Baku, July 29, AZERTAC

The birthrate in Finland reached a record low in the first half of this year, according to Statistics Finland.

In the past six months, Finland witnessed the lowest number of births in its entire recorded history since 1900, with 21,180 live births, a decrease of 1,082 compared to the same period last year, YLE news reported.

Over the past 12 months, the total fertility rate dropped to 1.28, down from 1.87 in 2010 and 1.35 in 2019, the number-crunching agency said in a press release on Thursday.

The total fertility rate indicates the average number of children a person would give birth to in their lifetime if the birth rate remained at the same level as during the calculation period.

Finland's fertility rate was on a long, steady decline until the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, when there was a slight increase in births, but then the decline resumed last year.

At the beginning of this year, most immigrants arriving to Finland were from Ukraine, Russia, the Philippines and India. Finnish returnees topped the list of nationalities for immigration.

In total, 28,345 people immigrated to Finland from abroad between January and June this year, with 7,849 from Ukraine.

Compared to the same period last year, immigration increased by 8,233 individuals. The influx was largely due to Ukrainians' becoming eligible to apply for municipality residency in March of this year.

"Compared to early last year, there were 7,025 more Ukrainian immigrants. This year's statistics include Ukrainians who arrived in Finland last year under temporary protection but were only able to establish a municipality residency until recently. It's important to recognise that applying for municipality residency is voluntary, and only a portion of Ukrainians have sought it," chief actuary Joonas Toivola explained.

During the first half of the year, Ukrainian immigrants primarily settled around the capital region, which includes the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa and Espoo.

Apart from Ukrainians, there was also a notable influx of Filipinos to Finland. Preliminary data shows that 1,721 people from the Philippines immigrated in the first half of the year, marking an increase of 481 individuals compared to the same period in 2022.

Meanwhile, emigration from Finland amounted to 5,596 individuals, including 3,395 Finns, representing a decrease of 1,150 compared to the previous year.