Quality report (OSF): Health Care and Social Welfare Personnel
Data description
Statistical presentation
The Health and Social Services Personnel statistics describe persons permanently resident in Finland on the last day of the year who primarily work in social and health services and in social and health care occupational titles in Finland in the private, public and third sectors. The statistics cover persons educated for the social and health care sector as well as, in addition, those who have been granted a professional licence by Valvira (Finnish Supervisory Agency as of 1 January 2026) and who have an address in Finland on the last day of the year.
The data are produced from Statistics Finland’s Employment Statistics, and the data have been refined by linking them with information from the professional registers of the Finnish Supervisory Agency. The professional register data provide information on professional licences in health and social care and the qualifications related to them, as well as on registered holders of professional rights.
This statistic forms part of the reporting on social and health services personnel produced by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL). In addition, supplementary information on social and health services provided by wellbeing services counties and joint authorities, as well as by municipalities and joint municipal authorities, is produced in the Public Sector Social and Health Services Personnel statistics.
Relevance
The statistics have been produced primarily to support national health and social policy decision-making, steering and monitoring. They are intended for decision-makers and planners in the health and social care sector, researchers and students in the field, as well as all those who need statistical information on the development of social and health services personnel at the national and international level.
Data content of the statistics
The statistical population consists of persons who are permanently resident in Finland at the end of the year and who either mainly work in the social and health care sector or in a social and health care occupation, or who have an education in the social and health care field, or who have been granted a professional licence in social and health care (the professional right as a protected occupational title for childminders has been excluded).
The social and health care industries, occupations and educational qualifications used in the data extraction have been defined as follows:
- Social and health care industry (Standard Industrial Classification 2008 (TOL 2008): Section Q; TOL 2002 and TOL 1995: Section N), excluding early childhood day care services.
- Social and health care occupations are defined as the following occupational codes (Statistics Finland’s Classification of Occupations 2010) and the groups included under them: 1342 (Health care managers), 1343 (Managers in elderly care), 1344 (Social welfare managers), 22 (Health care specialist professionals), 2634 (Psychologists), 2635 (Social work professionals), 32 (Health associate professionals), 532 (Practical nurses, other health care workers and home-based personal care workers).
- The following qualifications are counted as social and health care qualifications1:
- Up to 2015, field of education 7 (Social services, health and sports), of which qualifications in social and health care are counted as sote qualifications (Fields of education and levels of education classifications 1995 and 2002 of the education administration).
- From 2016 onwards, field of education 9 (Statistics Finland’s National Classification of Education 2016).
- As well as other qualifications that correspond to social and health care occupations but are not classified under social and health care in the education classification. An example of this is a degree in psychology, which is classified under the field of humanities and education. From the professional rights granted by the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health, all permanent licences are taken into account, with the exception of the professional licence as a protected occupational title for childminders.
- Of the qualifications in the social and health care fields of education, those qualification titles that do not correspond to social and health care occupations have been defined in these statistics as other than social and health care. These include, for example, the qualification of childminder and other qualification titles related to the field of education and upbringing.
The sector classification used in the report is derived from Statistics Finland’s Legal Unit classification.
| Statistics Finland’s Legal Unit classification | Report sector classification |
|---|---|
| 61 = Public authority | public |
| 62 = Public enterprise | public |
| 63 = Public-law institution | public |
| 71 = State church | public |
| 72 = Other religious community | public |
| 11 = Natural person | business |
| 12 = Estate of a deceased person | business |
| 13 = Tax partnership | business |
| 15 = Bankruptcy estate | business |
| 21 = Limited partnership | business |
| 31 = Limited company | business |
| 32 = Mutual insurance company | business |
| 33 = Savings bank | business |
| 34 = Pension foundation or fund, earnings-related pension institution, unemployment or relief fund |
business |
| 35 = Housing company | enterprise |
| 41 = Cooperative | enterprise |
| 51 = Foundation, fund | organisation |
| 52 =Non-profit association | organisation |
Statistical processing
Source data
The data used in this report are based on Statistics Finland’s Employment Statistics and on information from the professional register of the Finnish Supervisory Agency. The statistics also utilise data from the Population Information System maintained by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.
Data collection
This statistic does not involve any separate data collection; instead, it is based on data from Statistics Finland and the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health.
In the production of Statistics Finland’s Employment Statistics, data from more than 30 different registers or data sources are used (for example, the Population Information System (Digital and Population Data Services Agency), the Incomes Register, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment’s register of jobseekers). The reference population of the Employment Statistics consists of the population permanently resident in the country on the last day of the year. Information on an individual’s activity and workplace refers to the last week of the year. Further information on the data collection methods used in the Employment Statistics is available in the documentation of the Employment Statistics.
The National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health maintain central registers of licensed social and health care professionals. The Authority enters a person into the register when they are granted a professional practice right in social or health care in Finland. A registered person may simultaneously hold several different professional practice rights that are valid. The National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health supplies data on professional practice rights to the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare once a year.
Data validation
We use data processed by Statistics Finland, and most of the validation and review process is carried out at Statistics Finland. Read more on Statistics Finland’s website: Statistical documentation: Methods.
At THL, the data are checked at various stages of the statistical production process: during the transfer of data to THL’s database, during the processing of the data to fit THL’s database format, and when the data are prepared for reporting purposes (database reports).
