Population of Helsinki area expected to exceed one million in coming days
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The population of the four cities that comprise the Helsinki Metropolitan Area is expected to exceed the one million mark in the coming days or weeks.
The exact day when the combined populations of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, and Kauniainen goes into seven digits will not be known until after the fact.
Statistics Finland gets weekly updates on demographic changes, but publishes the information only once a month, because pinpointing the exact number of inhabitants is not easy.
Factors that raise the population, such as births and migration into the area, come to the attention of Statistics Finland faster than reducing factors, such as deaths and outward migration. "For the sake of reliability, we wait for a couple of weeks before publishing the figures", says Matti Saari of Statistics Finland.
The most recent figures, published in February, report that on January 31st there were 998,313 residents living in the area. Of that figure, Helsinki accounted for 564,702 people. The next population figures from Statistics Finland will come out on Thursday of next week.
"It is our estimate that the one-million mark in the number of residents in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area will be exceeded in mid-March or slightly after that. This will be one milestone", Matti Saari says.
According to Statistics Finland, an average 1,000 children were born in the four municipalities each month. Internal net migration - the number of people moving from other parts of the country to the wider Helsinki area comprising 13 municipalities, was about 1,100.
Mayors of the cities in question were excited at the prospect of reaching a seven-digit population.
"It is wonderful that the one-million mark is crossed. As an area we are comparable with other metropolitan conurbations in the world", commented Espoo Mayor Marketta Kokkonen.
Helsinki Mayor Jussi Pajunen also sees the milestone as a significant one.
"For the first time, a Finnish urban area exceeds one million residents", Pajunen notes. In his view, size is something that brings weight to an area.
In Espoo, Mayor Kokkonen said that the cities of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area plan to recognise the crossing of the one million threshold in some way. One possibility is to give recognition to a baby who is born at an appropriate time in some hospital in the Helsinki region.
How will the millionth inhabitant be found? Is it even possible?
Kokkonen said that the population recorders of the cities will decide.
The Population Register Centre notes that the millionth resident might not even be a baby, however tempting the though of pictures of an infant might be. He or she could be any person who moves to Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, or Kauniainen, either through internal migration or by arriving from abroad.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 14.3.2007 - TODAY |
 Population of Helsinki area expected to exceed one million in coming days |
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