We receive social and health care services that meet our needs when decision‑makers have sufficient high‑quality information about people’s health and their service needs.
Finland’s social and health care system is managed, assessed and guided using the information that THL collects on the services used by the population and on their health and wellbeing. This information also plays an important role in determining the funding of wellbeing services counties.
THL has a statutory duty to collect and refine information on social and health care services. The data we collect cover the entire Finnish social and health care service system. The information is also comparable across different wellbeing services counties.
What information does THL collect?
We collect information on the population’s wellbeing, health and use of services. Data on service use are compiled into registers maintained by THL, such as the Care Registers for Primary Health Care and Specialised Health Care, as well as the Medical Birth Register. The data cover both the public and private sectors.
THL’s register datasets describing service use are extensive and comprehensive. Wellbeing services counties submit millions of individual records to THL’s registers every week.
The promotion of wellbeing and health remains the responsibility of municipalities, and THL also publishes statistics on these activities.
We collect information directly from the population through various surveys and health examination studies. Surveys provide information, for example, on schoolchildren’s wellbeing, the health habits of different age groups and their views on how well services function. Surveys also provide information on population groups that have not used social and health care services.
Since 2023, we have collected client data from social welfare services in the Finnish Social Welfare and Care Register. Together, register data, population survey data and information obtained from municipalities on wellbeing and health promotion form THL’s extensive data resources.
What is done with the collected data, and what are THL’s key information products?
We publish statistics and other data products based on the information we collect on our website, where they are freely available for use. These include various statistical data cubes that allow users to examine data in table format and as different types of statistical charts.
An increasing share of our statistical data is updated monthly. For example, statistical data cubes based on health care registers are updated every month, and some primary health care data are updated daily.
Our data products vary in terms of how thoroughly the data has been verified. Monthly updated data are suitable for monitoring the quality of the information submitted to THL by social and health care actors, but decisionmaking requires verified and analysed information, which is provided in statistical reports.
Statistical datasets are also available in machinereadable formats as open data and as official statistical reports.
Statistical datasets are also available in machine‑readable formats as open data and as official statistical reports.
How is the data used?
THL’s datasets and statistics have multiple uses, and the information we publish is freely available to everyone.
The data published as statistics do not contain personal data or other confidential information. THL does not examine information on individual persons but focuses on data that are essential at the national level and for the functioning of the entire system.
The main user groups of THL’s data products include the management and experts of wellbeing services counties, researchers, experts in ministries, and other national and private‑sector actors.
At THL, we use the data, for example, in the evaluation of wellbeing services counties and in calculating service needs as a basis for social and health care funding, as well as in numerous research articles, reports and studies.
Nationally comparable social and health care data support knowledge‑based management in wellbeing services counties. Comparable information from the counties increases understanding of the situation in one’s own area and the need for service development. The statutory duties of wellbeing services counties also include monitoring the development of other counties. National authorities use the data in the supervision and steering of the social and health care system.
Shared knowledge base for health and social services
Read more about THL’s role as a collector and processor of data.