Turnout: 51.70%
About this election
Finland's second county elections were held on 13 April 2025, for the first time together with the municipal elections. The Social Democrats finished first with 22.50%, ahead of the National Coalition Party (20.40%) and the Centre Party (19.40%), which again secured the most individual seats. The Finns Party fell back to 7.80%. Turnout rose to 51.7%, an improvement of more than four points on the inaugural 2022 vote, helped by the concurrent municipal contest. The 21 wellbeing services counties again elected 1,379 councillors.
Councillors for each wellbeing services county are elected by open-list proportional representation (d'Hondt) for a four-year term, with voters casting a personal vote for an individual candidate. Combining the county and municipal elections on a single day was a deliberate move to raise participation and streamline administration, and the higher turnout suggested the change had some of its intended effect.
The Finnish party system applied as usual, with the Social Democrats advancing, the National Coalition holding firm and the Finns Party slumping. The Centre Party, despite a third-place vote share, again won the most council seats thanks to its rural dominance — the same structural quirk seen across Finnish local elections.
As with the simultaneous municipal vote, the result was read as a mid-term rebuke to Petteri Orpo's national government. The counties' finances had become a flashpoint, with funding shortfalls forcing service cuts and closures, and voters appeared to hold the governing parties — especially the Finns Party — responsible, while rewarding the opposition SDP.
The young wellbeing services counties had struggled financially almost from the outset, running deficits that required savings in health and social care. That backdrop made the 2025 county election as much about money and service levels as about party politics, and it sharpened the anti-government swing.
The Finns Party's fall to 7.80% echoed its collapse in the concurrent municipal vote, confirming that its participation in an austerity-minded national government had badly eroded its support at the regional level only three years after its strong showings.
Turnout of 51.7% was a clear improvement on the 47.5% of 2022, vindicating the decision to hold the county and municipal elections together. Even so, participation remained well below that of Finnish parliamentary elections, reflecting the lower public profile of the regional tier.
Statistics Finland (Tilastokeskus) and the Ministry of Justice election results service — stat.fi.
Compiled and reviewed by Bartłomiej Paruzel, Election Data Analyst, from official results. See our data methodology.