Finland
Suomi
Waiting for the first voice
تا مرد سخن نگفته باشد / عیب و هنرش نهفته باشد
Until a man has spoken, his faults and his gifts both stay hidden.
No advice from here yet. Know an elder from this country? Your recording could be the first: 2–3 minutes on a phone.
Did you know
Finland has about 3.3 million saunas for 5.5 million people. (source)
Elders in numbers
- of people are 65 or older
- 24.2%
- people aged 65 or older
- 1.4M
- will be 65 or older in 2050
- 28.2%
- is how long people live after 60, on average
- 23.8 years
- of people 65+ live alone
- 36.7%
- women 44.7%, men 26.8%
Sources: World Bank, 2025; World Bank projection for 2050; WHO, 2023; UN, 2021
Languages
19 languages, 10 of them endangered
- Skolt SamiCritically endangered
- KvenSeverely endangered
- MeänkieliSeverely endangered
- Finland-Swedish Sign LanguageDefinitely endangered
- Finnish KaloDefinitely endangered
- Finnish Sign LanguageDefinitely endangered
- Inari SamiDefinitely endangered
- KarelianDefinitely endangered
- Livvi-KarelianDefinitely endangered
- Northern SamiDefinitely endangered
- Balkan Romani
- Carpathian Romani
Show all 19
- Finnish
- Norwegian
- Russian
- Serbisk
- Swedish
- Tatar
- Vlax Romani
Languages and their status: Glottolog v5.3, CC BY 4.0. Names: Wikidata.
UNESCO intangible heritage
- Knowledge, craft and skills of handmade glass production2023
- Kaustinen fiddle playing and related practices and expressions2021
- Nordic clinker boat traditions2021
- Sauna culture in Finland2020
List and years: ich.unesco.org
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