Editing Espoo (section)

=== Language ===
{{Pie chart
|thumb = right
|direction=row
|caption = Population by<br/>mother tongue (2024)<ref name="statistics-finland-population-2024-final"/>
|label1 = Finnish
|value1 = 68.7
|color1 = #002F6C
|label2 = Swedish
|value2 = 6.3
|color2 = #FFCD00
|label3 = Russian
|value3 = 3.5
|color3 = #D52B1E
|label4 = Arabic
|value4 = 1.9
|color4 = #165D31
|label6 = English
|value6 = 1.8
|color6 = #FFFFFF
|label5 = Estonian
|value5 = 1.8
|color5 = #0072CE
|label7 = Chinese
|value7 = 1.4
|color7 = #FFFF00
|label8 = Other
|value8 = 14.6
|color8 = #C5C5C5
}}

The city of Espoo is officially [[bilingual]], with both [[Finnish language|Finnish]] and [[Swedish language|Swedish]] as official languages. {{As of|2024}}, the majority of the population, {{formatnum: {{Data Finland municipality/native language Finnish|Espoo}}}} persons ({{Percentage|sigfig = 3|{{Data Finland municipality/native language Finnish|Espoo}}|{{Data Finland municipality/native language total|Espoo}}}}), spoke Finnish as their first language. The number of [[Swedish-speaking population of Finland|Swedish speakers]] was {{formatnum: {{Data Finland municipality/native language Swedish|Espoo }}}} persons ({{Percentage|sigfig = 2|{{Data Finland municipality/native language Swedish|Espoo}}|{{Data Finland municipality/native language total|Espoo}}}}) of the population. Foreign languages were spoken by {{Formatnum: {{pct|{{Data Finland municipality/native language other|Espoo}}|{{Data Finland municipality/native language total|Espoo}}|1}}}} of the population.<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. 

The proportion of Swedish speakers decreased the most in the 1950s: in the 1950s, Swedish speakers accounted for 43.1% of the population (about 10,800 people<ref name="doria-vuosikirja">[https://www.doria.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/78743/xyti_stv_195100_1952_dig.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Suomen tilastollinen vuosikirja] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307050529/https://www.doria.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/78743/xyti_stv_195100_1952_dig.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |date=7 March 2023 }}, doria.fi 31 December 1950. Accessed on 14 May 2018.</ref>), while in 1960 they accounted for 23.5% (about 13,300 people<ref name="doria-vuosikirja"/>), due to rapid urbanisation, which led to strong positive immigration of Finnish speakers from other parts of the country.

The number of Swedish speakers increased slowly until the 2010s, when they numbered about 20,300, while the proportion decreased year by year. In 1996 the proportion fell below 10 per cent. {{As of|2024}}, the proportion of Swedish speakers in Espoo was 6.3% of the population. In absolute terms, Espoo was the second most Swedish-speaking municipality in Finland after Helsinki, ahead of [[Raseborg]], [[Vaasa]], [[Porvoo]] and [[Korsholm]].<ref name="väestö3112">[https://pxnet2.stat.fi/PXWeb/pxweb/fi/StatFin/StatFin__vrm__vaerak/statfin_vaerak_pxt_11rm.px/table/tableViewLayout1/ Väestö 31.12. muuttujina Alue, Sukupuoli, Vuosi, Kieli ja Tiedot]{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Statistics Finland 2021, {{ISSN|1797-5379}}. Accessed on 31 March 2022.</ref>

In 2018, the largest proportions of Swedish speakers in Espoo were in [[Suvisaaristo]] (33.6%), [[Espoonkartano]] (29.9%), [[Sepänkylä]] (24.1%) and [[Bodom, Espoo|Bodom]] (21.3%).<ref name="aluesarjat">{{Cite web |url=http://www.aluesarjat.fi/ |title=Aluesarjat.fi – Taulukko: Espoon väestö äidinkielen mukaan 1.1. |access-date=10 September 2022 |archive-date=21 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421153224/http://www.aluesarjat.fi/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>  In absolute terms, the most Swedish speakers lived in [[Haukilahti]] (993 people) and [[Matinkylä]] (813 people).<ref name="aluesarjat"/>

The proportion of Finnish speakers has declined significantly over the past three decades. In 1999 the proportion of Finnish speakers was 88%, and in 2024 it was 68.7%. At the same time, the proportion of foreign language speakers has increased dramatically: in 1999 it was only about 4%, and in 2024 it was 25,0%. The foreign language speakers in Espoo are a heterogeneous group divided into tens of different languages, of which the Russian speakers form the largest part. <ref name="statistics-finland-population-2024-final"/>