Editing Vantaa (section)

=== Languages ===
{{Pie chart
|thumb = right
|direction=row
|caption = Population by<br/>mother tongue (2024)<ref name="statistics-finland-population-2024-final"/>
|label1 = Finnish
|value1 = 69.1
|color1 = #002F6C
|label2 = Russian
|value2 = 4.3
|color2 = #D52B1E
|label3 = Estonian
|value3 = 3.4
|color3 = #0072CE
|label4 = Arabic
|value4 = 2.4
|color4 = #165D31
|label5 = Swedish
|value5 = 2.1
|color5 = #FFCD00
|label6 = Albanian
|value6 = 2.0
|color6 = #E41E20
|label7 = Somali
|value7 = 1.3
|color7 = #4189DD
|label8 = English
|value8 = 1.3
|color8 = #FFFFFF
|label9 = Other
|value9 = 14.1
|color9 = #C5C5C5
}}
The city of Vantaa is officially [[bilingual]], with both [[Finnish language|Finnish]] and [[Swedish language|Swedish]] as official languages. {{As of|2024}}, the majority of the population, {{Formatnum: {{pct|{{Data Finland municipality/native language Finnish|Vantaa}}|{{Data Finland municipality/native language total|Vantaa}}|1}}}}, spoke Finnish as their first language. There are {{formatnum: {{Data Finland municipality/native language Swedish|Vantaa }} }} [[Swedish-speaking population of Finland|Swedish speakers]] in Vantaa, or {{Formatnum: {{pct|{{Data Finland municipality/native language Swedish|Vantaa}}|{{Data Finland municipality/native language total|Vantaa}}|1}}}} of the population. This compares with {{Formatnum: {{pct|{{Data Finland municipality/native language Swedish|Helsinki}}|{{Data Finland municipality/native language total|Helsinki}}|1}}}} in Helsinki and {{Formatnum: {{pct|{{Data Finland municipality/native language Swedish|Espoo}}|{{Data Finland municipality/native language total|Espoo}}|1}}}} in Espoo.<ref name="statistics-finland-population-2024-final"/> The number of Swedish speakers in Vantaa has remained more or less constant over the decades, but the proportion of Swedish speakers in the city has declined steadily as a result of immigration. In 1960, about ten per cent of the population of Vantaa spoke Swedish. In 1980, the proportion was about five per cent. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Vantaa has been a predominantly Finnish-speaking municipality.

Vantaa remains officially bilingual, as the Finnish Language Act states that a municipality must be declared bilingual if the number of speakers of the official minority language (Finnish or Swedish) is at least 8% of the population or 3,000 people.<ref>[https://www.finlex.fi/fi/lainsaadanto/2003/423 Kielilaki] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506120630/http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2003/20030423#L1P5 |date=2008-05-06 }}, Ministry of Justice in Finland 15 December 2014.</ref> In relation to the total population, the proportion of Swedish speakers in Vantaa is the lowest of all bilingual municipalities in Finland. Among Vantaa's districts, the proportion of Swedish speakers was highest in [[Helsingin pitäjän kirkonkylä]] (19.0%), [[Sotunki]] (16.6%) and [[Luhtaanmäki]] (11.5%) in 2019.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.aluesarjat.fi/ |title=Aluesarjat.fi - Taulukko: Vantaan väestö äidinkielen mukaan 1.1. |access-date=2022-09-29 |archive-date=2020-04-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421153224/http://www.aluesarjat.fi/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The number of people who speak [[Sámi languages|Sámi]], Finland's third official language, is only {{formatnum: {{Data Finland municipality/native language Sami|Vantaa }} }} inhabitants. In Vantaa, {{Formatnum: {{pct|{{Data Finland municipality/native language other|Vantaa}}|{{Data Finland municipality/native language total|Vantaa}}|1}}}} of the population speak a [[First language|mother tongue]] other than Finnish or Swedish.<ref name="statistics-finland-population-2024-final"/> As [[English language|English]] and [[Swedish language|Swedish]] are compulsory school subjects, functional bilingualism or trilingualism acquired through language studies is not uncommon.

There are at least 100 different languages spoken in Vantaa. The most common foreign languages are [[Russian language|Russian]] (4.3%), [[Estonian language|Estonian]] (3.4%), [[Arabic]] (2.4%), [[Albanian language|Albanian]] (2.0%), [[Somali language|Somali]] (1.3%) and [[English language|English]] (1.3%).<ref name="statistics-finland-population-2024-final"/>