In Finland, the past follows you in official documents, despite what citizens themselves might want to remember. A person who has been married for a month at age 18 will, according to the Personal Data Act, be divorced for the rest of their lives, unless they remarry. Not even having children with a long-term spouse affects the data.
Similarly, only remarrying can overturn the widow mark, once it has been branded, otherwise it will stick until the grave.
“I’m so used to the practice that I don’t even think about it,” says registrar Anne Vehviläinen from the registry office of Eastern Finland.
To the Social Insurance Institution (Kela), the semantics of marital status is broader. In benefit issues, marriage and cohabitation can be on a par, although even in these cases the terminology refers to “marriage-like circumstances”.
“In general, unmarried cohabitation is equated to marriage in social security benefit processes,” says benefits chief Suvi Onninen from Kela.