The number of people who speak non-local languages as their mother tongue in Finland increased to more than 600,000 last year, according to Statistics Finland.
By the end of 2024, there were around 610,000 people living in the country whose first language was something other than Finnish, Swedish or the indigenous Sámi languages.
The number-crunching agency said that the proportion of foreign language speakers was slightly below 11 percent at the end of last year, reflecting a one-percentage-point increase from 2023.
Nearly one-fifth of the population in the southern region of Uusimaa is of foreign background, according to the agency. Uusimaa is home to the capital region, including the cities of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa.
The country's group of largest foreign-language speakers is Russian, while the second-largest group speaks Estonian.
"Arabic is already approaching Estonian as the second-most common foreign language in Finland. The number of Arabic speakers has almost tripled compared to 2014," said Markus Rapo, chief actuary at Statistics Finland.
Last year, Finland's population grew by more than 32,000 people, a development largely driven by immigration.
