Finland records an annual fall of 9% in immigrant arrivals

The total number of persons that moved to Finland during 2017 was 31.797, which was 9% less than in the previous year. This means that Finland received 3.108 persons less than in 2016, according to the last data published by Statistics Finland.

The figures prove that emigration also decreased compared to one year earlier: in 2017 a total of 16.973 people moved abroad from Finland, 6% less than in 2016 (when 18.082 left the country). The migration gained by Finland in the whole 2017 fell to 14.824 persons, against the 16.823 from the previous year.

Of immigrants that arrived, 23.735 persons (or 75%) were foreign citizens in 2017. However, a look into the emigrants’ origin shows that 60% (or 10.167 persons) were Finnish citizens. This allows to say that most of the people that come are foreigners while most of the people that leave the country are nationals. Finland's migration gain from foreign citizens amounted to 16.929 persons, but Finnish citizens generated a migration loss of 2.105 persons, according to Statistics Finland.

Source: Migration 2017. Statistics Finland

Immigration from outside the EU decreases

Finland's migration gain consisted almost completely of immigrants from outside the EU in 2017. However, immigration from countries outside the EU decreased from the year before and emigration to countries outside the EU was also lower. Net immigration from countries outside the EU decreased to 14.249 from the previous year's 15.716.

Immigration gain was largest from Iraq, 2.369 immigrants; second largest from Syria, 1.422 immigrants, and third largest from Russia, 1.420 immigrants.

Immigration from EU countries to Finland went down by 721 persons from the previous year, to 12.192 in 2017.

Emigration to EU countries has now become more steady, according to Statistics Finland. Last year 11.617 persons emigrated from Finland to other EU countries, which was 189 persons less than one year before. As a result of the development described above, Finland’s migration gain from EU countries was nearly half of what it was the year before, 575 persons.

All the Finnish regions received migration gain from international migration. Taking that into account, the number of regions with migration loss falls somewhat. The sum of net immigration and net emigration was negative in twelve regions.

Internal migrations

In 2017, the number of intermunicipal migrations totalled 287.839, which was 5.582 more than in 2016. The number of migrations between regions was 136.684, with a growth of 3.454, having been just 686 in the year before.

When looking at migration inside the country, the region of Uusimaa had the largest and the region of Pirkanmaa the second largest migration gain. In Uusimaa the gain amounted to 7.804 and in Pirkanmaa to 2.109 persons.

The migration gain relative to the population in Mainland Finland was largest in Uusimaa, where the migration gain was nearly five per mil. The relative migration gain in Pirkanmaa was slightly lower than in Uusimaa.

The region having suffered the largest population loss in migration inside the country was Ostrobothnia, 1.402 persons. Kymenlaakso had the largest relative migration loss of nearly eight per mil.

Internal migration and in- and out-migration 2005–2017

The regional division in all years is the one valid on January 1st 2018

Source: Migration 2017. Statistics Finland