Finnish speaking countries
Finnish is one out of two official languages in Finland and is spoken in 3 other countries as monther tongue by a part of the population. The Finnish language (native name: suomi, suomen kieli) has its roots in the Uralic language family.As a percentage of the total population, the largest share of around 93 percent is in Finland. A total of about 5.4 million people worldwide speak Finnish as their mother tongue.
| Country | Region | Official language | Distribution | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finland | Northern Europe | yes | 93.2 % | 5,164,000 |
| Sweden | Northern Europe | no | 2.4 % | 250,000 |
| Estonia | Northern Europe | no | 0.7 % | 9,000 |
| Åland Islands | Northern Europe | no | 4.8 % | 1,000 |
Unless otherwise described in the text, this page is about native speakers — not the total number of speakers. How many people understand or speak Finnish as a subsequently learned language is not the subject of this page. Countries where native speakers make up only a few thousand, or even a few hundred people, or countries with a percentage well below 1% are unlikely to be listed here.