Finland has the slowest population growth in the Nordic countries
Finland has slower population growth than the other Nordic countries. In 2014 the Finnish growth rate was 4.2 per 1 000 people. While Finland and Iceland have the lowest net migration rate, i.e. the difference between immigrants and emigrants, Iceland has a higher birth rate and a lower mortality rate than Finland, according to the Health Statistics for the Nordic Countries 2015 published by the Nordic Medico-statistical Committee NOMESCO.
The total fertility rate[1] has decreased by at least five per cent since 2010 in all the Nordic countries. Finland and Denmark have the lowest fertility rate (1.7 in 2014), while Sweden and Iceland have the highest (1.9 in 2014). Finland has the lowest rate of induced abortions in the Nordic countries. In 2014, the total abortion rate[2] was 0.3 in Finland compared to 0.4–0.6 in the other Nordic countries.
Life expectancy for Finnish women is 83.9 years, which is nearly as high as for Norwegian and Swedish women (84.1 years). Life expectancy for Finnish men is at 78.2 years the lowest in the Nordic countries, compared to at least 80 years in Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The low life expectancy for Finnish men is due to cardiovascular mortality, alcohol-related deaths as well as accidents and suicides which are more common in Finland than elsewhere in the Nordic countries.
Obesity and smoking most common in Finland
Obesity, as a self-reported BMI of at least 30, is most common in Finland (17% of women and 16% of men) and Iceland (21% of men and 23% of women) and the least common in Sweden (11–12%) and Norway (9–11%).
Finns also smoke the most in the Nordic countries: 19 per cent of men and 16 per cent of women report smoking daily. In Denmark 17 per cent of both men and women smoke daily, and only 15 per cent report smoking daily in Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Snuff use, however, is much less common in Finland than in the other Nordic countries. Three per cent of men and one per cent of women used snuff daily in 2014 compared to 7–20 per cent for men and 1–4 per cent for women in Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
Alcohol consumption and infectious diseases are decreasing
Alcohol consumption, when calculated on the basis of sales figures, has decreased to less than 10 litres per capita in all the Nordic countries. In Denmark and Finland it is still above 9 litres, while Norway and Sweden are at 6–7 litres.
Finland fares well in the Nordic context in terms of infectious diseases. The numbers of new cases of infectious diseases (e.g. tuberculosis, HIV, gonorrhoea and chlamydia) are in Finland smaller than elsewhere in the Nordic countries.
Finnish women have less new cases of cancer than their Nordic sisters, while men are at the Nordic average.
The Nordic Social-Statistical Committee NOMESCO publishes every year the Health Statistics for the Nordic Countries report which collates the latest statistics on health and health services from the five Nordic countries and the three self-governing territories Åland, Faroe Island and Greenland.
NOMESCO is a permanent statistical committee financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers. Its contacts in Finland are the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and THL. Finland will assume the Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers and other Nordic working groups in 2016.
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Research Professor Mika Gissler, National Institute for Health and Welfare , Finland's representative in the Editorial Committee
tel. +358 29 524 7279
firstname.lastname@thl.fi
Ministerial Counsellor for Finance Timo A. Tanninen, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health
tel. +358 295 163 572
timo.a.tanninen@stm.fi