Citizenship celebration held in Espoo

2.9.2024 6.40

For the fifth time, the City of Espoo organised a celebration for Espoo residents aged 18 or older who have been granted Finnish citizenship.

At the event held at Dipoli on 1 September, almost 350 guests celebrated in a joyful atmosphere.

“I am proud that Espoo can offer its residents a safe hometown close to nature. At the same time, Espoo is an important growth engine not only for the capital region but also in Finland as a whole. Our city needs more international experts. It is important that people from different backgrounds feel at home in Espoo and know that they can participate in developing the city,” Mayor Jukka Mäkelä said in his speech.

The citizenship celebration was part of Espoo Day, the largest annual city event in Espoo. This year, all Espoo residents aged 18 or older who were granted Finnish citizenship in 2023 were invited, together with their families.

A total of 1,744 Espoo residents became Finnish citizens in 2023. Among them, 1,197 were adults and 547 were under 18.

One in five Espoo residents is a foreign-language speaker

At the beginning of 2024, the number of foreign-language residents in Espoo was 74,200, which accounts for 23.6 per cent of the city’s population.

Espoo’s foreign-language population is growing more rapidly than the Finnish-speaking population. In 2023, Espoo gained approximately 7,500 new foreign-language residents, which accounted for 86 per cent of the population growth. If the city continues to grow at the same rate, foreign-language speakers will account for one third of Espoo’s population by 2030.

Espoo’s foreign-language population consists mainly of working-age people, young people and children. The most common foreign languages spoken in Espoo are Russian, Estonian, Arabic, English and Chinese.

In the city’s strategy, known as the Espoo Story, the City Council has emphasised that “everyone living in Espoo is an Espoo resident.” One of Espoo’s goals during the current council term is to be “Finland’s top city for integration.”

“In Finland and Espoo, employment growth relies heavily on those who move to our country from all over the world. We must do all we can to fully integrate Espoo’s immigrants into our society, schools and universities so that they can become employees and entrepreneurs. For many, getting their citizenship is an important milestone on this journey and well worth celebrating,” says Teemu Haapalehto, Director of Immigration Affairs.

The integration programme approved by the City Council highlights key developments related to integration and outlines the implementation of the city’s integration policy.

Katarina Czajka, who moved to Finland from Poland, told her story at the citizenship celebration. The photograph was taken in the early 1990s when she played the viola in the Joensuu City Orchestra. Czajka became a Finnish citizen in October 2017, the year when Finland celebrated its 100 years of independence. In her speech, she told the audience that she is proud of her citizenship and happy to be living and working in this beautiful land of a thousand lakes.

More information

HelloEspoo.fi offers tips for moving and integration.

Integration programme of the City of Espoo 2022–2025(external link, opens in a new window) (in Finnish)

News article about the integration programme (14 June 2022)