Finland’s Emergency Calls Needing Translation Surge by 770%

Between 2020 and 2025, the number of emergency 112 calls in Finland requiring an interpreter rose from 212 to 1,844, according to the Emergency Response Centre Agency.

As Finland’s foreign-language population continues to grow, the country’s emergency response system is adapting to a rapidly changing linguistic landscape.

According to Statistics Finland, 610,000 people with a foreign mother tongue lived in Finland at the end of 2024. This diverse group now makes up roughly 11 percent of the entire population.

Emma Paasonen, Quality Manager at the Emergency Response Centre Agency, noted that this demographic shift is clearly visible in their daily operations.

While the 770 percent growth is dramatic, she emphasized that translated calls still represent a very small fraction of all emergency reports.

41 different languages interpreted

In 2025, emergency dispatchers used interpreters for 41 languages, up from 37 the previous year and fromjust 15 in 2020.

The most frequently translated languages were Russian with 710 calls, Ukrainian with 594 calls, and Arabic with 214 calls.

The sharpest growth in the service began in 2022, directly correlating with the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.

Paasonen explained that the sudden need for Ukrainian interpreters reflects the immediate consequences of the conflict and the arrival of Ukrainian refugees seeking safety.

Beyond the most common languages, the agency is also seeing new linguistic trends. Languages like Hindi, Nepali, and Greek appeared on the translation list last year, alongside rarer languages such as Kinyarwanda, Badini, Kurmanji, and Urdu.

Despite the explosive percentage growth, Paasonen provides essential context to temper administrative anxieties: “The number of interpreted emergency calls is still very small in relation to the total number of emergency reports.”

Given that Finland’s 112 dispatchers handle millions of calls annually, interpreted situations still account for a minuscule fraction of the overall workload.

Finland has experienced high levels of immigration recently, driven by both humanitarian arrivals and the active recruitment of foreign workers.

With a rapidly aging native population and declining birth rates, international migration is currently the only source of Finland’s population growth. This economic and demographic reality ensures that multilingual public services will remain a permanent necessity.

The Emergency Response Centre Agency has used this specialized translation service since 2013 to assist dispatchers in handling complex situations. The ultimate goal is to ensure that everyone in Finland receives life-saving help, regardless of their local language skills.

According to recent demographic projections by the Uusimaa Regional Council (Uudenmaan liitto), the foreign-language population in the capital region could double by 2040, potentially reaching up to 35 percent of the region’s inhabitants.

If these projections hold true, the demand for multilingual public services, from emergency response and specialized healthcare to policing and social work, will scale exponentially.