Finland granted citizenship to 9,649 people with foreign background in 2019. This was 438 more Finnish citizenships granted than in 2018, which in relative terms is a 5% year-on-year increase.
According to Statistics Finland's data, Russians were the main beneficiaries of the granting of the Finnish citizenship last year.
In 2019, Finnish citizenship was granted by far most often to citizens of Russia, numbering 1,946 of those who were granted Finnish citizenship. This was 180 more than in the year before.
Estonian citizens were the second largest group of recipients of Finnish citizenship, numbering 658. The third most Finnish citizenships were granted to citizens of Iraq, 589 and the fourth most to Somali citizens, 583.
Source: Statistics Finland.
Average age 29 years
Of the persons having received Finnish citizenship, 5,286 (or 54.7%) were women and 4,363 (or 45.2%) men.
The average age for women was 29.8 years and 28.1 years for men. Among the persons having been granted Finnish citizenship, 2,622 were aged under 18 and 222 were older than 65.
Examined by five-year age groups, the number of persons having received citizenship was highest among those aged 30 to 34, in all 1,535 persons, representing 16% of all those who received Finnish citizenship.
135,000 people with dual citizenship
In 2019, altogether 98% of those having been granted Finnish citizenship retained their former citizenship.
At the end of 2019, there were 135,272 persons permanently resident in Finland who held the citizenship of some other country in addition to Finnish citizenship. Of them, 22,536 were native-born citizens of Finland who have been granted citizenship in another country and 112,736 were foreign citizens who have been granted Finnish citizenship.
The largest dual nationality groups at the end of 2019 were citizens of Russia, 33,455, Sweden, 8,494, Somalia, 6,977, Estonia, 6,440, and Iraq, 5,349.
