Turku 1000
Stop 41 of 50
1950s

Baby boom and new suburbs

After the war came babies, people from the countryside and blocks of flats. Between 1940 and 1972 Turku grew from 65,000 to 160,000 people, and the city reached out from the archipelago to the forests of Paattinen.

Mid-century · Republic
The big story

Baby boom and new suburbs

When the war ended, Finland had more babies than ever before or since. At the same time people left the countryside for the towns. Turku needed schools, homes and space, and it got them by building new suburbs and by swallowing its neighbours.

The baby boom

  • The big age groups. In Finland the children born in 1945–1949 are called the big age groups (suuret ikäluokat). About 520,000 children were born in those five years Well documented.
  • Record year 1947. In 1947 alone 108,000 babies were born. In 2015 the number was only 55,472, a record low at the time Well documented.
  • Why then? Men came home from the front, and many couples had waited through the war years to marry and start a family Likely.
  • Crowded schools. In the 1950s the baby boomers filled the schools, and many towns had to build new ones quickly Likely.

From the countryside to the city

  • Three reasons to grow. After the Second World War Turku grew strongly through the baby boom, people moving in from the countryside, and immigration. The 1960s and 1970s were the decades of fastest growth Well documented.
  • Karelia. More than 400,000 people from the parts of Karelia lost to the Soviet Union had to be resettled across Finland after the war Likely.
  • More than double. Turku had 65,475 inhabitants in 1940 and 160,067 in 1972 Well documented.

A bigger city

  • Joining the neighbours. Much of Turku’s growth came from annexations. Part of Kaarina was joined in 1939 and part of Maaria in 1944 Well documented.
  • North and south. The rest of Maaria followed in 1967, the archipelago municipality of Kakskerta in 1968 and Paattinen in 1973 Well documented.
  • West. Parts of Raisio, including Pansio, Perno and Artukainen, also became part of Turku. We have not found when Well documented.

Suburbs

  • Out with the old. Many old wooden houses in the centre were demolished in the 1950s and 1960s, while the demand for flats kept growing (stop 43) Well documented.
  • Blocks in the forest. New homes were built as suburbs (lähiöt). The city’s own plan lists 24 of them: areas dominated by blocks of flats, planned to be big enough to have their own shops and services Well documented.
  • Some names. Halinen, Härkämäki, Kohmo, Lauste, Pansio-Perno, Runosmäki, Uittamo and Varissuo are among them Well documented.
  • The giants. Varissuo and Runosmäki grew in the busy decades of the 1960s and 1970s. Today they are the most populous districts in Turku Well documented.
  • Modern comfort. For many families a new flat meant running hot water, central heating and their own bathroom for the first time Likely.
How do we know?

Statistics Finland has counted every birth, so the baby boom numbers are solid, but they are for the whole of Finland. For Turku we found the population in 1940 and 1972 and the years of the annexations. We did not find the population for 1950, 1960 or 1970, how many babies were born in Turku, or exactly when each suburb was built.

SeaTurkuKaarina (part)Maaria (part)rest of MaariaKakskertaPaattinenRaisio (parts)year not foundN
How Turku grew: step through the annexations from 1939 to 1973, then compare the baby boom with today.A schematic map: directions are roughly right, but the shapes and sizes are invented.
Why it matters

Many of your grandparents were born in the baby boom years, and many Turku families still live in the suburbs built for them. The growth of these decades drew the city map you know today, which is why Turku reaches from the islands of Kakskerta to the fields of Paattinen.

On the lighter side

Rock’n’roll reaches Turku

In the middle of the 1950s a new sound came from America. Adults worried, and young people wanted to dance. Rock reached Turku the same way it reached the rest of Finland: on records, on the radio and on the cinema screen.

A strange new sound

  • Not quite rock. Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock” was recorded three times in Finnish in winter 1955 and spring 1956. All three were played like ordinary dance-band numbers. One of the singers said later: “We didn’t know what rock and roll was” Well documented.
  • The film. The film Rock Around the Clock had its Finnish premiere at the Edison cinema in Helsinki on 28 September 1956. It was the first big rock event in Finland. Abroad the film had caused riots, and the police were ready, but no “dance fever” broke out Well documented.
  • Worried adults. Yle’s radio programme for young people looked at the craze and called the music worthless, even harmful to mental health Well documented.

Finnish rock is born

  • Hawaiian rock. At the end of 1956 Onni Gideon recorded the instrumental “Hawaiian rock”, the first Finnish record that sounded like rock and roll. He had heard the style on German radio Well documented.
  • Finland’s Elvis. On 19 March 1957 young amateurs competed at the Workers’ Hall in Helsinki for the title of “Finland’s Elvis”. Women took part too, and the winner was Lars “Heruli” Herrmann Well documented.
  • Pop stars. Lasse Liemola started recording in 1957 and became Finland’s first youth singer and pop star. In autumn 1959 Kaj “Rock-Jerry” Järnström, aged 16, won a rock championship on television Well documented.
  • Young writers. “Mä tahdon rokata” by Jorma Kalenius and the Rock Devils was the first Finnish rock song not written by an older dance musician Well documented.
  • Rock as a joke. Finnish films often used rock for comedy, for example Vääpelin kauhu (1957) and Iskelmäketju (1959) Well documented.

And Turku?

  • What we did not find. We searched for the first rock concert, the first rock records and the dance halls of Turku in the 1950s, but found nothing reliable Well documented.
  • Same records, same films. Records, radio and films reached young people in Turku as they did everywhere else in Finland Likely.
  • Turku’s turn. Turku’s own big rock moment came a little later. In 1970 the Ruisrock festival was born on the island of Ruissalo (stop 43) Well documented.

Pick a record

Pick a record to follow rock’n’roll into Finland, from 1955 to 1961.Events from the whole of Finland, mostly Helsinki. We found no dated rock events in Turku from these years.
How do we know?

Yle kept radio and television programmes from the time, and its archive has written about the rock years in several articles. Those articles are about Helsinki and the whole of Finland. To find out what happened in Turku, we would need to read the local newspapers, Turun Sanomat and Åbo Underrättelser, from 1956 to 1960.

Why it matters

The rock craze of the 1950s was the first time young people had their own music, clothes and stars, separate from their parents. The festivals, bands and pop stars that came later, Ruisrock among them, all grew from this moment.

Sources and further reading

  1. Turun historia (Finnish Wikipedia) — post-war growth, migration from the countryside and the annexations of 1939–1973 (in Finnish).
  2. Turku — population 1940 and 1972, demolished wooden houses and the largest suburbs.
  3. City of Turku: Turun lähiöt — the city’s list of its 24 suburbs (in Finnish).
  4. Statistics Finland: Mitä kuuluu suurille ikäluokille? (2016) — the baby boom years 1945–1949 and the record year 1947 (in Finnish).
  5. Yle Archives: how rock’n’roll came to Finland, 1955–1961 (in Finnish).
  6. Yle Archives: the Finnish premiere of the film Rock Around the Clock, 1956 (in Finnish).
  7. Yle Archives: the contest for “Finland’s Elvis”, 1957 (in Finnish).

Spotted a mistake? Know more?

This site is open and free. Corrections and additions are welcome — every page lists its sources so you can check them.