What's actually on the citizenship test

The subject list didn't arrive fully formed. It went through at least two public drafts before anyone agreed on eight fixed categories, and the working group's original wish list was longer than what actually survived.

The eight subjects, as of the December 2025 draft

The version that went out for public consultation in December 2025, and that the government eventually sent to Parliament, settles on eight areas: Finnish society and its founding principles, individual rights and responsibilities, key legislation, fundamental and human rights, equality, gender equality, Finnish history, and Finnish culture.

That's a civics list, not a trivia list. There's no capital-cities-of-Europe question buried in there, no obscure historical dates disconnected from how the country actually runs. The subject matter tracks pretty closely with what a naturalization test in most European countries asks: how the state works, what rights and obligations come with citizenship, and enough history and culture to place that state in context.

What got cut along the way

The working group's February 2025 report covered more ground. Its proposal included geography, everyday practical skills, and digital skills alongside the civics-heavy subjects that eventually stuck. None of those three made it into the December 2025 draft. Was that because officials decided a citizenship test isn't the place to check whether someone can use e-government services, or simply because the subject list needed to shrink to something testable in 20 to 40 questions? That part isn't publicly explained. Either way, every draft since has trended toward a narrower, more civics-focused test rather than a broader general-knowledge one.

Format: digital, multiple-choice, no interview

An early idea floated in the working group's report, a personal interview component, disappeared by mid-2025. What remains is a computer-based test, taken in Finnish or Swedish, made up of multiple-choice and true/false questions. Public drafts of the legislation point to a test of 20 to 40 questions with roughly 70 percent needed to pass, though those numbers come from legislative drafting rather than a final published spec, so treat them as the shape of the test rather than the confirmed one.

Who actually has to take it

The requirement applies to applicants between 18 and 64. Two groups skip the test entirely: people who've completed a Finnish or Swedish matriculation exam, and people with a degree from Finnish- or Swedish-language higher education. Health or disability-related exemptions are also possible on a case-by-case basis. For the full breakdown of who's exempt and why, see who is exempt from the test.

There's also a fee to take it, on top of everything else naturalization already costs. The government's own estimate put annual running costs at roughly 2.3 million euros, and advocacy groups have estimated per-applicant fees somewhere between 235 and 470 euros. That's a separate question from what's on the test, but it shapes who can realistically sit it.

Where the actual content comes from

None of this is final until the University of Helsinki, which won the tender to design the test in August 2026, finishes writing the question bank and Migri publishes it. That's expected sometime in autumn 2026. For how that process works, see who creates the test, or the full timeline.