At the end of the 18th century Finland had one of the fastest growing populations in Europe. In merely 50 years, it doubled in size: in 1749 the population was 495,000, in 1807 it was 907,000 (Eloranta et al., 2006;
Koskinen et al. 1994). This trend continued till 1950, when the population reached about 4 million. As of end of 2010, the population of Finland was ca.
5.4 million inhabitants, rendering Finland still quite sparsely populated at 17 people/km2.
Table 6. Population of Finland 1800-2000.
Year Population Year Population
1800 832 659 1910 2 943 400
1810 863 301 1920 3 147 600
1820 1 177 546 1930 3 462 700
1830 1 372 077 1940 3 695 600
1840 1 445 626 1950 4 029 803
1850 1 636 915 1960 4 446 222
1860 1 746 725 1970 4 598 336
1870 1 768 769 1980 4 787 778
1880 2 060 782 1990 4 998 478
1890 2 380 140 2000 5 181 115
1900 2 655 900
Note: the table is based on Statistical Yearbook (2007), Statistics Finland, and on Koskinen et al., (1994).
In 1811 to Finland was annexed the so called Old-Finland, i.e. the parts of Karelia that had been under Russian rule before 1809. This meant that the population grew by 185 000 at once, which offsets the negative population growth caused by the 1808-9 war. (Koskinen et al. (1994), Appendix 1). The effects of the crop failures in early 1860s and of the hunger years 1866-68 meant that the population growth was halted for nearly a decade. (Koskinen et al. (1994), Appendix 3). In early 1910s, as well as in 1960s, there was a very
strong emigration period during which 6-7% of the population emigrated, the most popular destinations being America, Canada, Sweden, and Australia.
Life expectancy has grown from some 40 years in 1810s to nearly 80 years in 2000. Finland has Europe’s fastest ageing population, due to low fertility rates. According to OSF Population projection (2009), in 1900 the percentage of over 65 year olds was 5.3%, and in 2000 it was already 15%
(with an estimate of nearly 30% by the year 2060).
3.8 EDUCATION
The outline of the history of education in Finland presented here is done in fairly broad lines94. In the beginning of the 19th century, the official language of Finland was still Swedish. All higher education was in Swedish, and travelling schools became the most important means of education for Finnish speakers, especially in the countryside. The upper class spoke mainly Swedish, whilst the majority of the lower classes spoke Finnish.
As Finland was part of Sweden at the time of Reformation, the Lutheran Church was already firmly established as the provider of education prior to the passing of Finland to Russian rule in 1809. The Lutheran Church placed a high importance on personal reading of the Bible, and in order to ensure that people were capable of doing it, stated that it was the Church officials’ duty to make sure this was followed through as early as in the 1686 Church Code.
This Code also demanded that parishioners needed to be able to read, but not necessarily write (cf. Kuikka, 1991; Mäkinen, 2012). By extrapolating the data from more local statistics, it can be estimated that by early 1800s that most had elementary reading skills (Laasonen, 1967), although there are not reliable statistics that would cover all of Finland before 1880. That year of all population 97.6% were capable of at least reading (Statistical Yearbook 1903).
During the 19th century the status of Finnish gradually changed through the various initiatives motivated by rising nationalism. 95 One of the goals of the nationalistic movements was national public education taught in Finnish.
Public education in Finnish began in the 1860s, partly also influenced by the reforms introduced by Czar Alexander II. The Language Statute of 1863 established Finnish as an official language (even though a transition period of 20 years was given for Finnish to reach the position of Swedish). A national school system, independent of the Church, was set up in 1866. The non-ecclesiastical National Board of Education (now Finnish Board of Education, FNBE) was established in 1869. A decree issued in 1898
94 For an analysis of the history and its modern significance, see Simola (2005).
95 Also characterized by the ideas of developing a national consciousness based on a common history (e.g. the creation of the lengthy epic poem Kalevala by Lönnrot in 1835), typical to European nationalism in general (see Hroch, 1996).
contained an obligation for the local authorities to provide all school-aged children with an opportunity for schooling. However, to attend school was made compulsory only in 1921 (FNBE, Historical Overview; Kielilakikomitea, 2000).
From 1970s onwards compulsory school consists of a 9-year comprehensive school (age 7-16), with a nationally adopted curriculum, and minimum performance standards established for all grade levels. The aim is that schools provide a fairly uniform education regardless of location, and therefore all Finnish citizens have access to the compulsory education free of charge. The impact of this has also been the subject of much debate96, but there seems to be indicators that the increase of e.g. economic upward mobility is due to education, rather than transferred wealth from parents after the adoption of the comprehensive school system (but see Sirniö et al., 2013).
The FNBE states that “a major objective of Finnish education policy is to achieve as high a level of education and competence as possible for the whole population” (FNBE: Education Structure. Fundamental Principles). As can be seen from the table below, in the 1970s one-fourth of the population over 15 had an above comprehensive school level education, whereas in the year 2000 this percentage had more than doubled. The difference between the educational level of men and women has also grown smaller.
Table 7. Educational structure of population: percentage over 15 years with above-comprehensive level education 1970-2000.
Year 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000
Men 27 33.6 40.7 47.2 52.1 56.1 59.9
Women 23.9 29.8 36.5 43.2 48.9 53 58.9
All 25.4 31.6 38.5 45.1 50.4 55 59.4
Source: Official Statistics of Finland.
The right to education is now recorded in the Constitution of Finland as part of the basic rights of citizens. The Constitution of Finland states that “public authorities must secure equal opportunities for every resident in Finland to get education also after compulsory education and to develop themselves, irrespective of their financial standing.” (Constitution of Finland, chapter 2, paragraph 16).
The first university in Finland was the Kungliga Åbo Akademi (Royal Academy of Turku) established in 1640. After a disastrous fire destroyed most of Turku, the university was transferred to Helsinki in 1828, and its
96 cf. Kokkinen, 2013 and Pekkala & Lucas 2005 for fairly different conclusions.
name was changed to the Imperial Alexander University. From 1919 it has been known as the University of Helsinki. The Constitution of 1919 stated that the public authorities needed to provide general compulsory education and basic education free of charge. This was also extended to universities, provided for largely by public funding.97 The Finnish higher education system consists of two complementary sectors: polytechnics and universities.
It follows the so called Bologna-model (Eurydice Finland; FNBE Overview of Education System).
Finnish education has received quite a lot attention, especially since in international assessments98 Finland has also done very well comparing to other OECD countries, ranking 1st in PISA 2006 and 3rd in PISA 2009.99
Up to now Finland has managed to win Three Nobel prizes: in 1939 F.E.
Sillanpää won the Nobel Prize for Literature; in 1945 A.I. Virtanen won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work with fodder preservation; and in 2008 former President Ahtisaari won the Nobel Peace Prize.