Finland set new record for obtaining citizenship by late 2023
By late 2023, Finland registered a new record for the number of foreigners who received Finnish citizenship – 12,224, TASS reports
According to Statistics Finland, interest in the Finnish passport has increased dramatically after the government of Petteri Orpo came to power in June 2023, announcing its intention to sharply tighten the requirements for acquiring Finnish citizenship and other documents enabling to stay in the country.
According to the statistical office, the number of persons who received Finnish citizenship in 2023 exceeded the previous record in 2017 and is the highest since the country gained its independence in 1917. In total, 2,026 more people received Finnish citizenship in 2023 than in 2022. In relative terms, this number increased by 20 percent compared to the previous year.
As in many previous years, the largest group that received a Finnish passport were Russian citizens, accounting for 16 percent (1,906 people) – 156 people less than a year earlier. The second largest group among those who have received Finnish citizenship are Iraqi citizens, whose number stood at 1,517 people. Syrian citizens are ranked third with 805 persons, followed by Somali citizens (728).
It is reported that at the end of 2023, 172,000 people with two nationalities lived in Finland.
