Birth rate remains low, death rate high in 2018

A total of 47,307 children were born in the country in 2018, which is 3,014 fewer than in 2017, according to Statistics Finland. The number of deaths was 54,295, which is 573 higher than one year earlier.

According to Statistics Finland's preliminary data for 2018, Finland's population was 5,521,773 at the end of the year. During 2018 Finland's population increased by 8,643 persons, which is 2,780 less than in 2017.

The reason for the population increase was migration gain from abroad: the number of immigrants was 15,631 higher than that of emigrants. The excess of births was negative as the number of births was 6,988 lower than that of deaths. The preliminary total fertility rate was the lowest in the measuring history, 1.40.

Altogether 31,720 persons immigrated to Finland from abroad and 16,089 persons emigrated from Finland during 2018. The number of immigrants was 77 lower and the number of emigrants 884 lower than in the previous year. In all, 8,571 of the immigrants and 10,788 of the emigrants were Finnish citizens.