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Buildings 2008

Most of the building stock was residential buildings

There were 1421 000 buildings in Finland at the end of 2008. Most of the building stock, particularly residential buildings was built after 1970s. The gross floor area of the building stock totals about 422 million square metres. The average gross floor area of all buildings were about 297 square metres, in other than residential buildings the average gross floor area were about 739 square metres. Residential buildings account for 64 per cent of the total gross floor area.

Buildings by intended use in 31.12.2008

                 Buildings Per cent of total buildings (%)
BUILDINGS TOTAL 1 421 188 100,0
A.Residential buildings 1 213 545 85,4
Detached houses 1 082 511 76,2
Attached houses 75 109 5,3
Blocks of flats 55 925 3,9
C-N Other bulldings 207 643 14,6
C Commercial buildings 41 419 2,9
D Office buildings 10 732 0,8
E Traffic buildings 54 134 3,8
F Institutional buildings 7 835 0,6
G Buildings for assembly 13 418 0,9
H Educational buildings 8 885 0,6
J Industrial buildings 39 581 2,8
K Warehouses 25 964 1,8
L,N Other bulldings 5 675 0,4

The building stock grew by 15 000

There were 1421 000 buildings in Finland at the end of 2008. The building stock grew by 15 000 from the year before. The number of buildings has increased by 259 000, or by about 22 per cent, from year 1990. There are about 77 000 old buildings completed prior to 1921, i.e. only five per cent of the building stock. Three-fourths of the building stock are detached houses. Blocks of flats and terraced houses account for only one tenth of the total number of buildings. Blocks of flats account for about one third of the total gross floor area of all residential buildings.

Two thirds one-storey buildings

As much as over 64 per cent of the building stock are one-storey buildings. One-storey and two-storey buildings account for over 95 per cent of the total building stock. A total of 3.6 million, i.e. 68 per cent, of Finns live in buildings with one or two storeys. There were 25 000 buildings with four storeys or more and a little over million ( 1 075 000) Finns lived in them.


Source: Buildings and Free-time Residences, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Marja Hermiö (09) 1734 3211, Arja Tiihonen (09) 1734 3272, Elina Aspblad-Huohvanainen (09) 1734 3232

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma


Updated 21.12.2009

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Buildings and free-time residences [e-publication].
ISSN=1798-6796. 2008, Buildings 2008 . Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 28.3.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/rakke/2008/rakke_2008_2009-12-21_kat_001_en.html