Title: Finnish population


The background image is a diagram showing the size development of the Finnish population from 1750 to the 2000s. Over the period, the population has increased gradually from 0.5 million to over 5 million. This is represented by the rising graph. Different factors to changes in the Finnish population are examined in numbered tags.


Tag number 1: Finnish War
Before the 1800s, Finland was a part of Sweden. As a result of Sweden's defeat against Russia in the Finnish War of the early 1800s, Finland became a part of the Russian Empire.


Tag number 2: Diseases in the 1800s
The first cholera cases in Finland were detected in 1831, when the disease spread from Vyborg to the cities of Helsinki and Turku. Cholera was then found almost every year for three decades. The worst epidemic occurred in 1852-1854. The Crimean War played a major role in the spread of cholera to Finland. The soldiers effectively spread cholera among the civilian population.


Tag number 3: Famine
Between 1866 and 1868, Finland was hit by a large-scale famine, which was the result of the destruction of crops in large parts of the country. Famine forced many people to beg, and epidemics spread effectively with the travelling population. In 1868, the worst year of the famine, 137 000 people died. Finland's population fell by over 96 000 that year.




Tag number 4: Finnish Civil War
Around 37 000 people died in the Finnish Civil War of 1918. It was notable that a very large number of the dead were children and young people. In addition, some 20 000 children were orphaned. A large number of the victims of the war died in prison camps or were killed as victims of terror. Diseases and famine in the camps killed thousands of prisoners. As a result of the war, fewer children were born in 1919 than before.




Tag number 5: World War II and the Baby Boom
After World War II, the birth rate rose rapidly. The peak was in 1945, when more than 12 000 children were born during September. The annual record was broken in 1947, when 108 168 children were born in one year. At the same time, the total fertility rate rose to 3.5 children per woman. Since this peak year, the total fertility rate has fallen below 2. In 2015, the figure was only 1.65.


Tag number 6: Migration to Sweden
In the 1950s and 1960s, migration from Finland to Sweden was common. Sweden had a labour shortage and higher wages than Finland, whereas in Finland wages were low and work was harder to come by. The migration was at its peak in 1969 and 1970, when around 40 000 migrants left Finland for Sweden per year.