Hunting 2021

A total of 307,155 hunters paid the annual game management fee in 2021. Around 197,000 of them hunted. The number of hunters decreased in the 2010s, but has remained roughly the same over the last seven years.

• Around 140,000 black grouse, 28,000 capercaillies, 38,000 hazel grouse and 20,000 willow grouse were bagged in 2021. The black grouse harvest increased slightly, while the capercaillie harvest decreased slightly.
• Mallard is by far the most commonly hunted waterfowl in Finland, followed by teal. In 2021, a total of 187,000 mallard and 72,000 teal (including garganey), were bagged.
• The most commonly hunted game was the wood pigeon (257,000 birds). The average wood pigeon bag was 11 birds per successful hunter.
• Fewer small predators were bagged in 2021 than in the previous year. The raccoon dog harvest was around 115,000 animals, and a total of 35,000 mink, 40,000 foxes, 16,000 pine martens and 11,000 badgers were bagged.
• A total of 91,000 mountain hares and 73,000 brown hares were bagged. These volumes remained close to the previous year’s level.
• The moose harvest was 42,484 animals. The white-tailed deer harvest was 74,243 animals.
• There were around 163,000 small-game hunters, including around 70,000 waterfowl hunters and around 103,000 grouse hunters. The total number of moose hunters was around 116,000.
• The game harvest resulted in around 10.5 million kilos of carcass meat, of which more than half was moose meat. The nominal value of the game meat was around EUR 77 million.

• The information concerning species within the scope of a hunting permit and the reporting obligation (including deer, large carnivores, grey seals, otters and European polecats, as well as long-tailed duck, goosander, common eider, wigeon, northern pintail, northern shoveler, tufted duck, greylag goose and bean goose) has been obtained from the Finnish Wildlife Agency and reported at the accuracy of individual animals. (Other species are reported at the accuracy of 100 animals.)
• The statistics were compiled based on a survey submitted to 7,500 hunters. The response rate was 58%. The exceptionally game bag of few hunters cause uncertainty in harvest estimates, especially at regional level. The reliability of the harvest estimates is usually higher for the most commonly hunted species than for less frequently hunted species.

Because the data collection method changed for certain waterfowl in 2020, their bag quantities are not comparable with the estimates presented in the statistics before 2020.