Fewer people get Finnish citizenship last year

Finnish citizenship was granted to 6,643 foreign citizens permanently resident in Finland in 2021 and the number was 1,173 or 15 percent lower compared to the previous year, according to Statistics Finland.

In 2021, Finnish citizenship was granted most often to citizens of Russia. A total of 1,161 Russians were granted Finnish citizenship, which was 385 fewer than in the year before.

Citizens of Iraq were the second largest group of recipients of Finnish citizenship, numbering 744 followed by Somali citizens 436 and Estonian citizens, 370.

Average age of persons having received Finnish citizenship was 29.

Of the persons having received Finnish citizenship, 3,458 were women and 3,185 men. The average age for women was 30.3 years and 28.5 years for men. Among the persons having been granted Finnish citizenship, 1,854 were aged under 18 and 207 were older than 65. Examined by five-year age groups, the number of persons having received citizenship was highest among those aged 30 to 34.

Altogether 97 per cent of those having been granted Finnish citizenship in 2021 retained their former citizenship.

At the end of 2021, there were 149,879 persons permanently resident in Finland who held the citizenship of some other country in addition to Finnish citizenship.

The largest dual nationality groups at the end of 2021 were citizens of Russia, 35,919, Sweden, 9,603, Somalia, 7,872, Estonia, 7,237, and Iraq, 6,623.