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Published: 14 December 2017

Subject choices of completers of upper secondary general school education in 2017

According to Statistics Finland, nearly all completers of the full upper secondary general school syllabus in 2017 had studied English, and Finnish or Swedish during their attendance of upper secondary general school. German had been studied by 19 per cent, Spanish by 16 per cent, French by 12 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 two per cent. They also vary considerably between genders in several languages.

Language choices of completers of full upper secondary general school syllabus 2017

Studied language 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 28 429 4 0 2 10 28 445 98.0
Swedish 2 418 22 473 76 0 684 25 651 88.4
Finnish 1 617 103 0 44 21 1 785 6.2
French 371 17 492 836 1 679 3 395 11.7
German 721 21 998 1 162 2 674 5 576 19.2
Russian 181 7 134 839 1 597 2 758 9.5
Sami 1 . 0 17 8 26 0.1
Latin 0 . 4 55 247 306 1.1
Spanish 21 . 118 1 408 3 056 4 603 15.9
Italian 0 . 0 113 395 508 1.8
Other 5 0 0 24 321 350 1.2

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 29,019 students completed the full upper secondary general school syllabus in spring 2017. 12,251 of the completers were men and 16,768 were women.

In spring 2017, 42 per cent of all completers of the full upper secondary general school syllabus - 36 per cent of female students and 50 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 14.12.2017

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 2017. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 28.3.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/ava/2017/01/ava_2017_01_2017-12-14_tie_001_en.html