Finland has a relatively high fertility rate for Europe at about 1.75 children per woman in 2023.  Finnish women have high labor force participation rates, and their educational attainment is higher than that of Finnish men. Finland’s family policy, like other Nordic countries, puts an emphasis on reconciling work and family life.  Both parents can stay at home with an earnings-based allowance until the baby is about 11 months old.  Finland also has a publicly subsidized childcare system.  Alternatively, parents can choose to take care of a small child through home care leave with a flat allowance rate.  These benefits have encouraged fathers to do a greater share of housework and childcare, although women still perform the lion’s share of domestic work.  In other instances, women have reduced the burden of household work by outsourcing domestic chores, rather than men taking on more of the responsibilities.  Finland has high family size ideals compared to other European countries, and childlessness and one-child families are not favored.  The proportion of couples having at least three children has been growing since the 1970s.

Finland has historically been a country of emigration.  In the 20th century, Finns emigrated largely in two waves.  Before World War II, the majority of Finns went to North America, and after World War II most went to Sweden, where industrialization was generating much-needed jobs that offered higher salaries and a better standard of living.  In the 1980s and early 1990s, Finnish returnees (mainly from Sweden) began to outnumber Finnish emigrants.  Also arriving in Finland between April 1990 and 2010, were Ingrian Finns – descendants of ethnic Finns who settled near St. Petersburg, Russia, in the 17th century – who immigrated to Finland under the Right of Return Law.  In addition, the country has absorbed immigrants from Russia, Estonia, the former Yugoslavia, and Sweden for a variety of reasons, most commonly for marriage and family reunification.  Finland has also accepted refugees and asylum seekers from Somalia, Iraq, China, and Thailand.