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1. National strategy(ies)

2. Encouraging healthy lifestyles and healthy nutrition for young people

3. Health education and healthy lifestyles education in schools

4. Peer-to-peer education approaches

5. Collaboration and partnerships

6. Raising awareness on healthy lifestyles and on factors affecting the health and well-being of young people

National strategy(ies)

Healthy lifestyles, healthy eating and nutrition

There is no specific national-level strategy focused on establishing a framework for promoting healthy lifestyles, healthy eating, and nutrition among young people. 

According to the Constitution (in Finnish, also available in Swedish), the state is responsible for promoting welfare and health. The wellbeing services counties are responsible for organising these services. Central legislation promoting wellbeing and health includes the Act on Organising Health care and Social Welfare Services (in Finnish, also available in Swedish), the Social Welfare Act (in Finnish, also available in Swedish), and the Health Care Act (in Finnish, also available in Swedish). The Child Welfare Act (in Finnish, also available in Swedish) specifically concerns the rights of children and young people.

The main governmental authority for health and wellbeing (including young people’s health) is the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. The Action Plan for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health 2024–2027: Actions for 2025 (in Finnish) outlines several key objectives. These include providing the therapy guarantee for young people, integrating health check-ups related to conscription call-ups with student health care, preventing youth street and gang violence, reforming the Act on Organising the Investigation of Sexual and Assault Offences against Children (in Finnish, also available in Swedish), and planning and implementing preventive measures to address drug-related deaths among young people.

A key long-term plan is the Government Resolution Promotion of Wellbeing, Health and Safety 2030 (in Finnish, English abstract available), which supports the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Finland. The resolution highlights existing health inequalities based on region, gender, and education level as current issues. It also recognises the rising rates of homelessness among under-25-year-olds and the growing risk of marginalisation among NEET youth, particularly young men who do not attend or complete military service. Youth participation is promoted in the resolution by ensuring that young people feel they have the opportunity to make an impact. 

Sexual health

The most recent guidelines for promoting sexual health are outlined in the Action Plan on Sexual and Reproductive Health 2014–2020 (in Finnish), edited by Reija Klemetti & Eija Raussi-Lehto and published by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. 

The action plan aims to improve the population's sexual and reproductive health and to reduce health and social inequalities. According to the plan, this is achieved by providing more information, enhancing cooperation, and developing services. Priority action areas include sex education, quality care at birth, multiculturalism, and the sexual and reproductive health of men. The action plan aligns with the standards set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

All educational institutions, from early childhood to general upper secondary school and upper secondary vocational education and training, should provide sexual health education and services. If a young person requires further guidance, schools are responsible for directing them to an appropriate follow-up consultation. One of the guidelines in the action plan is that educational campaigns targeting specific population groups should be planned systematically. In addition, whenever possible, cooperation should take place between relevant actors in the field and the target group (e.g., young people).

Fighting risky behaviour

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is responsible for the planning, guidance and legislation related to alcohol, tobacco, nicotine products, and drug policy. The website Prevention of alcohol and drug related harm and addictions provides information about the Substance Use and Addiction Strategy - Joint Guidelines until 2030 (in Finnish, abstract available in English), as well as information on strategy, action plan, and interim review regarding alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and gambling. As mentioned on the webpage, the strategy has its basis in the Act on Organising Substance Abuse Prevention (in Finnish, also available in Swedish).

Encouraging healthy lifestyles and healthy nutrition for young people

During 2025–2027, a top-level programme promoting healthy lifestyles is the Terveydeksi – national health and wellbeing programme Implementation plan (in Finnish, abstract available in English). The plan’s objectives include promoting healthy nutrition and mental wellbeing, preventing substance abuse, as well as addressing bullying and discrimination among children and young people. As such, the health and wellbeing of young people are given particular attention in the plan.

In addition, the current National Youth Work and Youth Policy Programme 2024–2027: Strengthening young people's wellbeing through multidisciplinary measures highlights the importance of student welfare, student health care services and lifestyle guidance (including nutrition, sleep, physical activity, sobriety, cultural wellbeing and mental health) for young people’s health.

Promoting healthy lifestyles in schools

Promoting healthy eating habits is an integral part of the Finnish education system. According to the Basic Education Act (in Finnish, also available in Swedish), pupils attending basic education must be provided with a balanced, appropriately organised, and supervised meal each school day. Local curricula, based on the national core curriculum, typically include a school catering plan as part of student welfare and education. Special diets and allergies are taken into account. In some municipalities, a minimum lunchtime is set to ensure pupils do not have to eat in a rush. In Helsinki and Vantaa, public schools have had a weekly vegetarian day for over ten years, by decree of the board of education. Based on a council initiative made in 2018 (in Finnish), Helsinki committed to halving the consumption of meat and dairy products by 2025. The National Core Curriculum for Basic Education also includes content related to healthy lifestyle habits and nutrition. In grades 7 to 9, health education is a mandatory subject for all students.

