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Building stock 2015

Most of the building stock was residential buildings

Corrected on 16 June 2018. The corrected number is indicated in red.

The building stock that does not include free-time residences nor agricultural production and domestic outhouse buildings, consisted of a total of 1.5 million buildings at the end of 2015. Residential buildings, of which a majority are detached houses, represented 85 per cent of the entire building stock. The total number of non-residential buildings was 222,000, or 15 per cent of the total building stock. Close on 59 per cent of residential buildings were built in or after 1970, altogether 56 per cent of detached houses and 65 per cent of blocks of flats.

At the end of 2015, the total floor area of the building stock exceeded 467 million square metres. The average floor area of buildings was around 312 square metres and that of non-residential buildings was 817 square metres. Relative to the floor area, the share of residential buildings of the total floor area was only 63 per cent. Industrial buildings accounted for the largest share of the total floor area of non-residential buildings.

Table 2. Building by intended use, 31 December 2015

  Buildings Per cent of total buildings (%)
BUILDINGS TOTAL 1 505 138 100,0
A.Residential buildings 1 283 291 85,3
Detached houses 1 143 896 76,0
Attached houses 79 896 5,3
Blocks of flats 59 504 4,0
C-N Other bulldings 221 847 14,7
C Commercial buildings 43 058 2,9
D Office buildings 10 828 0,7
E Traffic buildings 56 530 3,8
F Institutional buildings 8 756 0,6
G Buildings for assembly 14 151 0,9
H Educational buildings 8 935 0,6
J Industrial buildings 43 524 2,9
K Warehouses 30 429 2,0
L,N Other buildings 5 636 0,4

The building stock grew by 7,600 buildings

At the end of 2015, there were 1,505,100 buildings in Finland. The building stock grew by 7,600 buildings from the year before. The number of buildings has increased by 342,700, or about 29 per cent, from 1990. There were around 79,000 old buildings constructed before 1921, which constitutes five per cent of the building stock. More than three-quarters of the building stock were detached houses. By contrast, blocks of flats and terraced houses accounted for less than only one-tenth of the total building stock. Measured by floor area, blocks of flats formed one-third of the total gross floor area of all residential buildings.

Two-thirds of buildings have a single floor

Sixty-six per cent of the building stock were one-storey buildings. Measured in absolute numbers, a majority of buildings in the building stock are detached houses. Buildings with one or two storeys accounted for over 95 per cent of the entire building stock. A total of 3.6 million, or 68 per cent, of the population in Finland live in buildings with one or two storeys. There were 28,000 buildings with four storeys or more of which a majority were residential blocks of flats. More than one million Finns (1,210,000) live in buildings with four storeys or more. Buildings with ten storeys or more are quite rare. There are approximately 310 such landmarks in Finland, around 210 of them are residential blocks of flats.


Source: Buildings and Free-time Residences, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Marja Hermiö 029 551 3211, Arja Tiihonen 029 551 3272, info@stat.fi

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma


Updated 26.5.2016

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Buildings and free-time residences [e-publication].
ISSN=1798-6796. 2015, Building stock 2015 . Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 29.3.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/rakke/2015/rakke_2015_2016-05-26_kat_002_en.html