The number of foreign-language speakers living in Finland’s Uusimaa region is projected to reach about 674,000 by 2045, close to twice the current level, according to a new regional population projection. Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa are expected to account for most of the increase over the next two decades.
At the end of 2024, Uusimaa had about 339,500 residents whose registered language was neither Finnish, Swedish nor Sámi.
They represented around 19 per cent of the region’s population and 56 per cent of all foreign-language speakers in Finland.
The share in Uusimaa is projected to reach about 25 per cent by 2035.
Population experts from Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa prepared the 2025–2045 projection with the Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council. Their estimates point to annual growth of about 15,000 foreign-language speakers between 2025 and 2029, followed by annual increases of about 16,000.
The Helsinki metropolitan area will account for most of that growth. About 86 per cent of Uusimaa’s foreign-language-speaking residents already lived in its largest cities in 2024.
Helsinki is projected to have about 191,000 foreign-language speakers in 2035, rising to 238,000 in 2045. Espoo is expected to reach 131,000 in 2035 and 181,000 in 2045. Vantaa’s corresponding figures stand at 116,000 and 158,000.
Espoo and Vantaa are projected to record faster growth than Helsinki. In 2020, Helsinki still had more foreign-language speakers than Espoo and Vantaa combined. By 2035, the combined total in Espoo and Vantaa is projected to exceed Helsinki’s figure by close to one third.
Growth is expected across every age group. The number of working-age foreign-language speakers is projected to almost double by 2045, while the number of pension-age residents in the group is projected to rise almost fivefold.
Despite that change, foreign-language speakers are expected to retain a younger age profile than Uusimaa’s population overall. People aged 65 and over are projected to make up just over 10 per cent of foreign-language speakers in 2045. Statistics Finland’s population projection puts the corresponding share for Uusimaa’s total population at more than twice that level.
Languages originating in Asia outside the Middle East, the Middle East and North Africa, along with Russian and other languages of the former Soviet Union, are projected to form the largest groups across Uusimaa in 2045.
The projection identifies migration levels as its main source of uncertainty. Changes in immigration policy, security conditions, labour demand and economic developments in Finland and abroad would alter the population path.
The study covers Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen, municipalities surrounding the Helsinki region and the rest of Uusimaa. Researchers based the figures on assumptions concerning migration, births and deaths and divided the population into eight language groups.
HT
