There are clearly fewer foreign citizens living in Finland than the average for the EU, according to figures released by Eurostat on Wednesday.

Of Finnish residents last year, some 2.7 per cent were foreign citizens while the EU average is 6.4 per cent.

The share of foreign citizens in Finland is also clearly smaller than in the other Nordic countries. In Sweden, Denmark and Norway the share is around 6 per cent, in Iceland it is as high as 8 per cent.

Proportionally, Luxemburg has the highest number of foreign citizens, while Poland and Romania have the lowest.

Numerically, Germany has the most foreign residents, over 7 million.

Of Finland's 142,000 foreigners last year, some 52,000 were from other EU countries and 90,000 were from outside the EU.

STT