Background of the respondents

This chapter reviews background information on the respondents. The 2026 background information is examined in relation to the corresponding information from the 2024 and 2022 studies.

Gender, age and regional data were obtained from the Population Information System at the time of sampling. Sampling was carried out on the basis of pre‑defined numbers by major region, age group and gender. The interview register was drawn to include people whose native language is recorded as Russian in the Population Information System. The sampling criterion was the native language reported by the person themselves. The target population therefore does not cover all people speaking Russian in Finland, as some of them may have reported another language as their native language in the Population Information System. The results should be interpreted in relation to this definition of the target population.

Among the responses, there are four respondents recorded as aged 20–29 for whom, based on the interviewer’s concluding note, the respondent was a spouse or parent, and it could not be verified from the data whether the relative acted merely as an interpreter or responded on behalf of the respondent selected for the sample.

At the overall level, the background information of the respondents continued to correspond very closely to the background variable distributions of 2022 and 2024. Women were prominent in the responses with a share of 57%, compared to 60% in the previous two rounds. Of the responses, 51% are from the Helsinki‑Uusimaa region, 23% from elsewhere in Southern Finland, 14% from Northern and Eastern Finland, and 12% from Western Finland.

Figure 2 shows the age distributions of respondents with year‑on-year comparisons, in which no major changes have occurred.

The educational level of respondents has changed markedly compared to previous rounds (Figure 3). The proportion of those with a master’s degree or other higher tertiary degree fell to 30%, whereas in 2024 it was 45%, and in 2022 it was 46%. At the same time, the proportion of those with a bachelor’s degree or other lower tertiary degree rose to 23% (2024: 12%). Those with upper secondary education account for 41%, i.e. the same as in 2024, and the proportion of those with only basic education rose to 6% (2024: 2%).

About half of the respondents were in employment (49%, Figure 4). Respondents were much less frequently unemployed (15%), retired (13%), or entrepreneurs or students (9%). The proportion of unemployed people increased by 4 percentage points from 2024, when it was 11%, and the proportion of those in employment has decreased from 52% in 2024 and 54% in 2022.

The majority (71%) of respondents were born in the Soviet Union and 19% in Russia. Other countries, including Estonia (4%) and Finland (3%), received only a small number of mentions. People who moved from the Soviet Union may have moved from any former Soviet state, although the majority most likely moved from Soviet Russia.

The target population does not cover all Russian speakers in Finland, as some may have reported another language as their native language in the register. The native language recorded in the register determines the target population of the study, but it does not necessarily reflect a person’s current language proficiency, language use or identity.

On average, respondents had lived in Finland for a fairly long time. Half of the respondents (51%) had lived in Finland for at least 16 years and, in addition, nearly a quarter (24%) for 9–15 years (Figure 5). The proportion of those who had lived in Finland for less than two years fell to 1% (2024 and 2022: 3%).

Most frequently, respondents had moved to Finland for work (19%) or following a Finnish spouse (19%, Figure 6). The proportion of those who moved due to return migration or having Finnish family background continued to fall to 16%, compared to 19% in 2024 and 24% in 2022. By contrast, the proportion of those who moved to study increased to 14% (2024 and 2022: 9%). Those who moved as children or young people with their parents accounted for 14%, and those who moved with or to join a spouse accounted for 11%. Outside the given alternatives, 25 respondents stated the reason for moving in an open‑ended response. Of these, 11 stated family reunification as the reason, and in six responses the reason was related to the war, mobilisation or the political situation in Russia. The rest were individual reasons, such as a studying child, a sports club or a decision to stay in the country after a tourist trip.

Forty‑five per cent of respondents held both Finnish and Russian citizenship, 27% Russian citizenship, and 11% Finnish citizenship. The remaining respondents held either solely the citizenship of some other country or both Finnish citizenship and that of some other country, which likely means primarily Estonian or Latvian citizenship.

Respondents were asked to assess their proficiency in the Finnish language on a scale of 1–5 (1 = none at all, 5 = very well/as a native language). The mean of the responses was 3.5 (the mean corresponds roughly to the results of previous survey rounds). Half of the respondents rated their Finnish language proficiency as fairly or very good (values 4 and 5: 33% and 19%), whereas 17% rated their proficiency as poor (values 1 and 2). When assessing proficiency in the Swedish language on a corresponding scale, 87% of respondents stated that they did not speak Swedish at all.