A report by Jenni Helenius and Hanne Kivimäki, Daily life of young people – School Health Promotion study 2023 (Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare) revealed that one third of students do not eat school lunch every day (the study covered approximately 20% of vocational upper secondary institutions and 70% of basic education schools). The importance of improving young people’s inclusion in decision-making related to school food policy was highlighted in the government publication Democracy and Human Rights Education in Finland: A review with recommendations 2023 (Gretschel, Rautiainen, Vanhanen-Nuutinen & Tarvainen, 2023). The report is available in Finnish, with an abstract in English.

Nutritional health

The National Nutrition Council (VRN) gives nutritional recommendations at the national level. The latest recommendations were published on 27 November 2024 (VRN 2024), with the title Sustainable Health from Nutrition (Kestävää terveyttä ruoasta, in Finnish). The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has underlined (in Finnish) that the recommendations are based on the 2023 Nordic Nutrition Recommendations. The new recommendations underline ecological sustainability in food production and consumption, and increasing the consumption of vegetables, fruits, berries, and healthy fats. 

In national recommendations, young people are particularly vulnerable to the effects of caffeinated beverages, the negative effects of alcohol consumption, and are considered a risk group for calcium deficiency. In addition, they are recognised as being susceptible to potentially misleading health or nutrition claims (see EU definition) circulating in public discourse. 

The lifestyles and perceived health of young people are monitored through various surveys and studies, such as The Finnish Student Health and Wellbeing Survey (KOTT), Youth Nutrition Study, and the School Health Promotion study. More information on current projects can be found on the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare website’s subsection, Lifestyle and Nutrition.

Sexual health 

The sexual health of young people is promoted by the Family Federation of Finland, which provides a chat service for young people aged 13–19 who wish to discuss subjects such as their sexuality, sexual activity, and wellbeing anonymously. In addition, the organisation provides a Q&A platform where young people can ask questions about puberty, close relationships, and sexual wellbeing, answered by sexual counsellors and therapists. The Family Federation of Finland also offers a curated selection of articles, online lectures, video materials, and podcasts on sex-related topics for young people via its website. Young people also have the opportunity to act as volunteers. One of the main funders of the Family Federation of Finland is the Ministry of Education and Culture.

In addition, the National Institute for Health and Welfare’s (THL) School Health Promotion Study includes questions on sexual health practices, such as condom use and the need for more information on sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, and puberty. In a 2022 article on THL’s website, Sexual harassment and violence threaten the feelings of engagement of young people (in Finnish), researcher Lotta Virrankari states that although young people’s need for information about their sexual health practices has not changed significantly in recent years, experiences of sexual harassment, especially among girls, have increased significantly. Such experiences of sexual harassment and violence are shown to harm young people’s wellbeing. 

Lastly, according to the press release on the Ministry of Justice website, sexualoffenceslaw.fi ‘questions related to sexual harassment, sexual assault, sending of sexual images and sexual offences against children are briefly discussed’. The website was published in connection with the 2023 reform on the legislation on sexual offences in the Criminal Code of Finland.

Substance abuse

A key actor promoting and developing preventive measures for substance abuse is EHYT Finnish Association for Substance Abuse Prevention. The majority of EHYT’s funding comes from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

Health education and healthy lifestyles education in schools

Sports and health education are both mandatory subjects in Finnish educational institutions. As mentioned above, in vocational upper secondary education, these subjects are combined into a single study module that supports the maintenance of students’ working capability. For more information, see Youth Wiki/Finland: 7.3 Sport, youth fitness and physical activity. Topics covered in health education include healthy eating and nutrition, and preventing risky behaviour. 

Sex education is a mandatory part of health education in single-structure basic education, upper secondary education, and vocational upper secondary education. According to the Family Federation of Finland, integrating sex education within health education has been the most effective approach for delivering it in schools. Health education is a standalone academic subject taught in all comprehensive schools, and it must have a dedicated teaching staff. This requirement ensures that teachers voluntarily specialise in the subject, ensuring they are interested and capable of teaching it (UNESCO - Comprehensive Sexuality Education: The Challenges and Opportunities of Scaling-up Sex education, 2014). 

Sex education covers both emotional and biological aspects of sexuality. Its objective is to provide young people with information that supports the development of their sexual identity and helps them view sexuality as a resource for wellbeing. Mandatory themes include relationships, communication, safe sex, the availability of sexual health services, sexuality in media, sexual violence, venereal diseases, and anatomy.

The persistence of heteronormativity in school-based sex education is a current topic of public debate. Discussions have also focused on introducing sexual education at an earlier age in an age-appropriate manner. According to the National Youth Work and Youth Policy Programme 2020–2023 of the Ministry of Education and Culture, ‘equality and sex education must be stepped up, ensuring that all young people recognise their and other people’s right to physical integrity’. However, promoting sexual education is not mentioned in the 2024–2027 National Youth Work and Youth Policy Programme. It is noted in the Programme’s General consultation feedback that ‘[s]everal contributors considered that young people from various minority groups (e.g. sexual and gender minorities, immigrants, young people with disabilities) are not sufficiently taken into account in the programme’. 

Peer-to-peer education approaches

At a general level, peer-to-peer learning is recognised as a way to promote young people’s wellbeing in schools. However, there are no national guidelines specifically supporting peer-to-peer education on health-related matters as such. 

