English top foreign lingo studied in schools

English was the most commonly studied foreign language in comprehensive schools in the autumn term 2017, according to Statistics Finland.

Seventy-one per cent the students in grades 1 to 6 and almost all the students in grades 7 to 9 studied English.

Eighteen per cent of students in grades 1 to 6 and 93 per cent in grades 7 to 9 studied Swedish as a foreign language.

Nearly all the pupils attending grades 7 to 9 studied both English and Swedish or Finnish either as a 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 368,027 pupils attended grades 1 to 6. Of them, 188,449 were boys and 179,578 were girls.

A total of 177,607 pupils attended grades 7 to 9. Of them 91,049 were boys and 86,558 were girls.