Data compilation
As part of the statistical process, THL reviews the data, makes the necessary corrections, and creates new groupings and classifications within the dataset. In the occupational breakdown, data from the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health’s register of licensed health and social care professionals have been used so that licensed professionals are separated into their own groups from the occupational classes describing them in Statistics Finland’s occupational classification. This is carried out using identifiable individual-level data from both datasets, which have been linked to each other. Physicians and specialist physicians are divided into separate groups for licensed professionals and students.
For other licensed occupational groups, individuals who do not have a valid professional practice right in the year concerned have been transferred to the combined occupational class closest to the occupational title. For example, physiotherapists who do not hold a professional practice right as a physiotherapist have been transferred to the occupational class “Other therapists”.
An exception to this are biomedical laboratory scientists, geronomists and socionoms, as there are no occupational classes in Statistics Finland’s occupational classification that directly correspond to these professions.
After the processing carried out by THL, the THL dataset is not fully identical to the data from the original sources. THL retains the original source data for the purposes of data quality assurance.
In the statistical report, figures are presented in rounded form to improve readability. Figures below ten thousand are rounded to the nearest ten, and larger figures are presented to the nearest hundred. Exact figures are available in the database report Personnel in health and social services, persons working under the occupational title in the field, and persons educated for the field.
Data revision
The data are revised retrospectively in connection with each statistical release. The largest changes usually occur in the occupational or industry breakdowns, and these changes affect the content of the database reports. As a rule, the changes are not significant in magnitude. Previously published statistical reports in PDF format are not amended unless a clear error is identified and corrected.
Quality assessment of the statistics
Accuracy and reliability
The accuracy of the data depends to a significant extent on the accuracy of the source data obtained from Statistics Finland.
After the publication of the statistical report, the time series is corrected retrospectively in the database report if errors are identified in the data. The updated data are generally considered in the statistical report published in the following year.
Timeliness and punctuality
The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) produces the statistics on personnel in social and health care services once a year after Statistics Finland’s Employment Statistics, required for the calculations, have been completed. The statistics containing the final data are published annually approximately two years after the end of the statistical year, with the exception of data on professional practice rights, which refer to the year preceding the publication year of the report.
An exception to this were the years 2015–2023, during which data production was developed in response to database change requirements and to ensure quality assurance, and the statistics were therefore not published.
Statistics Finland’s employment data are mainly based on administrative registers and statistical data sources. One of its most important data sources is taxation data, and the statistics can only be compiled once taxation has been finally confirmed. Preliminary data from Statistics Finland’s Employment Statistics are completed approximately 12 months after the reference date. Of the final data, information on main type of activity and occupational status is completed approximately 14 months after the reference date, and the remaining data approximately 22 months after the reference date.
Coherence and comparability
The occupational, industry and education classifications used in the employment statistics have changed over the years. For reporting purposes, outdated classifications are aligned with more recent ones, making use of the classification correspondence keys published by Statistics Finland.
At the regional level, Statistics Finland collects personnel data at municipal level (municipality of employment). The statistics and reporting produced from the data cover personnel information for the entire country.
Institutional mandate
The production of the statistics is based on the Act on the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (688/2008) and the Statistics Act (280/2004). One of the official tasks of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare is to produce statistical data on the health and welfare of the population, the factors affecting them, and the use and functioning of healthcare and social welfare services to support decision-making, development and research. THL’s statistical production practices are guided by the instructions, recommendations and regulations of Eurostat and the Official Statistics of Finland as well as the principles of statistical ethics.
Data sharing and publishing
THL publishes the data at the time indicated in advance in the statistics publication calendar. The data is made public to all users at the same time.
The statistical reports are public. However, the register data is confidential. The Finnish Social and Health Data Permit Authority Findata grants permits for using the data based on the Act on the Secondary Use of Health and Social Data (552/2019).
Confidentiality
As an authority, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare has the obligation to produce compiled data on the health and well-being concerned with the entire country. The data used to draw up THL’s statistics is primarily confidential, and personal data may not be published. The protection of processed data is based on the Act on the National Institute for Health and Welfare (688/2008), the Statistics Act (280/2004), the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999), the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and the Data Protection Act (1050/2018) as well as other regulations guiding the activities of the Institute.
THL’s datasets are secured at all stages of processing. Data and information systems can only be accessed by persons who have a permit to access certain data for clearly defined purposes. Others do not have the ability to view, process, change or delete data. Written instructions have been drawn up to ensure the data protection of completed statistics. All THL personnel are bound by a confidentiality obligation.
Special issues concerning the 2023 statistics
The most recent figures for 2024 concerning professional licences in social and health carediscussed in the statistical report Health Care and Social Welfare Personnel 2022 -statistical report, published on 25 April 2025. For this reason, data on professional licences are not examined in this publication.
Further information on professional licences and the number of holders of professional licences is available in the database report Professional licences in social and health care and holders of professional licences in Finland -databasereport.
Changes in the occupational classification from the statistical year 2022:
- Senior physicians have, from the statistical year 2023 onwards, been classified as professionals engaged in client work, based on feedback received.
- Deacons and deaconesses have been merged into the occupational group Other social work professionals.