The Finnish established Blue Economy sectors employ about 42 000 people and generate around €2.4 billion in GVA. The Blue Economy employs roughly 1.6% of the national workforce, a decrease from 1.8% recorded in 2020 and 2.4% in 2019. Finnish Blue Economy contributes 1.1%to the national GVA in 2021, same value as in 2020 but lower than that recorded in 2019 (1.5%).
The Finnish Blue Economy is mainly based on Coastal tourism activities in terms of employment, with 40% of blue workers employed in this sector. The share has slightly increased since 2020 (39%) but is far from the values recorded pre-Covid (in 2019, 51%). Shipbuilding and repair, and Maritime transport contribute together to 37% of the Blue Economy workforce.
In terms of GVA, four main sectors contribute the most to the Finnish Blue Economy. These are Maritime transport and Coastal tourism (24%), Port activities and Shipbuilding and repair (22%).
In the EU, Finland is the 8th-largest contributor in terms of GVA for Shipbuilding and repair. It is also an important contributor to employment within Maritime transport, ranking 10th in the EU in 2021.
In 2021, the busiest Finnish container ports in terms of gross weight of goods handled are the Port of Sköldvik (ranked 57th in the EU), the Port of HaminaKotka (ranked 69th), and the Port of Helsinki (ranked 70th).
In terms of passengers embarked and disembarked in ports, the port of Helsinki was the first-ranked in Finland and the 16th busiest in the EU in 2021. Other busy passenger ports are Turku (55th) and Mariehamn (71st).
In 2016, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland developed a plan for the blue bioeconomy in order to highlight cooperation and interaction between private and public sectors to boost the creation of innovations and sustainable solutions.
Institutes that carry out research on Blue Economy matters include MarineFinland and Blue Eonomy Mikkely.
For more national level data, please visit the Dashboards section within the EU Blue Economy Observatory, where you can also find information about Educational and Employment opportunities in the Blue Economy sectors.
