Finland's population increased from January to May, but only due to the arrival of immigrants.
Although this year the number of childbirths is showing a positive trend compared to 2019, they are still insufficient to compensate for the aging of the population and the number of deaths. So far, the number of deaths is 4,333 higher than that of births.
The data has been extracted from the Population Statistics released by Statistics Finland.
According to those figures, Finland's population was 5,528,008 at the end of May.
The country's population increased by 2,716 people in this period and "the for the increase reason was migration gain from abroad, since immigration exceeded emigration by 7,229," the Finnish statistical office says.
19,027 newborn
In the first five months of the year, 19,027 children were born, a number which is 609 higher than in the corresponding period in 2019. The number of deaths was 23,360, which is 232 higher than one year earlier. However, "the number of births was 4,333 lower than that of deaths," Statistics Finland remarks.
The increased presence of immigrants is also positively influencing birth rates. Other official statistics released in late May show that the share of under school-age children (aged 0 to 6) with foreign background living in Finland was 11% at the end of 2019.
This percentage soars in the capital metropolitan area: in Greater Helsinki, one in four (25%) children under the age of 7 have foreign background.
11,273 people immigrated
Preliminary figures also show that 11,273 people immigrated to Finland from abroad in January-May and 4,044 persons emigrated from Finland. The number of immigrants was 875 lower and the number of emigrants 2,419 lower than in the corresponding period of the previous year.
In all, 3,270 of the immigrants and 2,638 of the emigrants were Finnish citizens.
According to the preliminary data, the number of inter-municipal migrations totalled 103,360 during January-May. Compared with the corresponding period in 2019, the increase was 4,606 migrations according to the municipal division of 2020.
