English the most studied language in comprehensive school

According to Statistics Finland, English was the most commonly studied foreign language in comprehensive schools in the autumn term 2017. Among students in grades 1 to 6, in all 71 per cent and of students in grades 7 to 9 almost all studied English. Eighteen per cent of students in grades 1 to 6 and 93 per cent of students in grades 7 to 9 studied Swedish as a foreign language.

Language choices of comprehensive school pupils in 2017

		Compulsory language A1	Optional language A2	Compulsory language B1	Elective language B2	Total	Share of pupils in grades 1-6 %	Share of pupils in grades 7-9 %
Grades	Studied language
Grades 1-6	English	245 541	16 206	60	.	261 807	71.1	.
	Swedish	3 311	12 454	51 019	.	66 784	18.1	.
	Finnish	18 215	1 203	2	.	19 420	5.3	.
	French	2 966	4 446	23	.	7 435	2.0	.
	German	3 212	11 336	77	.	14 625	4.0	.
	Russian	1 139	1 148	.	.	2 287	0.6	.
	Spanish	697	4 211	.	.	4 908	1.3	.
	Italian	0	0	.	.	0	0.0	.
	Sami	5	237	.	.	242	0.1	.
	Other	399	123	0	.	522	0.1	.
Grades 7-9	English	163 490	12 978	193	82	176 743	.	99.5
	Swedish	1 533	12 036	150 789	6	164 364	.	92.5
	Finnish	9 044	1 156	208	2	10 410	.	5.9
	French	1 628	3 566	167	4 445	9 806	.	5.5
	German	1 691	7 452	264	9 422	18 829	.	10.6
	Russian	528	1 695	.	1 865	4 088	.	2.3
	Spanish	169	1 104	.	3 489	4 762	.	2.7
	Italian	30	0	.	108	138	.	0.1
	Sami	2	52	.	5	59	.	0.0
	Latin	0	0	.	400	400	.	0.2
	Other	166	14	8	38	226	.	0.1

Nearly all pupils attending grades 7 to 9 studied both English and Swedish or Finnish either as mother tongue, or as a compulsory, optional or elective foreign language. German was studied by 11 per cent and French by 6 per cent of the pupils attending grades 7 to 9, mainly as an optional or elective foreign language.

A total of 368,027 pupils attended grades 1 to 6. 188,449 of the pupils were boys and 179,578 were girls. A total of 177,607 pupils attended grades 7 to 9. 91,049 of the pupils were boys and 86,558 were girls.

Source: Education. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Vesa Hämäläinen 029 551 2594, koulutustilastot@stat.fi

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

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Tables

Appendix tables

Updated 24.5.2017

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Subject choices of students [e-publication].
ISSN=1799-1056. Subject choices of comprehensive school pupils 2017. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 19.4.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/ava/2017/02/ava_2017_02_2018-05-24_tie_001_en.html