Record Finnish citizenship granted in 2016

Finnish citizenship was granted to 9,375 foreign citizens last year and the number is the highest since the country achieved independence, according to Statistics Finland.

The number is 1,454 higher compared to the number of citizenships granted in 2015.

In 2016, Finnish citizenship was granted mostly to citizens of Russia, numbering 2,028. This was 300 more than in the year before. Somali citizens were the second largest group of recipients of Finnish citizenship, numbering 1,066. The third most Finnish citizenships were granted to citizens of Iraq (534) and fourth most to Estonian citizens (459).

Altogether 96 per cent of those having been granted Finnish citizenship retained their former citizenship. At the end of 2016, there were 104,997 persons who held the citizenship of some other country in addition to Finnish citizenship. Of them, 20,324 were native-born Finnish citizens who had been granted citizenship in another country, and 84,673 persons were foreign citizens who had been granted Finnish citizenship.

The largest dual nationality groups at the end of 2016 were citizens of Russia (27,456), Sweden (7,380), Somalia (4,650), Estonia (4,601) and the United States (3,934).