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Published: 24 May 2017

Majority of comprehensive school pupils study English

Corrected on 28 June 2017. The corrections are indicated in red.

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 2016. Seventy-one 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 18 per cent or below.

Language choices of comprehensive school pupils in 2016

Corrected on 28 June 2017. The corrected numbers are indicated in red.
  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 240 669 15 646 48 . 256 363 70,5 .
Swedish 3 265 13 268 50 209 . 66 742 18,4 .
Finnish 17 401 1 112 12 . 18 525 5,1 .
French 2 949 4 641 17 . 7 607 2,1 .
German 2 951 11 198 18 . 14 167 3,9 .
Russian 1 080 1 588 . . 2 668 0,7 .
Spanish 576 2 627 . . 3 203 0,9 .
Italian 0 0 . . 0 0,0 .
Sami 5 238 . . 243 0,1 .
Other 429 78 . . 507 0,1 .
Grades 7-9 English 161 051 12 969 161 27 174 208 . 99,4
Swedish 1 556 10 971 149 401 17 161 945 . 92,4
Finnish 9 027 1 025 200 63 10 315 . 5,9
French 1 442 3 683 146 4 763 10 034 . 5,7
German 1 589 7 696 279 9 292 18 856 . 10,8
Russian 532 1 467 . 2 193 4 192 . 2,4
Spanish 117 1 050 . 3 155 4 322 . 2,5
Italian 0 0 . 114 114 . 0,1
Sami 0 47 . 9 56 . 0,0
Latin 0 0 . 390 390 . 0,2
Other 137 14 38 35 224 . 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 363,450 pupils attended grades 1 to 6. 186,108 of the pupils were boys and 177,342 were girls. A total of 175,330 pupils attended grades 7 to 9. 89,634 of the pupils were boys and 85,696 were girls.

Data on the language choices of students studying comprehensive education elsewhere than at comprehensive schools (2,556) are published in the database table of these statistics.


Source: Education. Statistics Finland

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

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

Publication in pdf-format (217.1 kB)

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 2016. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 28.3.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/ava/2016/02/ava_2016_02_2017-05-24_tie_001_en.html