Are Finnish people metalheads?
Yeah, we all have probably heard it. In Finland we have a lot of heavy metal bands. We only won our very second Eurovision song contest with, yup, heavy metal.
Let's look at some statistics.Encyclopaedia Metallum tells us that currently 145 countries have at least one active heavy metal band. The collective total of active heavy metal bands for all 145 countries is 81,207. How many of those are from Finland?
Finland has a population of 5 576 283 people, as of today (4 January 2023). 
Geography Realm says that as an absolute number, the United States stands out as the country with the most heavy metal bands. With 17,557 active entries in the Encyclopaedia Metallum, the United States has more than three times the number of bands than the second country on the list: Germany with 5,726.
However, of course, taking into consideration the sizes of these nations, it is not a fair comparison with tiny Finland with 5.5 million people, compared with the USA (population 331.9 million) or Germany (83.13 million).
A more fair way to look at this question is by adjusting the amount of bands per 100 000 inhabitants.
Now we start finding some interesting figures. Take a look below.
Ranking | Country | Bands | Percentage of Total Bands |
1 | United States | 17,557 | 21.62% |
2 | Germany | 5,726 | 7.05% |
3 | Brazil | 4,173 | 5.14% |
4 | Italy | 3,623 | 4.46% |
5 | United Kingdom | 3,244 | 3.99% |
6 | Russia | 3,072 | 3.78% |
7 | France | 2,900 | 3.57% |
8 | Canada | 2,756 | 3.39% |
9 | Mexico | 2,400 | 2.96% |
10 | Finland | 2,381 | 2.93% |
Now we arrive at the core of the idea where Finnish people may be considered metalheads. And honestly, many Finns are really proud of this stereotype! 
We are the 65th largest country in the world, but we are the top country number 1, when it comes to the ratio of heavy metal bands per 100 000 residents. How fun is that?
There are currently over 42 bands per 100 000 residents in Finland.
The top 10 countries with this per capita ranking are as follows:
Ranking | Country | Metal bands per 100000 people | Bands | Population |
1 | Finland | 42.613 | 2,381 | 5,587,442 |
2 | Iceland | 31.900 | 113 | 354,234 |
3 | Sweden | 22.228 | 2,281 | 10,261,767 |
4 | Faroe Islands | 21.177 | 11 | 51,943 |
5 | Saint Pierre and Miquelon | 18.793 | 1 | 5,321 |
6 | Norway | 18.277 | 1,007 | 5,509,591 |
7 | Liechtenstein | 17.755 | 7 | 39,425 |
8 | Greece | 11.694 | 1,236 | 10,569,703 |
9 | Chile | 11.449 | 2,096 | 18,307,925 |
10 | Malta | 11.066 | 51 | 460,891 |
Now, by any means, this does not indicate that we only listen to metal or only have metal and heavy rock bands on the radio. Nor that everyone loves their weekend in a head-banging live music concert.
On the contrary, Finland has a great range of both English and Finnish language artists, popular music, rap and reggae artists, to enjoy. I think I may have to write other blog posts about later.
Finnish language seems to fit lyrics, especially rap music very well. Finnish language has hard striking consonants and with lots of vowels in our words. Have you listened Finnish rap, it is a great way to learn some Finnish!
What kind of music and artists do you enjoy listening to?
Let's discuss in the forum! Thread: Finnish Music.