Unsurprisingly, the majority of residents in all of the Nordic capitals, renowned for their high cost of living, said living in the city center was unjustly expensive. Helsinki, however, turned out to be the undisputed leader, with 90 percent of the respondents sharing this view, compared to 80 percent in Stockholm, 78 percent in Oslo and 64 in Copenhagen.
Helsinki also stood out regarding how the inhabitants see their future. Roughly 40 percent of the residents in the city center said they no longer can afford to live there. The same trend is present in the suburbs, albeit in a less obvious way: a quarter if people living in the outskirts were unsure about being able to afford to continue living in their present homes.
The close proximity of jobs and schools is regarded as a minor factor by Helsinki residents, who are more focused on having good public transport. Four out of five of city dwellers preferred public transport to private cars, citing maintenance expenses, congestion charges and traffic jams.
Finally, 63 percent of Helsinki inhabitants believed that the rich neighborhoods get richer, while the poor get poorer.
Helsinki has a metropolitan population of 1.4 million, which includes a number of commuter towns, such as Espoo, Vantaa, Kirkkonummi and Sipoo.
