The Finnish Constitution guarantees freedom of religion and freedom of conscience. More than 65 percent of the inhabitants in Finland were part of the Christian community in 2023. The largest Christian community in Finland is the Evangelical Lutheran Church, followed by the Orthodox Church. However, around 1.88 million people were not members of any religious community. People from other religious groups amounted to roughly 20,500, followed by 24,057 from the Muslim community.

Immigration to Finland

While the number of immigrants to Finland remained below 35 thousand in the past decade, this number has started to increase noticeably since 2021. As of 2022, almost 50 thousand people immigrated to Finland, almost 73 percent more compared to the previous year. The significant increase in immigrants was caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine which started on February 24, 2022. That year, over six thousand people immigrated to Finland from Russia, over twice as many as in the previous year.

The Finnish population is aging

While the number of individuals belonging to the younger age groups in Finland declined from 2018 to 2023, the age group of 60 years and older continued to increase. By the end of 2023, its size was over 1.6 million. The growing number of individuals aged 60 or older reflects the change towards an older population structure of the country. In total, the population of Finland amounted to roughly 5.6 million as of 2023. The largest age groups were 20- to 39-year-olds, and 40- to 59-year-olds, which together made up over half of the population.

The number of individuals identifying as Muslim increased steadily in Finland from 2014 to 2024. In 2024, over 26,900 individuals belonged to Muslim communities, almost 2,900 more than in the previous year.

This study includes data on regional level for nine Western European countries: election returns, occupation categories, religion, population.

Data from Finland.

The main themes of the Finnish Youth Survey 2010 were safety and security, national defence, the conscription system, foreign policy, social values, immigration and racism, and national identity. First, the respondents were asked how much insecurity they felt regarding their own situation and future (regarding health, income, loneliness, social exclusion, job prospects, being subjected to violence etc.) or regarding society and world in general (social values, increasing immigration and disparity in Finland, climate change, social exclusion of young people, terrorism, world economy and globalisation, pollution, weapons of mass destruction, world population growth, Russia, conflicts between religions, racism, population aging etc). Values and personality traits were studied by presenting the respondents with pairs of contrasting values/traits and asking them to place themselves on those axes, for example, left-right, liberal-conservative, tolerant-intolerant, pessimist-optimist, heterosexual-homosexual etc. One theme pertained to the national defence system based on general conscription. Views were probed on what would be the best defence system for Finland (general, selective or voluntary conscription, professional army, no army), how to select if selective conscription were implemented, whether compulsory military service should apply to men or women or both. Female respondents were asked whether they had considered or performed voluntary military service. Some questions explored whether the respondents had performed military service or alternative civilian service, how long the military service had been, or if they had done neither, whether they had intention to perform military or civilian service. Factors influencing the respondents' choice of either military or civilian service were studied. The factors mentioned included patriotism, sense of duty, views of people close to the respondent, career prospects, physical requirements, duration of the service, financial factors, ethical or religious reasons etc. Those who had performed military service were asked to what extent they agreed with a number of statements relating to the nature of the service and its effect on them. One question investigated whether they had been bullied during the service. Opinions of all respondents were charted on the impact of women's voluntary military service on the image and community spirit of the army, equality between men and women, the fighting ability and values of the army. The respondents also indicated to what extent they agreed with several statements relating to conscription, civilian service, conscientious objection, the usefulness of performing the military service, and who should be denied access to military service. The survey also carried a set of attitudinal statements relating to Finland's defence and foreign policy. The statements covered, for instance, potential membership in Nato, the Karelia issue, defence forces, neutrality, peacekeeping, war, the role of the UN and the EU, and so on. Other statements charted respondent attitudes towards immigration, immigrants and rasicm, and whether they cared about the skin colour or religion of their friends. Perceptions of national identity were charted by asking what aspects the respondents thought were included in the Finnish national character (selfishness, tolerance, envy, fairness, violence, diligence, indifference, distrust etc). Interest in politics, intention to vote in the next parliamentary elections, and voting choice if the parliamentary elections were held at the time of the survey were studied. Those affiliated to the Evangelican Lutheran Church were asked whether they were aware that there would be parish elections in 2010, whether they knew that 16 year-olds had the right to vote for the first time, and whether they intended to vote in the election. In addition, the respondents whose mother tongue was other than Finnish or Swedish were asked to what extent they felt themselves to be Finnish, foreigners, residents of their municipality, Europeans, world citizens, multicultural, immigrants or someone with immigrant background. Background variables included the respondent's household composition, basic and vocational education, occupational status and economic activity, work contract, religious affiliation, mother tongue, language skills, country of birth, year of birth, major region of residence, and country of birth and mother tongue of the parents.