Opposition to municipal mergers is at an all-time high, according to the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities.
The Association's 2024 Municipal Citizen Survey found that only one in five Finns support the idea of combining municipalities, while slightly more than half oppose it.
Opposition is even stronger when it comes to merging their own municipality — nearly three-quarters of respondents disagreed with the idea of combining their home municipality with another.
Approximately 10,500 Finns from 46 municipalities across the country participated in the survey, conducted between May and June of 2023.
As of 2023, there were 309 municipalities in Finland, 16 of which are situated in Åland.
Pertunmaa merges with Mäntyharju
At the turn of the year, the municipality of Pertunmaa in South Savo merged with its neighbouring municipality, Mäntyharju. This was the first municipal merger in Finland in four years.
Many rural Finnish municipalities have experienced decades of depopulation — with detrimental knock-on effects for the local economy.
Two municipalities are currently undergoing crisis municipality procedures: Kyyjärvi in Central Finland and Lestijärvi in Central Ostrobothnia. Both have accumulated even larger deficits in their municipal balances than Pertunmaa.
Last year, at least one crisis municipality criterion was met by 57 municipalities in Finland.