Editing Karelian question (section)

=== Population ===
[[Image:Sortavalan maaseutua.jpg|thumb|Countryside houses. A picture from [[Sortavala]].]]
The area of Karelia ceded to Russia is inhabited mostly by people who moved there from [[Ukraine]], [[Belarus]] and Russia, and their descendants. The fate of these people is a major issue in discussions of the return of Karelia to Finland. According to a poll by Finnish newspaper ''Helsingin Sanomat'', 14% of people opposing return said their biggest concern was the tensions that could be caused by a larger Russian-speaking minority in Finland. As of 2004, there were about 370,000 Russians living in the region.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.perepis2002.ru/ct/html/TOM_01_04_2.htm |title=2004 Russian Census |access-date=2006-05-25 |archive-date=2004-08-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040813144950/http://www.perepis2002.ru/ct/html/TOM_01_04_2.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

If the inhabitants were allowed to stay in their homes, Finland would receive a few hundred thousand new Russian-speaking people with no experience of living in Finnish society. If services for them in their own language were to be provided, Finland would need many more officials capable of speaking Russian. In ProKarelia's vision, nearly half of the Russian population in Karelia would be estimated to choose to move to Russia,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://prokarelia.net/en/?x=artikkeli&article_id=1131&author=10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071024012814/http://www.prokarelia.net/en/?x=artikkeli&article_id=1131&author=10 |archive-date=2007-10-24 |title=ProKarelia}}</ref> and even more would leave if Finland paid their expenses for doing so.<ref name="reform"/> However, most of the Russian-speaking population of Karelia were born there and have spent all their life in the region.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}