Language choices of comprehensive school pupils in 2009

According to Statistics Finland, English was the most commonly studied foreign language on grades 1 to 6 of comprehensive school in the autumn semester of 2009. Sixty-eight per cent of the pupils attending grades 1 to 6 studied English either as a compulsory or optional foreign language. The percentages of pupils studying other foreign languages remained at 5 per cent or below. A total of 347,060 pupils attended grades 1 to 6. 177 888 of the pupils were boys and 169 172 were girls. 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 191,684 pupils attended grades 7 to 9. 97 957 of the pupils were boys and 93 727 were girls.

		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	221 473	13 214	.	.	234 687	67.6	.
	Swedish	2 907	12 921	.	.	15 828	4.6	.
	Finnish	14 164	1 127	.	.	15 291	4.4	.
	French	2 075	4 298	.	.	6 373	1.8	.
	German	3 113	9 633	.	.	12 746	3.7	.
	Russian	755	828	.	.	1 583	0.5	.
	Sami	1	235	.	.	236	0.1	.
	Other	252	436	.	.	688	0.2	.
Grades 7-9	English	174 252	15 569	333	75	190 229	.	99.2
	Swedish	2 239	12 393	161 550	8	176 190	.	91.9
	Finnish	10 447	1 032	200	2	11 681	.	6.1
	French	1 401	3 981	277	5 756	11 415	.	6.0
	German	2 103	10 304	350	8 760	21 517	.	11.2
	Russian	490	258	.	1 515	2 263	.	1.2
	Sami	4	35	.	12	51	.	0.0
	Latin	0	0	.	631	631	.	0.3
	Other	30	360	.	1 857	2 247	.	1.2

Source: Education 2009. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Irma Suovirta (09) 1734 3280, Maija Sikanen (09) 1734 2292, koulutustilastot@stat.fi

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

Publication in pdf-format (193.9 kB)

Tables

Appendix tables

Language choices of comprehensive school pupils in 2009, boys (25.5.2010)
Language choices of comprehensive school pupils in 2009, girls (25.5.2010)

Updated 25.5.2010

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Subject choices of students [e-publication].
ISSN=1799-1056. Subject choices of comprehensive school pupils 2009. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 20.4.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/ava/2009/02/ava_2009_02_2010-05-25_tie_001_en.html