Turku Residents’ Barometer

The survey provides us with up-to-date information on how Turku residents experience everyday life in the city and in their own neighbourhood. The results are used to support the City’s decision-making, service development and neighbourhood planning. 

The first round of the Residents’ Barometer was carried out in spring 2026. Going forward, data for the barometer will be collected twice a year. The regular Resident Barometer is part of the implementation of the City Strategy and the monitoring of its objectives.

The survey is completed by a sample of approximately 1,500 Turku residents aged 18 and over, with the sample designed to reflect Turku’s demographic structure as accurately as possible. As nearly one-fifth of Turku’s population speaks a language other than Finnish or Swedish as their mother tongue, the survey can be completed in these languages as well as in the seven most common foreign languages. 

Most of the questions in the Residents’ Barometer remain the same across different rounds, but there may also be individual questions that change depending on current topics.

• 78 per cent consider their quality of life to be good.
• 73 per cent feel very or extremely safe in their daily lives.
• 88 per cent are satisfied with their neighbourhood. The highest levels of satisfaction were found in the Martti-Korppolaismäki and Uittamo postcode areas, as well as in Hirvensalo and Kakskerta. Satisfaction was lowest in the Varissuo and Runosmäki-Kärsämäki areas. 
• The biggest concerns for Turku residents are crime and drugs, as well as vandalism and untidiness. 18 per cent are concerned about general safety in Turku and 11 per cent about safety in their own neighbourhood.
• 22 per cent have to cut back on their spending at least from time to time.
• 15 per cent of respondents felt they could influence decision-making in the City of Turku, whilst 60 per cent did not believe they had any influence. 
• 20 per cent had planned to move to another area within Turku and 23 per cent had planned to move away from Turku. The most common planned destination for those moving away was the rest of Southwest Finland.
• 42 per cent of respondents recommended Turku as a place to live (giving it a rating of 9 or 10 on a scale of 0–10), and 51 per cent recommended their own neighbourhood.