Last year the number of foreign-language speakers grew by more than 25,000, the largest number on record since Finland gained independence.
The number of native speakers of the three official languages – Finnish, Swedish and Sámi – declined by nearly 11,000. Meanwhile the overall population grew by more than 14,000 people, or 0.3 percent. At year's end, the population stood at 5.55 million, the statistics bureau said.
Statistics Finland has kept annual records on foreign speakers since 1981, but it is unlikely that there was a larger increase in foreign language speakers in any previous year, Senior Statistician Markus Rapo told Yle News on Thursday.
"The number of foreigners was quite low in the past but has increased since the 1990s," he said. He cited figures showing that Finland's foreign-language-speaking population rose to over 13,000 in 1930, then declined to less than 6,000 by 1970.
During the 1980s the number doubled from less than 10,000 to almost 20,000. It reached nearly 100,000 by the turn of millennium and a quarter-million by 2012, totalling 458,000 last year. Meanwhile there were 296,000 foreign citizens and 442,000 foreign-born residents in the country.
Foreign-language speakers account for all growth in Helsinki area
Population growth in the Helsinki region, which includes Espoo and Vantaa, was entirely based on the foreign-language population. The number of native speakers of the three national languages declined in the Uusimaa region, according to the official numbers-cruncher.
The number of people of foreign origin was highest in the region of Åland, where their share of the population was just over 17 percent and second highest in Uusimaa, including Helsinki, at nearly 16 percent.
More than 40 percent of Åland residents of foreign origin had roots in nearby Sweden. The area with the lowest foreign-origin population was South Ostrobothnia, at less than three percent.
Half of all people defined as having "foreign background" lived in the Helsinki metropolitan area. On mainland Finland, the highest rate was in Vantaa, 23.4 percent, followed by Espoo (20 percent) and then Närpes (Närpiö), a small municipality on the west coast where many immigrants work on greenhouse farms.
At the end of last year, more than 12 percent of children under school-age (aged 0-6) were of foreign background. As many as one in three under school-age children are of foreign background in Vantaa and Närpes.
Persons whose both parents or whose only known parent were born abroad are considered to be of foreign background.
"Basically it is so that anyone who has even one parent born in Finland is considered to be of Finnish origin," Rapo explained.
Fastest growth in Espoo, biggest decline in Kouvola
The cities with the fastest overall growth last year were Espoo (+4,336), Tampere (+3,214) and Oulu (+2,224).
Smaller towns with brisk population growth included Tuusula (just north of Helsinki), Kaarina (near Turku), and Pyhäntä, south of Oulu, which each grew by 2.4 percent.
On the other hand the biggest population drop was in the southeastern Kymenlaakso region, which shrank by nearly one percent.
Two other southeastern regions, South Karelia and South Savo, also saw population declines, as did Satakunta, which includes Pori.
The cities with the largest population drops were Kouvola and Mikkeli, both in the southeast.