Asukkaat

Asukkaat is a Finnish noun meaning the residents or inhabitants of a place. The term refers to people who live in a city, town, municipality, region, or country, regardless of their citizenship or legal status. It emphasizes residence rather than nationality and can include long-term residents as well as temporary residents such as students or seasonal workers.

In usage, asukkaat is common in demographic descriptions and statistical reports. The singular form is asukas, and the plural is asukkaat. The partitive plural form is asukkaita, used in phrases like “Kaupungin asukkaita on noin 50 000.” The genitive plural form is asukkaiden, used in expressions such as “Kaupungin asukkaiden määrä.”

Etymology-wise, asukas is derived from the verb asua, meaning to live, and is formed with a noun-forming suffix that yields an agent noun referring to a person who lives in a place. The word is distinct from kansalaiset, which denotes citizens and often connotes legal status or nationality rather than mere residence.

Related terms and concepts include väestö (population) and kaupungin väestö (the city’s population), which can refer to all people living in an area, regardless of citizenship. In sociopolitical contexts, asukkaat may be discussed in relation to urban planning, housing markets, and public services, where the focus is on those who reside in a given area.