Department of Management Studies

Information on foreign-owned corporations in Finland today

Foreign-owned corporations bring a significant amount of value to Finland. In these graphics we have illustrated where these corporations are located in Finland as well as their country of origin.

There are more than 4000 foreign-owned companies in Finland and even though they only represent approximately 1% of all companies in Finland they have a significant role in the Finnish business ecosystem. According to the most recent Statistics Finland data from 2018, these companies create jobs for around 260 000 people, employing about 18% of the Finnish workforce. They also influence the Finnish know-how and reputation internationally, as they represent around 30% of Finnish exports and contribute with 545 million euros of R&D investments, which is around 28% of all R&D investments that firms in Finland make (Statistics Finland 2019).

Foreign-owned corporations in Finland

In 2017, there were 4308 companies in Finland that were majority-owned by foreign multinational corporations. Out of these, 494 were properties and 524 passive companies and are thus excluded from our analysis. The remaining 3290 companies belonged to 2486 separate corporations. Almost 300 of these had at least two companies in Finland. This may be due to historical reasons (e.g. mergers and acquisitions) or a preference to establish a separate company for managing properties.

The following map provides an overview of the main location¹ of these 2486 foreign owned multinational corporations in Finland. Most of them (71%) are located in the Greater Helsinki area, which consists of the Capital Region (including Helsinki, Vantaa, Espoo and Kauniainen) and the exurbs surrounding it. The region represents a population of 1.477 million people (2017). Large population centers (Jyväskylä, Kuopio, Lahti, Oulu, Tampere, Turku) have 10% of the foreign-owned corporations. The remaining fifth of them are outside the Capital region and large population centers of Finland.

The map also shows that a vast majority of foreign-owned corporations are located near airports or ports and along the main roads, for example along the corridor from Helsinki to Tampere.

Foreign-owned corporations in the Capital Region

The following map provides a closer look at the 1648 foreign-owned corporations¹ located in the Capital Region of Finland (Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen). They represent 66% of all 2486 foreign-owned corporations in Finland in 2017.

As we can see from the map, obvious clusters can be spotted around the Helsinki city center, but also in proximity to Helsinki-Vantaa airport and along major roads and their junctions in the area, such as the Ring Roads (I-III) and main highways.

Locations_Capital_Region — On the map: airports, ports, major roads, foreign-owned MNCs in Finland, capital region.

Parent company of foreign-owned corporations worldwide

This map illustrates the parent companies' home country for every 2486 foreign-owned corporations located in Finland. The different shades of blue vary depending on the number of multinational corporations originating from the country. The darker colors represent a higher count of companies that originated from these countries.

Altogether there are in Finland foreign-owned companies from 43 countries. In our sample, Sweden, United States, Germany and the United Kingdom are some of the origin countries with the biggest pools of multinational corporations. When looking at different continents, most of the foreign companies come from Europe. Only a small number of companies come from Russia or Asian countries.

Origin_Country_World — On the map: number of MNC’s parent companies per origin country.

Parent company of foreign-owned corporations in Europe

When discussing the parent companies of the foreign multinational corporations in Finland, Europe and the European Union merit a closer look as a region. This map highlights the countries of the parent companies' origin in the EU region. It can be noted that Sweden in particular was the origin of several foreign-owned companies located in Finland in 2017.

Origin_Country_EU — On the map: number of MNC’s parent companies per origin country.

Industry Classification

To better understand how different industries are distributed across the country, the Eurostat industry classification is used to distinguish high-tech and low-tech manufacturing, knowledge-intensive services (KIS), and less knowledge-intensive services (LKIS). Additionally, LKIS can be represented as wholesale and retail services that account for 80% of LKIS in Finland.

Industry Classes Mapped

On the following clickable maps, it can be seen how different industry classes are spread across Finland and if their locations coincide with major roads, ports and airports.