Number of joint comprehensive schools rise

There were 704 active providers of education and 3,175 educational institutions in which around 1.84 million students pursued studies at the end of 2019, according to Statistics Finland’s register of providers of education and register of educational institutions.

A total of 2,187 comprehensive schools were in operation, 22 percent of which were joint schools comprising grades 1 to 9. The share of joint schools in comprehensive schools has risen by 10 percentage points in ten years.

In 2019, there were 2,187 active comprehensive schools and they had a total of 550,400 pupils. The active special education schools at the comprehensive school level numbered 63 and they had 4,200 pupils. Comprehensive schools were more often than earlier joint schools comprising grades 1 to 9. In 2010, the number of active joint schools was 323, while the corresponding figure in 2019 was 470.

In ten years, the share of joint schools in comprehensive schools has risen by 10 percentage points. During the same period, the share of primary schools has decreased by seven percentage points and the share of secondary schools by three percentage points.

A total of 61 comprehensive schools or comprehensive school level special education schools were closed down or merged with another educational institution. Twelve percent of them were educational institutions with under 20 pupils, 39 percent had between 20 and 49 pupils while 49 percent had at least 50 pupils. Most comprehensive schools and comprehensive school level special education schools were closed down in Uusimaa, 13 in total. Second most were closed down or merged in Pirkanmaa and North Ostrobothnia, seven in both.

In Finland, comprehensive schools consist of primary and secondary schools.