Social Background and Education of Swedish and Finnish Speakers in Finland

Abstract

AbstractThis article analyses how social background affects completed upper secondary education and completed tertiary level education of Swedish speakers and Finnish speakers in Finland. Longitudinal register data are utilised. The results of logistic regression models indicate that the impact of socio‐economic and family background is strong and declines with education level. For upper secondary education, the impact of social background seems to have decreased over cohorts, which could be attributed to the education reform in the 1970s. The effects of background factors are very similar among Swedish speakers and Finnish speakers. In the Helsinki and Turku areas Swedish speakers have a higher upper secondary education propensity, whereas no such differences between language groups can be found in the other urban, nor in the rural, areas. Swedish speakers are more likely than Finnish speakers to have tertiary level education, which may be attributed to the relatively higher number of student places for Swedish speakers.