Finland has started the year 2020 with an increase in the number of births. This is a positive news for an aging country with several years of declining birth rates and whose population is still growing only due to the arrival of immigrants.
According to Statistics Finland's preliminary data, during the January-April period a total of 15,184 children were born in Finland, which is 465 more than in the corresponding period of 2019.
The trend of deaths also brought better figures in those four months, despite the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. In Finland the number of deaths recorded between January and April dropped by 238 compared to the previous year, to 18,529.
Still, the overall number of births was 3,381 lower than that of deaths.
Population increased
The country's total population increased by 3,445 personas in January-April. At the end of April, Finland's population was 5,528,737. According to Statistics Finland's assessment, the reason for the increase was immigration gain from abroad, since immigration exceeded emigration by 6,095.
A total of 9,539 people immigrated to Finland from abroad in January-April and 3,444 persons emigrated from Finland. The number of immigrants was 68 lower and the number of emigrants 1,723 lower than in the corresponding period of the previous year. In all, 2,589 of the immigrants and 2,232 of the emigrants were Finnish citizens.
The number of inter-municipal migrations totaled 81,126 during January-April, 5,256 more than in the corresponding period last year.
