Finland is home to a small but well-established Albanian community, the majority of it Kosovar, built during and after the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s. This guide covers how many there are, where they live, and how the community came to be.
It is part of our Albanians Around the World series.
Quick Facts: Albanians in Finland
- Population: 19,600 residents had Albanian as their registered mother tongue on December 31, 2025 (Statistics Finland), which makes Albanian the ninth largest foreign language in the country.
- Where they live: The Helsinki region, led by Vantaa (5,156 Albanian speakers) and Espoo (3,935), followed by Turku (2,687) and Helsinki (2,551), at the end of 2025.
- Main origins: Kosovo above all, with North Macedonia and Albania.
- How they came: Mostly as refugees of the 1990s Balkan wars.
On This Page
- How Many Albanians Live in Finland?
- How the Community Grew
- Where Albanians Live
- Notable Finnish Albanians
- Frequently Asked Questions
How Many Albanians Live in Finland?
Statistics Finland counted 19,600 residents with Albanian as their registered mother tongue at the end of 2025, up from 9,791 at the end of 2016, making Albanian the ninth largest foreign language in the country. The great majority are of Kosovar background, with communities from North Macedonia and Albania.
How the Community Grew
Finland’s Albanian community is a product of the 1990s. The collapse of Yugoslavia and the Kosovo War brought refugees to Finland, and the Albanian cultural association Bashkimi was founded in Turku in 1998 as the community organized itself. Later arrivals came for work and family reunification, and a Finnish-born generation is now growing up.
Where Albanians Live
The community is concentrated in the Helsinki capital region and in southern cities, above all Turku, which had 2,687 Albanian speakers at the end of 2025. The largest single communities, though, are in Vantaa (5,156) and Espoo (3,935). Cultural and religious associations anchor community life across these cities.
Notable Finnish Albanians
The community has a visible presence in Finnish football. Berat Sadik, born in Skopje to Albanian parents, played for the Finnish national team. Albion Ademi, who was born in Pristina and grew up in Turku, played for Finland at youth level before switching to Albania. Community life is anchored by the Bashkimi association, founded in 1998, and by cultural and religious groups in Helsinki and Turku.
Featured Albanian Business Owners in Finland
The Albanian-Finnish startup Bliss, a Finland-headquartered mental health company founded by Albanian entrepreneurs, is profiled in our featured business owner series.
Albanian Speakers: The Official Count
Finland offers something most countries do not: a direct, official count of people whose registered mother tongue is Albanian. Statistics Finland publishes the whole population by language every year, based on the population register. On December 31, 2025, it counted 19,600 Albanian speakers in a population of 5,652,881.
That makes Albanian the ninth largest foreign language in the country. Only Russian, Estonian, Ukrainian, Arabic, English, Somali, Persian and Chinese had more registered speakers at the end of 2025. Albanian ranked ahead of Kurdish, Vietnamese and Turkish.
The figure measures language, not ethnicity or citizenship. It includes Finnish citizens and children born in Finland whose parents registered Albanian as their mother tongue. It leaves out anyone of Albanian descent who is registered as a Finnish or Swedish speaker.
From 174 to 19,600: Three Decades of Data
The same table runs back to 1990, which makes it possible to watch the community form. Statistics Finland recorded no Albanian speakers at the end of 1990 or 1991, then 174 at the end of 1992 and 1,748 a year later. The Kosovo crisis years show up clearly, and so does a second surge after 2020.
| December 31 | Albanian speakers in Finland |
|---|---|
| 1992 | 174 |
| 1995 | 2,019 |
| 2000 | 3,293 |
| 2005 | 5,076 |
| 2010 | 7,113 |
| 2015 | 9,233 |
| 2020 | 12,664 |
| 2025 | 19,600 |
The community grew by more than half in the five years after 2020. It passed 15,000 in 2022 and 19,000 in 2024. A claim sometimes repeated online, that 20,000 Albanians had arrived by 2016, does not match the register: at the end of 2016 Finland had 9,791 Albanian speakers.
Vantaa, Espoo, Turku and Helsinki: City by City
Statistics Finland also publishes language by municipality. The largest Albanian-speaking population is not in Helsinki or Turku but in Vantaa, the capital’s northern neighbor.
| Municipality | Albanian speakers, end of 2010 | Albanian speakers, end of 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Vantaa | 1,302 | 5,156 |
| Espoo | 1,096 | 3,935 |
| Turku | 1,063 | 2,687 |
| Helsinki | 907 | 2,551 |
Together Vantaa, Espoo and Helsinki held 11,642 Albanian speakers at the end of 2025, about 59 percent of the national total. The wider Uusimaa region had 13,213, or two in three. Southwest Finland, the region around Turku, followed with 3,531, then Pirkanmaa with 737 and Ostrobothnia with 696.
Smaller communities are spread across the country. At the end of 2025 Tampere had 608 Albanian speakers, Porvoo 404, Kirkkonummi 403, Raisio 328, Jakobstad 314, Vaasa 278 and Oulu 225.
A Young Community
The age breakdown shows how young Finland’s Albanian speakers are. At the end of 2025, 5,199 of them were under 15, which is 27 percent of the total. There were 1,873 children under five alone.
Men outnumber women, with 11,105 male and 8,495 female speakers. Statistics Finland does not cross language with country of birth for individual languages in its public tables, so it is not possible to say from this source exactly how many Albanian speakers were born in Finland.
