More people get Finnish citizenship last year

A total of 9,649 foreign nationals were granted Finnish citizenship in 2019 and the number is 438 or five percent higher than the number in 2018, according to Statistics Finland.

In 2019, Finnish citizenship was granted by far most often to citizens of Russia, numbering 1,946 of those who were granted Finnish citizenship. This was 180 more than in the year before.

Estonian citizens were the second largest group of recipients of Finnish citizenship, numbering 658. The third most Finnish citizenships were granted to citizens of Iraq, 589 and the fourth most to Somali citizens, 583.

Of the persons having received Finnish citizenship, 5,286 were women and 4,363 men.

Meanwhile, In 2019, altogether 98 per cent of those having been granted Finnish citizenship retained their former citizenship.

At the end of 2019, there were 135,272 persons permanently resident in Finland who held the citizenship of some other country in addition to Finnish citizenship.

Of them, 22,536 were native-born citizens of Finland who have been granted citizenship in another country and 112,736 were foreign citizens who have been granted Finnish citizenship.

The largest dual nationality groups at the end of 2019 were citizens of Russia, 33,455, Sweden, 8,494, Somalia, 6,977, Estonia, 6,440, and Iraq, 5,349.