Age: 37 years.
Language: Finnish.
Marital status: Single.
Education: Secondary school or higher.
Religion: Lutheran.
Place of birth: Uusimaa, most likely Vantaa.
Life expectancy: 81 years.
Likely cause of death: Disease of the circulatory system or tumour.
Goes to the sauna twice a week.
Uses a dishwasher daily.
Produces 365 kilos of miscellaneous waste and 70 kilos of biological waste a year.
Watches television for two hours and 51 minutes a day. The cable channel SubTV and foreign television series are more popular in Helsinki than in other parts of the country. TV2 of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) is watched less in Helsinki than in other areas.
Goes to the cinema four times a year, once to the theatre, and to a public swimming pool.
Once every two years the average Helsinki resident attends a symphony concert and swims in an outdoor swimming pool.
Spends an average 17 minutes a year in class at an adult education institute, visits the library 14 times a year, and checks out 18 books a year.
The average Helsinki resident owns a bicycle with gears, but not a car. The family has a car - most likely a 1988 model. The typical Helsinki resident has a driving licence and a Helsinki Transport travel card. Commuting usually takes place on public transport.
Lives in a rental apartment in an apartment building built in the late 1960s with two rooms and a kitchen, covering 62 square metres, of which the average Helsinki resident's share is 32.5 square metres. The monthly rent of the whole apartment is 608 euros.
The apartment is equipped with a television set, a VCR, stereos, a dishwasher, refrigerator, freezer, microwave oven, and a fixed-line telephone. The TV licence is paid, but there is no computer in the house. However, the average Helsinki resident does use the Internet and owns a mobile telephone.
Average annual income is 24,994 euros a year before taxes. The average pay packet in Helsinki contains 508 euros more than the average for the whole nation.
The average income of a Helsinki household is 41,281 euros a year.
In Parliamentary and municipal elections the average Helsinki resident was most likely to vote for the National Coalition Party. In the municipal elections he or she may also have voted for the Greens. In Parliamentary elections the Social Democrats were the National Coalition Party's main rivals for the average Helsinki resident's vote.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 11.8.2003
