The concentration of population in Finland between 1880 and 1980

Abstract

The concentration of population in Finland was investigated from the domi­cile registers from the 1880's to the 1940's and from the census results between 1950 and 1980. Cumulative maps and graphs and concentration indices were applied as methodological tools, and the administrative communes were taken as the areal units for a chorological matrix.

The concentration of population in Finland began in the latter half of the nineteenth century and it has increased throughout the period since Independence, and especially since the Second World War, with the rapid development and agglomeration on manufacturing and service industries, but has still reached only a fairly moderate level compared to many indus­trialized European countries. Even in 1980, only 10.1 % of the total popula­tion lived in the capital, although 90 % of the inhabitants occupied an area in the south comprising some 41 % of the land area of the whole country, and one half were concentrated in an area representing only 2.4 % of the total. The populations engaged in the various occupational sectors differ markedly in their concentration patterns, with one half of those occupied in primary production living in an area comprising just under 22 % of the whole country, one half of those in secondary production in only 1.8 % and one half of those in the tertiary sector concentrated in only 1.0 % of the total area of the country.