, as the number of inhabitants aged 75 years and older continues to increase in the future. At the same time, the population aged 14 and younger is estimated to constantly decline.

Population in the largest city (% of urban population) in Finland was reported at 28.04 % in 2024, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Finland - Population in the largest city - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on June of 2025.

Finland FI: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data was reported at 26.791 % in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 26.481 % for 2016. Finland FI: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data is updated yearly, averaging 21.142 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 26.791 % in 2017 and a record low of 17.233 % in 1969. Finland FI: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Finland – Table FI.World Bank: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population in largest city is the percentage of a country's urban population living in that country's largest metropolitan area.; ; United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.; Weighted average;

Data on child protection in the six largest cities in Finland since 2008.

Information is arranged in tabs

1. by year (data for all cities for each year)
2. by city (data for each city since 2008).

The definitions used in the data collection are compiled in their own tab.

The number of persons placed in the reports includes all persons placed in accordance with the Child Welfare Act: children (0-17 years old) placed as an aid measure in open care, urgently placed in care and taken into care, as well as young people (18-20 years old) placed in after-care decisions.

The six cities are made up of the six most populous cities in Finland. In the order of population, the six cities include Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa, Turku and Oulu. The six working groups compare social and health care services in cities and early childhood education and care services. Data on customer numbers, deliverables, personnel and costs are mainly compiled from municipalities’ own information systems and financial statements. City experts agree on the most uniform possible definitions for data collection and implement the data collection in practice.

Related article: Bergroth, C., Järv, O., Tenkanen, H., Manninen, M., Toivonen, T., 2022. A 24-hour population distribution dataset based on mobile phone data from Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland. Scientific Data 9, 39.

In this dataset:

We present temporally dynamic population distribution data from the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland, at the level of 250 m by 250 m statistical grid cells. Three hourly population distribution datasets are provided for regular workdays (Mon – Thu), Saturdays and Sundays. The data are based on aggregated mobile phone data collected by the biggest mobile network operator in Finland. Mobile phone data are assigned to statistical grid cells using an advanced dasymetric interpolation method based on ancillary data about land cover, buildings and a time use survey. The data were validated by comparing population register data from Statistics Finland for night-time hours and a daytime workplace registry. The resulting 24-hour population data can be used to reveal the temporal dynamics of the city and examine population variations relevant to for instance spatial accessibility analyses, crisis management and planning.

Please cite this dataset as:

Bergroth, C., Järv, O., Tenkanen, H., Manninen, M., Toivonen, T., 2022. A 24-hour population distribution dataset based on mobile phone data from Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland. Scientific Data 9, 39. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-021-01113-4

Organization of data

The dataset is packaged into a single Zipfile Helsinki_dynpop_matrix.zip which contains following files:

HMA_Dynamic_population_24H_workdays.csv represents the dynamic population for average workday in the study area.

HMA_Dynamic_population_24H_sat.csv represents the dynamic population for average saturday in the study area.

HMA_Dynamic_population_24H_sun.csv represents the dynamic population for average sunday in the study area.

target_zones_grid250m_EPSG3067.geojson represents the statistical grid in ETRS89/ETRS-TM35FIN projection that can be used to visualize the data on a map using e.g. QGIS.

Column names

YKR_ID : a unique identifier for each statistical grid cell (n=13,231). The identifier is compatible with the statistical YKR grid cell data by Statistics Finland and Finnish Environment Institute.

H0, H1 ... H23 : Each field represents the proportional distribution of the total population in the study area between grid cells during a one-hour period. In total, 24 fields are formatted as “Hx”, where x stands for the hour of the day (values ranging from 0-23). For example, H0 stands for the first hour of the day: 00:00 - 00:59. The sum of all cell values for each field equals to 100 (i.e. 100% of total population for each one-hour period)

In order to visualize the data on a map, the result tables can be joined with the target_zones_grid250m_EPSG3067.geojson data. The data can be joined by using the field YKR_ID as a common key between the datasets.

License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.

Related datasets

Järv, Olle; Tenkanen, Henrikki & Toivonen, Tuuli. (2017). Multi-temporal function-based dasymetric interpolation tool for mobile phone data. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.252612

Tenkanen, Henrikki, & Toivonen, Tuuli. (2019). Helsinki Region Travel Time Matrix [Data set]. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3247564

Income support from the six largest cities since 2005.

Social assistance covers both customers (households and persons) and costs. Since the need for social assistance and unemployment are interlinked, the reports also examine the employment situation at the end of each year. The report on social assistance has been created in cooperation with the expert working group on adult social work in the six largest cities.

Income support has been included in comparisons since the beginning of Kuusikko work. The operations started between three cities in the Helsinki metropolitan area already in 1994, when the first comparison of the number of customers and costs of social assistance was carried out on the basis of 1993 data. The first five cities’ income support report was compiled from 1995 when Turku and Tampere joined the work. The actual Kuusikko was reached in 2005, when Oulu also participated in the comparisons of income support.

