Fewer foreign-language speakers receive key Kela benefits

Fewer foreign-language speakers in Finland now receive social assistance or unemployment benefits, according to data reported by Yle from Kela, Finland’s Social Insurance Institution.

Kela paid about 9.2 billion euros in key income-support benefits in 2025. Foreign-language speakers received one-fifth of that amount, or approximately 1.8 billion euros.

The benefits include national pensions, basic social assistance, guarantee pensions, parental allowances and general housing allowances.

In 2017, Kela paid 8.6 billion euros in the same benefits, of which foreign-language speakers received 15 per cent.

At the same time, the foreign-language population increased by more than 70 per cent, from 373,000 people in 2017 to 646,000 in 2025. Of those counted in 2025, 506,000 were adults.

Foreign-language speakers are defined in Kela’s analysis as people whose mother tongue in Kela’s benefits register is a language other than Finnish, Swedish or Sámi.

According to Kela, the share of the foreign-language population receiving basic social assistance and general housing allowance has fallen. The share receiving guarantee or national pensions has changed little.

The increase in the number of foreign-language residents means that their share among Kela benefit recipients has also grown, said Signe Jauhiainen, Kela’s head of research, in a press release. She said the development reflects changes in Finland’s population structure.