HELSINKI ALUEITTAIN

HELSINKI IN 2015
On the last day of 2014, Helsinki had 620,715 inhabitants,
which was 8,051 more than a year earlier.
Thus, Helsinki’s population had been growing by
over 8,000 for three years in a row. Between 1990
and 2010 the annual population growth was 4,500
on average.
Population growth in Helsinki and the
Helsinki Region
Helsinki has long ago grown beyond its borders and
today it forms, together with surrounding municipalities,
the Helsinki Region, a commuting area of 1.42
million inhabitants. This region includes Helsinki
and its three closest neighbours Espoo, Kauniainen
and Vantaa, the four of which together form the Helsinki
Metropolitan area. It also includes the ten closest
municipalities around the Helsinki Metropolitan
Area. This peripheral part of the Helsinki Region is
called the Outer Helsinki Region. Ever since Helsinki
became capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland in
1812, its population doubled at 20–30-year intervals
up until the 1960s. At that point, the municipalities
around Helsinki began to grow as the population of
the crowded capital started to look for more housing
space outside the city.
After the 1960s, during which there was a migration
wave from rural Finland to urban communities,
a period of lesser migration followed, but already in
the early 1980s, the Helsinki Region began to experience
considerable net migration gains from other
parts of Finland. This population growth became
even faster in the 1990s, when net migration from
abroad grew strongly. Over the last 10 years, the
Helsinki Region’s population has grown by a total
of 157,000, i.e. by 1.2 per cent a year. In Helsinki
proper, this growth rate has been 1.1 per cent, and in
the rest of the region 1.3 per cent.
During the period 2007–2014, population growth
was very rapid in Helsinki. Since 2007, the city’s population
has been growing more due to foreign immigration
than to population movement from Finland
beyond the borders of the Helsinki Region. The latter
has been very even in recent years. Population
growth in Helsinki has also been accelerated by the
fact that the typical net migration loss to the neighbour
municipalities and the Outer Helsinki Region
has decreased. In 2002–2007, this loss was between
4,000 and 4,800 annually, but in 2013 it was only 370
people. Since then, it has been growing slightly again.
Since 2007, population growth in the Helsinki has
increasingly occurred in the Helsinki Metropolitan
Area, instead of the Outer Helsinki Region as earlier.
While in 2007 both Helsinki and the Outer Helsinki
Region experienced a net migration gain of 3,000
each from other municipalities or abroad, Helsinki’s
annual net migration gain in 2012–2014 had reached
an average of 6,700, versus just 1,000 for the Outer
Helsinki Region.
The number of 1–6 year old children grew rapidly
in the 1990s, peaking in 1997. Between 1998 and
2006, the number of children of that age decreased
by 6,000. In 2007, the number of these children
started increasing again, and in 2012–2014 the increase
was over 1,000 per annum on average.
The number of 6–11 year olds started decreasing
in 2001, and over the period 2001–2009, these
children decreased by a total of 4,700. In 2010, this
age group started growing again, and in 2014, the
increase had reached almost 1,200. The number
12–14 year olds started to fall in 2006, and the number
of 15–17 year olds started to decrease in 2009.
The age structure of Helsinki’s population is
strongly influenced by the post-war baby boomers
born in 1945–1950. The proportion of pensioners in
the population is growing rapidly.
Recent changes in Helsinki
During the period 2010–2012, Helsinki’s population
grew by 25,300. Growth was strongest in the districts
of Kampinmalmi (4,200 people), Vanhakaupunki
(2,200), Latokartano (1,900), Myllypuro (1,600) and
Lauttasaari (1,500). The population decreased in Jakomäki
(-500 people), Alppiharju (-100) and Östersundom
(-58).
In all of Helsinki, there were clearly more dwellings
completed over the years 2012–2014 (4,752 annually
on average) than in 2005–2010 (2,700).
Of all dwellings completed during the period
2012–2014, no less than 87 per cent were in blocksof-flats.
The average size of dwellings was 68 square
metres, versus 72.6 sq.m. in 2000–2009. Over the
period 2005–2009 the annual production of statesubsidised
ARA dwellings fell to just 600 per annum
on average, but in the present decade the production
has doubled. Almost half of all new dwellings