The sixth cities are made up of the six most populous cities in Finland. The six cities in the order of the population include Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa, Turku and Oulu. The six working groups compare the social and health services of cities and early childhood education and care services. Data on customer numbers, performances, personnel and costs are mainly compiled from municipalities’ own information systems and financial statements. City experts agree on as uniform definitions as possible for data collection and implement the data collection in practice.

NOTE: After the reform of social welfare and health care structures in 2023, responsibility for organising social welfare and health care services was transferred to the wellbeing services counties, and the Kuusikko cooperation ended in June 2023 for social welfare and health care services. For this reason, the dataset ends with 2021 data.

Social assistance data for the six largest cities in 2005-2021. Social assistance covers both customers (households and persons) and costs.

Since the beginning of the Kuusikko work, social assistance has been included in the comparisons. Operations started already in 1994 between three cities in the Helsinki metropolitan area, when the first comparison of the number of customers and costs of social assistance was made on the basis of 1993 data. The first five-city income support report was made from 1995 data when Turku and Tampere joined the work. The actual Kuusikko was reached in 2005, when Oulu also participated in income support comparisons.

In 2011, the six cities published the first report on adult social work in the six largest cities. Adult social work reports have focused more on describing the operating environment, operating methods and customer base than other Kuusikko reports. More numerical data have also been added to the 2019 report. However, in the absence of a national definition of adult social work and due to municipality-specific differences in the structures and processes of adult social work, the information available is not always fully comparable between municipalities.

Following the transfer of the granting and payment of basic social assistance to Kela in 2017, the reports on adult social work and social assistance previously published as separate reports have been merged into a single publication. The reports on adult social work and social assistance have been produced in cooperation with the expert working group on adult social work in the six largest cities.

The six cities are made up of the six most populous cities in Finland. In order of population, the six cities include Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa, Oulu and Turku. The Kuusikko working groups compare the health and social services of cities, employment services and early childhood education and care services. Data on customer numbers, performances, personnel and costs are mainly compiled from municipalities' own information systems and financial statements. Urban experts agree on the most uniform definitions for data collection and implement the data collection in practice.

This repository contains data described in the article "Data on different types of green spaces and their accessibility in the seven largest urban regions in Finland". More details of the data are available in the upcoming data description article (manuscript can be found in this repository).

Abstract: Access to good quality green spaces in urban regions is vital for the well-being of citizens. In this article, we present data on green space quality and path distances to different types of green spaces. The path distances represent green space accessibility using active travel modes (walking, cycling). The path distances were calculated using the pedestrian street network across the seven largest urban regions in Finland. We derived the green space typology from the Urban Atlas Data that is available across functional urban areas in Europe and enhanced it with national data on water bodies, conservation areas and recreational facilities and routes from Finland. We extracted the walkable street network from OpenStreetMap and calculated shortest paths to different types of green spaces using open-source Python programming tools. Network distances were calculated up to ten kilometers from each green space edge and the distances were aggregated into a 250 m x 250 m statistical grid that is interoperable with various statistical data from Finland. The geospatial data files representing the different types of green spaces, network distances across the seven urban regions, as well as the processing and analysis scripts are shared in an open repository. These data offer actionable information about green space accessibility in Finnish city regions and support the integration of green space quality and active travel modes into further research and planning activities.

Related research article:

Viinikka, A., Tiitu, M., Heikinheimo, V., Halonen, J. I., Nyberg, E., & Vierikko, K. (2023). Associations of neighborhood-level socioeconomic status, accessibility, and quality of green spaces in Finnish urban regions. Applied Geography, 157, 102973. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2023.102973

These recommendations are intended as a general policy to be applied alongside the strategic policies, principles and guidelines that often guide ICT and service development in cities. From a technological and service-oriented standpoint, the significance of APis is, mostly due to accelerating digitalisation, increasing at such a pace that a need has emerged for a document that describes the importance of APIs and the goals related to them from the perspective of the cities. This document presents the consolidated view of the Six largest cities in Finland on how to develop open APIs through inter-city cooperation. The Six cities are Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Tampere, Turku and Oulu.

In 2023, around 4000,000 people visited the Lux Helsinki festival. The festival displays a wide array of light artworks by national and international artists. According to the data from Finland Festivals, the second largest festival wasthe Kotka Maritime festival. The festival program offers a mix of music, sports and family events. All the events are organized in the maritime city Kotka, close to Helsinki. In the same year, roughly 182,500 people visited Pori Jazz, making it the third largest festival in Finland.

