There are vast differences between the gender make-up of many of Finland’s political parties. The most female MPs are found in the ranks of the Social Democrats at 62 percent, with the second-highest proportion being in the Christian Democrats, of whose five members three are women.
The most male-dominated parties are the Centre Party, with less than a third of its MPs being female, and the Finns, whose women make up 32 percent of their representatives.
Greens among youngest and most educated
The average age of the MPs in Finland’s new Parliament is 47 years. If Åland’s single 31-year-old male MP is left out, the Greens have the youngest new members: their average is 42 years of age.
The oldest representatives are found in the Christian Democratic Party with an average of 53 years, and Prime Minister party Centre has a mean of 51 years.
In terms of education, Yle’s popular election engine showed that all of the candidates in last week’s elections held at least high school-level degrees. Some MPs declined to mention their education background.
The engine showed that the most highly educated MPs are Christian Democrats, Greens and National Coalition members – more than 90 percent of the MPs in these parties were highly educated. On the opposite spectrum, the least highly educated MPs were found in the Left Alliance (half of whom hold higher degrees), the Finns and the Swedish People’s Party.
The statistics are based on the information given by the MP candidates and published in Yle’s election engine online.