9600 granted Finnish citizenship in 2018

Last year, Finnish citizenship was granted to a total of 9,610 individuals, said an official press release from the Finnish Immigration Service.

The number decreased compared to 2017, when citizenship was granted to 12,600 individuals. The larger number of decisions in 2017 was due to a backlog from earlier years being cleared.

The statistic also showed a slight increase in applications by citizens of the United Kingdom. When citizenship declarations are also included, 230 citizens of the United Kingdom applied for Finnish citizenship.

A total of 11,676 citizenship applications were submitted in 2018.Russian citizens are still the largest group of applicants. Somalis and Iraqis are among the other largest groups of applicants.

There were 1,019 citizenship declarations made. Certain groups of people, such as former Finnish citizens, can obtain Finnish citizenship by declaration.