Why There Is No Kosovo Row in the Tables
Readers who look for Kosovo in the Finnish tables on country of birth, citizenship or background country will not find it. The public StatFin tables list Albania and North Macedonia but have no separate Kosovo category. The closest categories are two historical ones: Former Yugoslavia, and Former Serbia and Montenegro.
At the end of 2025, 17,027 residents had Former Yugoslavia as their background country, and 5,462 of them were born in Finland. That group includes Bosnians, Serbs and others, so it cannot be read as an Albanian figure. Another 2,970 had Former Serbia and Montenegro as their background country.
The Albania figures are easier to read. Finland had 2,722 residents with Albania as their background country at the end of 2025, up from 197 in 2010. Of those, 2,379 were born abroad and 343 in Finland. North Macedonia was the background country of just 337 people, which suggests that the community in Finland, unlike the one in Denmark, has few roots there.
The 1999 Evacuation to Finland
Finland took part in the Humanitarian Evacuation Program run by UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration, which moved Kosovars out of overcrowded camps in Macedonia. Between April 5 and July 6, 1999, Finland received 958 of the 91,057 people evacuated. The same UNHCR tables show about 360 asylum applications in Finland from citizens of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1998.
The language register picks up the effect. The number of Albanian speakers rose from 2,556 at the end of 1998 to 3,010 at the end of 1999 and 3,993 at the end of 2001.
Albanian in Finnish Schools
Education providers in Finland can offer pupils lessons in their own mother tongue. The teaching supplements basic education and is supported by a state subsidy. The Finnish National Agency for Education publishes the number of participants by language, and the Albanian language is one of the busiest.
In the autumn of 2025, 1,206 pupils and students took Albanian lessons, up from 1,121 that spring and from 955 in the autumn of 2018. Albanian was the sixth most studied language out of 63, behind Russian, Arabic, Somali, Ukrainian and English. In total 24,827 pupils took part that autumn, with 85 education providers running the lessons.
Finland, Ahtisaari and Kosovo
Few countries are as closely tied to Kosovo’s statehood as Finland. Former president Martti Ahtisaari served as the United Nations special envoy who drew up the plan for Kosovo’s status, and the Nobel committee cited his work in Kosovo in 1999 and from 2005 to 2007 when it awarded him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008.
Finland recognized the Republic of Kosovo on March 7, 2008, by decision of the president on a proposal from the government. In the recognition letter, Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva stressed Kosovo’s commitment to carrying out the Ahtisaari plan. The two countries established diplomatic relations on February 3, 2009, and Finland keeps an embassy in Pristina. Our list of the countries that recognize Kosovo shows where that date falls in the sequence.
Recognition came with commitments. The foreign ministry announced more than 80 Finnish experts for the European Union rule of law mission EULEX, an increase to 450 Finnish peacekeepers in KFOR in the summer of 2008, and 15 million euros in development support for Kosovo over the following years.
Kuqi and Hetemaj: National Team Regulars
Two Kosovo-born players became fixtures of the Finnish national team. Shefki Kuqi, born in Vushtrri in 1976 to Kosovar Albanian parents, won 62 caps and scored 8 goals for Finland between 1999 and 2010. His younger brother Njazi Kuqi also played professionally.
Përparim Hetemaj was born in Skenderaj in 1986. His family came to Finland as refugees in 1992, settling first in Oulu and later in Helsinki. He won about 50 caps for Finland between 2009 and 2017. His younger brother Mehmet Hetemaj also played for Finland, and appeared for the Kosovo national football team before it joined UEFA and FIFA.
Key Dates for Albanians in Finland
- End of 1992: Statistics Finland records its first 174 Albanian speakers.
- End of 1993: the figure reaches 1,748.
- April 5 to July 6, 1999: 958 Kosovars arrive under the UNHCR and IOM evacuation program.
- March 7, 2008: Finland recognizes Kosovo.
- 2008: Martti Ahtisaari receives the Nobel Peace Prize.
- February 3, 2009: Finland and Kosovo establish diplomatic relations.
- End of 2022: Albanian speakers pass 15,000.
- End of 2025: 19,600 Albanian speakers, the ninth largest foreign-language group in Finland.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Albanians live in Finland?
Statistics Finland counted 19,600 residents with Albanian as their registered mother tongue at the end of 2025. Most have roots in Kosovo.
Where do Albanians in Finland live?
Mainly in the Helsinki region and southern cities such as Turku.
When did Albanians come to Finland?
Mostly in the 1990s, as refugees of the Yugoslav wars and the Kosovo War, with later family migration.
Sources
- Statistics Finland
- Wikipedia: Albanians in the Nordic countries
- Statistics Finland: StatFin table 11rl, language according to age and sex by region, 1990 to 2025
- Statistics Finland: StatFin table 11rm, language according to sex by municipality, 1990 to 2025
- Statistics Finland: StatFin table 11rt, origin and background country by region, 1990 to 2025
- Finnish National Agency for Education: Oman äidinkielen opetukseen osallistuneet 2025
- UNHCR via ReliefWeb: Kosovo Crisis Update, 14 July 1999
- Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland: Finland recognised the Republic of Kosovo
- Embassy of Finland, Pristina: Finland and Kosovo
- The Nobel Prize: Martti Ahtisaari, facts
Related Reading
Author: Val Demiri
Valbona is an editor and writer at ALB Connection, where she covers the people, businesses, and culture shaping the Albanian diaspora. A journalism graduate of the University of Iowa, her work spans community profiles, success stories, and features on Albanian life across the US, Europe, and beyond. She is drawn to stories that celebrate Albanian achievement and keep the community connected across borders.
