According to Statistics Finland, the migration gain for Finland in 2018 decreased clearly as it was 19% lower than in 2017. The migration gain for Finland decreased to 11,958 persons from the previous year's 14,824. The reason for the lower migration gain was a decrease in immigration and an increase in emigration.
In 2018, altogether 31,106 persons moved to Finland from abroad and 19,148 persons moved abroad from Finland.
The number of persons that moved to Finland from abroad decreased by 691 persons. Of those immigrants, 23,146 or 74% were foreign citizens in 2018.
The emigration from Finland grew by 2,175 persons or 13% compared to the year before. 60% or 11,538 of emigrants were Finnish citizens.
Source: Statistics Finland.
Finland's migration gain from foreign citizens amounted to 15,536 persons, but Finnish citizens generated a migration loss of 3,578 persons.
Immigrants from outside the EU
Finland's migration gain consisted almost completely of immigrants from outside the EU in 2018. However, immigration from other than EU countries decreased from the year before, while emigration to countries outside the EU was higher than in 2017.
Net immigration from countries outside the EU declined to 12,733 from the previous year's 13,596.
The immigration gain was largest in Iraqi citizens, 1,797 immigrants and second largest in Russian citizens, 1,240 immigrants. Third most immigration gain to Finland came from persons of unknown citizenship, 750 immigrants.
