In mid-19th century, before the actual industrialisation, the population of Finland was quite evenly spaces out in the whole country. Before the turn of the 19th and 20th century the cities were small, and the industrialisation starting only in the end of 1800s hastened the growth of larger cities. 

As a joint influence of the active post-war colonisation and other acts of clearing land for farming, the concentration of farming moved to more northern areas. Thus colonisation moved the agriculture to areas which were more difficult cultivate in terms of conditions of nature. With mechanisation of agriculture and forestry the jobs offered by agriculture have decreased. Depopulation has been most strongly felt in the remotest areas of scattered settlement. The settlement of Finland has recently been characterised by the accumulation of population in cities and growth centres.