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.

Finland: Non religious people as percent of the population: The latest value from 2013 is 15.6 percent, an increase from 15.3 percent in 2012. In comparison, the world average is 21.6 percent, based on data from 20 countries. Historically, the average for Finland from 1960 to 2013 is 10.5 percent. The minimum value, 6.6 percent, was reached in 1960 while the maximum of 15.6 percent was recorded in 2013.

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

The study investigated Finnish expatriates' views of Finland and experiences of living abroad. Main topics of the survey included well-being, social networks, political participation, reasons for moving abroad, the services available for expatriate Finns, the effects of COVID-19 and Brexit on expatriate Finns, and the respondents' interest in moving back to Finland. The survey was conducted in co-operation with the Church Council/Office of the Church Council Department for International Relations, the Finland Society, the Finnish Seamen's Mission, and the Finnish Lifelong Learning Foundation. The respondents' life situation was surveyed with questions on what their current home country was, how long they had lived in their current home country, and which factors had influenced their move to their current home country (e.g. work, studies, work of their spouse, desire to live abroad, parent' background in the target country). The respondents were also asked how long they intended to live in their current country of residence, which factors affected their intention to not live in their current country of residence permanently (e.g. their work, their studies, career insecurity, children's schooling, desire to return to Finland), and whether they had lived abroad before and for how long. Full-time studies abroad and the field of studies were also charted. On the topic of well-being, the respondents were asked how much they enjoyed in their current country of residence, whether they had good social networks in their country of residence, and how they would describe their health at the moment. Interest in receiving welfare-related services (e.g. health care/medical counselling, housing and environment, employment and working conditions, social relationships) from Finnish providers was also investigated. Opinions on the services available to expatriate Finns from Finland were examined with questions on how well the respondents knew several organisations that offer services to expatriate Finns, what kind of issues they needed counselling or services for (e.g. taxation, social security, children's studies), and whether they thought that there were enough services available. The next sets of questions focused on the effects of the coronavirus epidemic and Brexit. The respondents were asked whether COVID-19 or Brexit had increased their willingness to return to Finland. On the effects of the coronavirus epidemic, the respondents were also asked how COVID-19 had affected their daily life in their country of residence and whether they had received sufficient information and support from the Finnish state and expatriate Finnish organisations regarding the coronavirus situation. Additionally, the impact of Brexit on the respondents' daily life (e.g. work, studies, plans for the future, experience of belonging to their country of residence) was surveyed. The respondents' expectations and support needs in relation to moving back to Finland were charted with questions on whether they had considered moving back to Finland, why they had considered moving back to Finland (e.g. family reasons, work situation in their country of residence, political situation in their country of residence, coronavirus epidemic), and what matters they would like to receive guidance on regarding a possible move back to Finland (e.g. practical issues related to moving, benefits and services, looking for a job). The respondents' social networks in their current country of residence and whether coronavirus had decreased their social interaction with others in their current country of residence were surveyed. Participation in different activities (e.g. Finland Society and/or Finnish Expatriate Parliament, Finnish School, expatriate Finn discussion groups on Facebook), and how important different ways to maintain contact with other Finns and Finnish identity (e.g. participating in the activities of expatriate Finnish communities, having the possibility to use the Finnish language) were investigated. In addition, the respondents' contact with and visits to Finland were surveyed by asking how often the respondents had visited Finland since moving abroad, how often they followed affairs relating to Finland, where their family members currently lived, and how they kept in touch with family members living in different countries. Political participation was examined by asking the respondents how interested they were in politics in Finland and their current country of residence, in which Finnish elections they had voted, whether they had voted in the elections of their current country of residence, which reasons had influenced their decision to not vote if they had not voted, and which Finnish parties' candidates they had voted for. Additional questions were asked on the topics of religion and national identity. These questions covered, for example, religious affiliation, frequency of taking part in religious activities, and the importance of several factors in relation to the respondents' identity (e.g. being Finnish, being European, religion, patriotism, Finnish language, Finnish celebrations). Background variables included, among others, the respondent's gender, age group, country of residence, country of birth (categorised), nationalities (categorised), and mother tongue (categorised).