Overlapping permanent addresses removed from Finnish and Estonian population registers

The Digital and Population Data Services Agency and Estonia’s Ministry of the Interior have completed their investigation into the addresses of persons who had a permanent address in both the Finnish and Estonian population registers. The work was carried out in the first half of 2026 as part of an automatic exchange of population information between the two countries. An automatic exchange of information ensures that a person can only have a permanent address in one country at a time.

The Digital and Population Data Services Agency and Estonia contacted thousands of people  

During the investigation, Digital and Population Data Services Agency contacted 5,259 people. Of these people, 2,106 responded to the request for information. 1933 of the respondents to the request for information stated that they would keep their permanent address in Finland. 167 chose to keep their address in Estonia. 3,170 people did not respond to the request for information. Their permanent addresses remained in Finland and were removed from the Estonian population register. 

Estonia’s Ministry of the Interior, on the other hand, contacted 8,389 people in Estonia. Of these people, 1,512 stated that they would keep their permanent address in Estonia, while 1,029 chose to keep their permanent address in Finland. 5,983 persons did not respond to the request for information, and, by decision of the Estonian Ministry of the Interior, their permanent addresses remained in Estonia. The permanent addresses of these individuals were removed from the Finnish population information system, and the Estonian addresses were marked as permanent.  

– As a result of the investigation into and correction of overlapping addresses, several thousand people with a primary residence in another country were removed from both the Finnish and Estonian population registers. At the same time, these people were removed from – for example – demographic statistics. This measure significantly improves the quality of population register data. Public authorities in both Finland and Estonia rely on digital population data in their service production, says Timo Salovaara, Deputy Director General of the Digital and Population Services Agency. 

The addresses of those who moved between Finland and Estonia have now been updated 

As a result of the investigation, the addresses of those who moved between Finland and Estonia have now been verified in the population registers of both countries. This improves the reliability of official data and streamlines transactions in both countries. 

Anyone leaving a country must always submit a notification of move 

Despite the automatic exchange of information, any person leaving Finland and moving to another country must always submit a notification of move to the Digital and Population Data Services Agency as well as the country to which they are relocating. When a person moves between Finland and Estonia, the country of arrival will always notify the country of origin about the move. The country of origin will then mark the person as having emigrated, and the person's address and municipality of residence in that country will no longer be valid. 

What is this about?   

Finland and Estonia concluded a treaty on the smoother exchange of information between their population registers in September 2022, and it entered into force on 1 May 2024. In its first phase, which began on 15 April 2025, the data exchange concerned data on deaths. Since early December 2025, migration data have also been transferred automatically between the countries. All earlier cases were also reviewed at the same time. 

In the future, the exchange of population data under the treaty will also be extended to other personal data, such as changes in the name and marital status of Estonian and Finnish citizens and information on the birth of a child.   

Additional information    

Deputy Director General Timo Salovaara, Digital and Population Data Services Agency, [email protected].