In single-structure basic education, peer-to-peer learning is encouraged through group work and collaboration with peers. According to the national curriculum, one of the aims of health education is to guide pupils in reflecting on individuality, communality and equality from a health perspective, and to strengthen their capacity to make responsible choices. Similarly, in upper secondary education, studies must support communality, participation and wellbeing by strengthening students’ communication and cooperation skills. Teamwork and peer learning are encouraged, offering possibilities to co-create solutions, share knowledge and know-how, and support peer reviewing. In the vocational upper secondary education and training context, the study module ‘Maintaining working capability, sports and health education’ may include activities that promote communality. 

In addition, tutoring plays an important role in both vocational upper secondary education and training as well as upper secondary education. It supports peer-to-peer approaches and participatory activities, while also strengthening communality among students within educational institutions. Thus, tutoring is considered an integral part of educational institutions’ student welfare.

Collaboration and partnerships

The Youth Act (in Finnish, also available in Swedish) requires outreach youth work and education providers to collaborate in certain situations concerning a young person’s health and wellbeing. These situations include: 

• An education provider must deliver information about a school-leaver who has not sought or gained entry to post-compulsory education.
• An education provider must deliver information about a person under 25 years of age who discontinues their studies in vocational or general upper secondary education.
• The Defence Forces and the Non-Military Service Training Centre must deliver information about a person under 25 years of age who has an exemption from military or non-military service owing to non-fitness for service or who discontinues the service.   

In addition, the Student Welfare Act (in Finnish, also available in Swedish), the Basic Education Act (in Finnish, also available in Swedish), and the Governmental Decree on Maternity and child health clinic services, school and student health care, preventive oral health care for children and young contain provisions on collaboration between social and health authorities and education providers.

In the context of educational institutions, the national core curriculum requires education providers to prepare local curricula in cooperation with the local executive social and health authorities. Also, the education provider must determine how home-school cooperation and pupil welfare are organised. 

Additionally, the Centres of Expertise support collaboration within schools and educational institutions. Between 2024–2026, the Centre of Expertise Nuoska is responsible for developing youth work models at schools and educational institutes both regionally and nationwide. Their main tasks are to: 

1. Gather, publish, and disseminate good practices in cooperation with youth and education departments, which aim to make youth work in schools and educational institutions more common.
2. Model and develop forms and aspects of youth work in schools and educational institutions to ensure high-quality and evaluation-based youth work.
3. Strengthen the bilingualism of Centres of Expertise activities by coordinating Swedish-language operations across all six centres. 

Nuoska’s functions are coordinated by the South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences’ Youth Research and Development Centre Juvenia. In the 2025 publication Youth work strengthens in school and education institutions – Join in! (in Finnish) by Essi Helsin, Marja Moisala, Heikki Kantonen and Armi Itätalo, it is emphasised that the work aims to support young people’s wellbeing and inclusion. 

Lastly, the health and social services reform has strengthened cooperation between different authorities. Since January 2023, wellbeing services counties have been responsible for coordinating health care and social welfare services both with each other and with municipal and central government services.

Student support services continue to be organised locally, including in remote areas and small educational institutions.  According to the reform plan (in Finnish), ‘it is the responsibility of the education organiser to provide functional school health care for pupils and students. This requires that the training provider and the welfare area agree on common operating methods. Cooperation between education organisers has been found to be increasing in areas where student support services have been under the responsibility of municipal associations. This has also enabled the joint development of community work in the region.’ For more information, see Youth Wiki/Finland: 7.8 Current debates and reforms. 

Raising awareness on healthy lifestyles and on factors affecting the health and well-being of young people

The Family Federation of Finland, the National Institute for Health and Welfare, and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health’s campaign Kumita! (in Finnish) promotes safe sex practices and provides free condoms to young people. In addition, several non-governmental organisations participate in the campaign Selvin päin kesään (in Finnish), which aims to raise awareness about alcohol use among young people and to encourage young people to party without alcohol.

The Finnish National Agency for Education is part of the Mental Health in Youth Work, a joint project between the National Agencies of Erasmus+ Youth and European Solidarity Corps.

Regarding counselling services, schools are one of the most important places to disseminate information and raise awareness about healthy lifestyles among young people (e.g., health education, physical examinations, school health care). For more information, see Youth Wiki/Finland: 7.3 Sport, youth fitness and physical activity. Secondly, public health care services may offer counselling specifically tailored to the needs of young people. Thirdly, NGOs may also offer health services to young people. However, according to legislation, local authorities are primarily responsible for arranging such services. For more information, see Youth Wiki/Finland: 4.6 Access to Quality Services.

Lastly, since physical activity is closely linked to healthy lifestyles and wellbeing of young people, both On the Move: national strategy for physical activity promoting health and well-being 2020 and Finnish Schools on the Move should be considered not only as youth-targeted information campaigns but also as concrete measures to increase young people’s physical activity. For more information, see Youth Wiki/Finland: 7.3 Sport, youth fitness and physical activity.