25% of the population with foreign background had completed tertiary level qualifications in 2018. Among Finnish people, the percentage with a tertiary education was eleven points higher and reached 36%, according to Statistics Finland's latest data.
Source: Statistics Finland
Post-comprehensive qualifications
76% of the population with Finnish background had completed post-comprehensive level qualifications, while the corresponding share for foreigners was 51%.
Overall, 3,399,532 persons (73% of the population aged 15 or over) had completed a post-comprehensive level qualification in 2018. The share of persons with an educational qualification grew by one percentage point from the year before.
Higher PhD rate among foreigners
Men of foreign background completed doctorate level qualifications more than women. Among men, the percentage was 2.3% and among women 1.4%. Percentages of doctoral qualifications among the population with Finnish background were 1.1% for men and 0.9% for women.
In 2018, the fields of education were segregated by gender in both the population with Finnish and foreign background. The traditionally male-dominated fields were male-dominated also among the population with foreign background, even though the segregation was more moderate than among the population with Finnish background.
Statistics Finland’s Register of Completed Education and Degrees has been complemented with qualifications attained abroad, but the Register still does not cover all qualifications attained abroad. The group with no post-comprehensive level qualifications also includes persons whose qualifications attained abroad are not known.
