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Published: 16 December 2015

Subject choices of completers of upper secondary general school education in 2015

According to Statistics Finland, nearly all completers of the full upper secondary general school syllabus in 2015 had studied English, and Finnish or Swedish during their attendance of upper secondary general school. German had been studied by 20 per cent, Spanish by 18 per cent, French by 14 per cent and Russian by 10 per cent of the completers of upper secondary general school education. The proportions of those having studied other foreign languages remained below three per cent. They also vary considerably between genders in several languages.

Language choices of completers of full upper secondary general school syllabus 2015

Studied language Compulsory A-languages Compulsory language B1 Elective language B2, at least six courses Elective language B3, at least six courses Elective language, fewer than six courses Total Share of completers of full upper secondary general school syllabus, %
English 28 959 44 2 0 5 29 010 99.2
Swedish 2 243 24 327 47 4 5 26 626 91.0
Finnish 1 892 79 2 41 26 2 040 7.0
French 461 28 627 935 2 002 4 053 13.9
German 910 30 970 1 287 2 734 5 931 20.3
Russian 213 3 122 809 1 684 2 831 9.7
Sami 6 . 0 1 0 7 0.0
Latin 0 . 23 48 305 376 1.3
Spanish 30 . 140 1 543 3 448 5 161 17.6
Italian 6 . 2 143 539 690 2.4
Other 8 0 3 19 374 404 1.4

The completers of upper secondary general school studies had mainly taken English, Swedish or Finnish as a compulsory language subject. German, Spanish, French, Russian and other foreign languages had been mainly studied as an elective language. A total of 29,252 students completed the full upper secondary general school syllabus in spring 2015. 12,435 of the completers were men and 16,817 were women.

In spring 2015, 41 per cent of all completers of the full upper secondary general school syllabus - 34 per cent of female students and 51 per cent of male students - had taken the long syllabus in mathematics.


Source: Education. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Vesa Hämäläinen 029 551 2594, koulutustilastot@stat.fi

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

Publication in pdf-format (200.0 kB)

Tables

Appendix tables


Updated 16.12.2015

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Subject choices of students [e-publication].
ISSN=1799-1056. Subject choices of completers of upper secondary general school education 2015. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 29.3.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/ava/2015/01/ava_2015_01_2015-12-16_tie_001_en.html