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Published: 14 December 2007

Subject choices of completers of upper secondary general school education in 2007

According to Statistics Finland, nearly all completers of the full upper secondary general school syllabus in 2007 had studied English, and Finnish or Swedish during their attendance of upper secondary general school. German had been studied by 33 per cent, French by 19 per cent, Spanish by 11 per cent and Russian by six per cent of the completers of upper secondary general school education. The proportions of those having studied other, more unusual foreign languages remained at four per cent or below. They also vary considerably between genders in several languages.

The completers of upper secondary general school studies had mainly taken English, Swedish or Finnish as a compulsory language subject. German, French, Spanish, Russian and other foreign languages had been mainly studied as an elective language. A total of 32,226 students completed the full upper secondary general school syllabus in spring 2007.

In spring 2007, 41 per cent of all completers of the full upper secondary general school syllabus - 32 per cent of female students and 52 per cent of male students - had taken the long syllabus in mathematics.

Language choices of completers of full upper secondary general school syllabus 2007

Language    Compulsory languages    Elective languages   Total
  Share of
  completers   of full
  upper   secondary
  general   school
  syllabus, %1)
   At least six courses Fewer than
six courses
   A    language    B1    language    B2  language    B3 language
English 31 916 66 16 9            4 32 011 99,3
Swedish 2 564 27 091 1 10             32 29 698 92,2
Finnish 1 962 22 1 44            6 2 035 6,3
French 733 12 1 302 1 605           2 559 6 211 19,3
German 2 637 31 2 482 2 221           3 328 10 699 33,2
Russian 239 - 90 519           962 1 810 5,6
Sami 2 - 1 3            3 9 0,0
Latin - - 34 129           896 1 059 3,3
Spanish 6 - 33 1 361           2 189 3 589 11,1
Italian 1 - - 317           994 1 312 4,1
Other - - - 14           396 410 1,3
1) In spring 2007, completers of full upper secondary general school syllabus numbered 32,226.

Source: Education Statistics. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Ms Maija Sikanen +358 9 1734 2292, Ms Irma Suovirta +358 9 1734 3280, koulutus.tilastot@stat.fi

Director in charge: Mr Jari Tarkoma


Last updated 14.12.2007

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Subject choices of students [e-publication].
ISSN=1799-1056. Subject choices of completers of upper secondary general school education 2007. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 28.3.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/ava/2007/01/ava_2007_01_2007-12-14_tie_001_en.html