The Finnish National Travel Survey is ongoing once again. The survey, which has been regularly used to map our travel habits for decades, has been renewed and is now more apt at bringing us information on topical phenomena in our everyday lives both locally and nationally. This time, more than 90,000 people living in Finland have been invited to participate in the survey.

The Finnish National Travel Survey maps the average travel habits of Finnish residents on every day of the year.  A certain randomly selected group of people will be asked each day about their travel habits and any changes to them during 2021. The new and improved survey will provide a better view of regional habits in various districts.

The national travel survey will illustrate how, where and when we travel and how our mobility has changed. Changes to the transport system and the way we travel are constantly adding new data needs and require more frequent monitoring of developments in traffic.

“The Finnish National Travel Survey is an indispensable part of the information we have about our travel habits. We wanted to push on with the survey even during these exceptional times, and we would like to encourage all invitees to participate in the survey to amass information on how the pandemic is affecting our travel habits, possibly also in the long term," Deputy Director-General Jarkko Saarimäki from the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom stresses.

Both national and regional viewpoints covered extensively

The Finnish National Travel Survey has been conducted every 5–6 years since 1974. The survey is significant due to its scope; it covers the entire population and the different regions of the country, all means of transport, seasons and weekdays as well as travel within Finland and abroad. The results of the survey are utilised widely, e.g. in traffic and land use planning, in national and regional traffic system planning as well as in monitoring and forecasting changes in our travel habits.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Ministry of the Environment, the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, the Finnish Environment Institute and Statistics Finland as well as the Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment in Central Finland, North Ostrobothnia and Pirkanmaa represent the traffic and environment branches of government in the survey. Regional representatives include the cities of Kajaani, Joensuu, Pori and Hämeenlinna, the Helsinki, Jyväskylä, Oulu and Tampere urban regions as well as the regional councils of Central Finland, Pirkanmaa, Päijät-Häme, Helsinki-Uusimaa and Southwest Finland.

Learn more about the Finnish National Travel Survey: www.hlt.fi.