Helsinki residents most eager to move within their home city

More than half (55%) of the residents of major Finnish cities would not move out of their city or city district. 19% of them would consider moving but only within their city, whereas 26% of them would be ready to relocate to another city*.

Most loyal to their city and city district are the residents of Kuopio; 70% of them would not move anywhere (n=95). Second come the residents of Tampere (64%/n=184) and third by the residents of Turku (n=57), Jyväskylä (n=114) and Oulu (n=155) – each at 57%. 53% of respondents from Helsinki said that they would not want to move anywhere. However, as many as 33% of the Helsinki residents would consider moving within Helsinki. This figure is clearly the highest; the second most eager to relocate within their city were the residents of Tampere (20%) and Turku (14%).

Of the residents of Vantaa (n=178), nearly half (46%) would not contemplate moving away, 8% would consider moving within the city and as much as 46% would be ready to relocate to a different city. Of the survey respondents, Vantaa residents were the most willing to relocate, followed by the residents of Jyväskylä (35%) and Espoo (34%).

Only 14% of the Helsinki residents would entertain the notion of moving to a different city. This figure was the lowest amongst the respondent cities. The second most reluctant to relocate were the residents of Tampere (16%).

These results are from the Sustainable Urban Environments barometer, which is a survey of more than 1,000 Finnish city dwellers commissioned by YIT and conducted by Prior Konsultointi in September 2020. The barometer survey was aimed at revealing the types of urban environments Finns would like to see developed. The participating city dwellers express their views on themes such as home, work and urban environment, transport and retail. The barometer was conducted for the third time. In part, the results are compared to those of the previous surveys.

Responses** to the question, “If practical considerations, such as money or location, were no obstacle, which Finnish city or city district would you consider moving to?”, highlight the same city districts as last year. The most popular choices still include Eira, Kaivopuisto and Ullanlinna, followed by the centre of Helsinki, Kamppi and Punavuori.

When asked for the reasons for relocating to the city district or city in question, the most popular responses*** included “close to nature, the sea” (33%) and “close to services, convenience in living” (26%).

However, the reasons given vary depending on the different cities mentioned. For Helsinki, “close to services, convenience in living” came first. For Espoo, it was “close to nature, sea” and, for Tampere, it was “cosy”.

*(n=1652) respondents combined from the 2019 and 2020 barometers

**(n=170)

***(n=508) respondents combined from the 2019 and 2020 barometers

Sustainable Urban Environments barometer 2020
The Sustainable Urban Environments barometer was conducted for the third time. The survey is targeted at the residents of eight cities: Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Tampere, Turku, Oulu, Jyväskylä and Kuopio. The data was collected by an online panel administered by CINT Ab during September 23–28, 2020. There were 1,003 respondents. The sample is representative of the 18–75-year-old population of the participating cities in terms of the respondents’ age and gender as well as the size of each city.

For further information, please contact:
Pirita Tiusanen, Communications Manager, YIT Corporation, tel. +358 (0)44 240 9822, pirita.tiusanen@yit.fi
 

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