T-Media’s research: Kuopio, perceived as safe and comfortable, increased its attractiveness the most – Tampere’s popularity continues

Kuopio, perceived as safe and comfortable, has increased its attractiveness the most among the ten largest cities in Finland. Tampere is still the most attractive city in Finland, while the capital region has a better reputation for its residents.

The annual Reputation & Trust survey, which measures city images, was carried out for the fifth time. In January-February 2025, T-Media surveyed the views of residents of Finland’s ten largest cities on the cities’ attractiveness and the views of potential residents on the cities’ attractiveness.

As in previous years, Tampere was the most attractive city in the survey and managed to raise its reputation from the previous year.

“It is difficult to compete with Tampere, which has invested heavily in development, in terms of vitality and overall performance. However, Kuopio scores better than Tampere in terms of safety and cost of living,” says Andrei Sergejeff, Senior Expert at T-Media.

Safety and comfort influence the choice of where to live – Kuopio is seen as the safest in the survey

A survey carried out by T-Media shows that the choice of where to live is influenced even more by the comfort and especially the safety of the area than by municipal services. The community character of the area also appeared to be a very important factor in the choice.

“Kuopio was the only city where current residents gave excellent ratings for safety and comfort. No other city scored excellent in this important area,” says Sergejeff.

This is how the survey was made

The survey investigated the attractiveness and retaining power of Finland’s ten largest cities in terms of population, both among potential and actual residents. A total of 2 166 respondents participated in the survey of city residents and 2 067 respondents in the survey of potential residents. The target group of the survey was Finns aged 15-65, excluding Aland.

In T-Media’s survey model, a city’s attractiveness score is the average of six different areas: economic vitality, community, environment, location, services and cost structure.