Editing History of Finland (section)

===Society and the welfare state===
[[File:UKK-hautajaissaattue-linna.jpg|thumb|President [[Urho Kekkonen]]'s funeral procession in 1986]]
Before 1940 Finland was a poor rural nation of urban and rural workers and independent farmers. There was a small middle class, employed chiefly as civil servants and in small local businesses. As late as 1950 half of the workers were in agriculture and only a third lived in urban towns.<ref name="populationdevelopment">{{cite web |author=Finland 1917–2007 |url=http://www.stat.fi/tup/suomi90/joulukuu_en.html |title=Population development in independent Finland – greying Baby Boomers |publisher=Stat.fi |access-date=6 December 2011 |archive-date=18 February 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100218064517/http://www.stat.fi/tup/suomi90/joulukuu_en.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The new jobs in manufacturing, services and trade quickly attracted people to the towns and cities. The average number of births per woman declined from a [[baby boom]] peak of 3.5 in 1947 to 1.5 in 1973.<ref name="populationdevelopment"/> When baby boomers entered the workforce, the economy did not generate jobs fast enough and hundreds of thousands emigrated to the more industrialized Sweden, migration peaking in 1969 and 1970 (today 4.7 percent of Swedes speak Finnish).<ref name="populationdevelopment"/>

By the 1990s, farm laborers had nearly all moved on, leaving owners of small farms.{{citation needed|date=February 2015}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=KETTUNEN |first=LAURI |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/52253054.pdf |title=FINNISH AGRICUITURE IN 1990 |publisher=MAATALOUDEN TALOUDELLINEN TUTKIMUSLAITOS AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS RESEARCH INSTITUTE |year=1991 |isbn=951-9202-97-8 |pages=45–46}}</ref> By 2000 the social structure included a politically active working class, a primarily clerical middle class, and an upper bracket consisting of managers, entrepreneurs, and professionals. The social boundaries between these groups were not distinct. Causes of change included the growth of a mass culture, international standards, social mobility, and acceptance of democracy and equality as typified by the welfare state.<ref>Pertti Haapala, and Brian Fleming, "The Fate of the Welfare State," ''Historiallinen Aikakauskirja,'' 1998, Vol. 96 Issue 2, pp. 142–149</ref>

The generous system of welfare benefits emerged from a long process of debate, negotiations and maneuvers between efficiency-oriented modernizers on the one hand and Social Democrats and labor unions. A compulsory system provides old-age and disability insurance.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.socialnet.de/international/en/finland.html|title=Country Portrait Finland – The Finnish Welfare State|last1=Jungerstam|first1=Susanne|last2=Wentjärvi|first2=Annika|date=6 March 2019|website=socialnet International|access-date=4 February 2020|archive-date=3 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191103134144/https://www.socialnet.de/international/en/finland.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> The national government provides unemployment insurance, maternity benefits, family allowances, and day-care centers. Health insurance covers most of the cost of outpatient care. The national health act of 1972 provided for the establishment of free health centers in every municipality.<ref>Pauli Kettunen, "The Nordic Welfare State in Finland," ''Scandinavian Journal of History,'' September 2001, Vol. 26 Issue 3, pp. 225–247</ref>  There were major cutbacks in the early 1990s, but they were distributed to minimize the harm to the vast majority of voters.<ref>Mikko Mattila, and Petri Uusikyla, "The politics of scarcity: Social welfare  and health care cutbacks in Finland, 1991–1995," ''West European Politics,'' October 1997, Vol. 20 Issue 4, pp. 146–63</ref>