The survey, commissioned by the newsmagazine Suomen Kuvalehti, charted attitudes in Finland towards immigrants from different countries as well as beliefs about race. First, the respondents were asked to state their position on a scale from 0 to 10, where 10 indicated they hoped that Finland would be populated as much as possible by people of Finnish origin sharing the national values, and 0 that they hoped Finland would be populated as much as possible by people from a diversity of countries and ethnic backgrounds. Next, opinions were studied regarding how desirable or undesirable the respondents thought it was that immigrants of certain nationalities would come to Finland. The nationalities mentioned were Swedes, Germans, Russians, Estonians, US Americans, Somalis, Kosovars, Iraqis, Afghans, Syrians, Chinese, Thai and Ukrainians. The respondents were also asked to what extent they agreed with the following four statements: 'The mental abilities of black Africans are lower than those of white people living in Western countries', ' All people have equal value regardless of the colour of their skin or ethnic background', 'The white European race should be prevented from being mixed with darker races because otherwise the original population of Europe will become extinct before long ', and 'There is no such thing as 'race' since all human beings are genetically very much alike'. One question studied whether the respondents thought the Finnish media reported more negatively or positively on the Perussuomalaiset party (the Finns Party) than on the other political parties. Background variables included the respondent's gender, age, region of residence (NUTS3), major region of residence (NUTS2), city or type of municipality, education, occupational status and economic activity, household composition, number and ages of children living at home, total gross annual income of the household, and type of housing.

Overall, the share of population aged 65 years and older in Finland was 23.6 percent. In the South Savo region, approximately 33.9 percent of the population were 65 years and older as of 2024. The capital region Uusimaa had the smallest share of individuals aged 65 years and older with 18.4 percent.

The number of clients, services and costs of substance abuse and mental health services for the adult population in the six largest cities in Finland in 2016-2021.

The dataset contains information on integrated substance abuse and mental health services in the six largest cities, as well as on substance abuse services and mental health services. In the case of substance abuse services and mental health services, the data is broken down into open care services, services provided home, work and day activities, housing services and institutional care. The agreed definitions for data collection can be found on their own tab in the file. Further information on the organisation of services in municipalities can be found in the report (in Finnish) compiled by the Kuusikko working group.

The Six Cities comprise the six largest cities in Finland by population. In the order of population, the Six Cities are Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa, Oulu and Turku. The Kuusikko working groups compare the health and social services, employment services and early childhood education services in the cities. The data on customer numbers, services, personnel and costs are mainly compiled from the municipalities’ own information systems and financial statements. Experts from the cities agree on the most uniform definitions for data collection and implement the data collection in practice.

Most online shopping in Finland in 2021 was done in Muonio, a city in the Lapland region. Followed by Utsjoki, also located in Lapland, and Tammela in the Kanta-Häme region.

With more than 737 thousand vehicles, the region of Uusimaa in the south of Finland had the largest amount of registered passenger cars in the country. This was a margin of nearly 477 thousand vehicles to the region with the second highest number of registered passenger cars, Pirkanmaa (approximately 260 thousand cars).

Car density per one inhabitant amounted to less in Uusimaa than in the Pirkanmaa region Uusimaa, the region where the capital city of Helsinki is located, was also the region with the largest population in the country. With 1.7 million inhabitants in 2021, this meant that one car was possessed per roughly 0.42 persons. In comparison, Pirkanmaa with a population of 527 thousand had one car per 0.49 persons, which meant that a car was owned by approximately every other person in that region.

Toyota leading new passenger car registrations in 2020 In the region of Uusimaa, the most popular passenger car brand in 2018 was the Japanese automotive manufacturer Toyota, followed by Volkswagen and Škoda. In 2021, Toyota was also the leading passenger car brand in the whole country when it comes to registrations of new passenger cars, with roughly 14 thousand new cars.

The number of criminal offenses recorded in Finland increased sharply from 1960 onwards, peaking at roughly 505 thousand in 1990. Thereafter, the number of offenses showed a fairly constant downward trend until 2018. In 2023, approximately 447,561 crimes were reported, an increase from the previous year. Overall crime rate Until recent years, the crime rate in Finland has been in an almost steady decline. Despite this positive trend, 2020 saw a considerable increase in criminal offenses, resulting in the highest crime rate recorded in the country since 2012. As of 2023, there were 91.23 criminal offenses reported per 1,000 population, compared to roughly 86 per 1,000 inhabitants in the previous year. The region of Uusimaa, including Finland’s capital and largest city had one of the highest crime rate of 96.63 per 1,000 population. The lowest figure of 59.72 was recorded in Åland. What are the most common types of offenses in Finland? Of all the criminal offenses and violations, property offenses comprise around half and traffic offenses a quarter of all reported crime in Finland. In 2023, the total number of offenses and infractions amounted to roughly 529,800, while criminal offenses totaled at 511,233. Theft offenses occur typically in urban environments, and the most common stolen objects are bicycles. Since the beginning of the 2000’s, car theft has seen a downward trend. Furthermore, traffic-related offenses and infractions have declined, which has led to an improvement in traffic safety and fewer fatalities.

FI：最大城市人口在12-01-2017达1,259,875.000人，相较于12-01-2016的1,240,942.000人有所增长。FI：最大城市人口数据按年更新，12-01-1960至12-01-2017期间平均值为820,866.000人，共58份观测结果。该数据的历史最高值出现于12-01-2017，达1,259,875.000人，而历史最低值则出现于12-01-1960，为448,192.000人。CEIC提供的FI：最大城市人口数据处于定期更新的状态，数据来源于World Bank，数据归类于Global Database的芬兰 – 表 FI.世界银行：人口和城市化进程统计。