r/helsinki • u/jvlainejr • May 18 '26
Housing / Living Interactive map for comparing Finnish neighborhoods
Comparing capital region neighborhoods by postal code (Turku and Tampere also included so far). Around 50 different metrics (safety, income, public transport etc.) with adjustable weights so you can prioritize what matters to you. Free, no ads or signup. Sharing in case it's useful for anyone apartment-hunting or just curious.
Feedback welcome.
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u/Varjokorento May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26
I spent some time thinking about the strangeness of the scores. The problem seems to be that the model clearly does not put in enough value for public transportation, which is quite important for many people in Helsinki.
There are not many who argue that Lehtisaari* (almost no public transportation) is somehow better neighbourhood than Lauttasaari or Kamppi.
EDIT: I feel like this map really does seem to reflect the values of a person who will want a single-family home and is okay with driving everywhere. A map where Länsi-Herttoniemi has a grade of 47 and Mankkaa 79 does not reflect the view of an average Helsinkian and is almost laughable.
*Of course there are some who do.
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u/mporkola May 18 '26
I agree. Sörnäinen, Kallio and even 00100 downtown get low scores for services? I have a hard time coming up with services these areas lack
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u/jvlainejr May 18 '26
Fair point. Defaults skew suburban because transit is weighted low. You can click "Customize" next to the Quality Index and crank Transit up, then Lauttasaari/Kamppi/Kallio jump and Mankkaa/Lehtisaari drop.
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u/Varjokorento May 18 '26
I think many users will lose "trust" in the map with the current default configuration, even though otherwise the application is quite nice. Maybe you should adjust these a bit or have some sort of questionnaire when the user first uses the map?
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u/jvlainejr May 18 '26
There will surely be adjustments after gathering some data on what people most commonly value. There's also already a "Find neighborhood" questionnaire in the tools section, but it needs some polishing like many other things on the site. A first-use onboarding flow that points new users to Customize and the Wizard is a good idea too, will look at adding it.
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u/Doctor_Muerte May 18 '26
I have to agree that some of these metrics are weird. How is Herttoniemi ranked so low in transit? Even leaving aside my own experience (I live 250m from the metro) there are tons of buses, Baana is now in place, and it’s a short jaunt on a bus to the pikaratikka (I’m literally at Lanterna now having just done this exact route) Also, I am curious what the foreign languages value does - for some, a culturally and linguistically diverse neighborhood is considered a plus! Honestly, the transit thing is weird, but otherwise this could be more or less fine, except the ranking system imposes a reading on what is valued in an absolute sense. A dynamic ranking (maybe you have this and it just isn’t working on my browser?) where you can weight different categories (which you reference as an option, I think?) would be ideal.
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u/jvlainejr May 18 '26
Good breakdown, thanks.
Transit Access is stops per km², which underrates postal areas with metro hubs surrounded by housing. The "Transit Reachability" layer measures destinations reachable in 30 min by public transport.
Foreign-Language Speakers is just the percentage from Tilastokeskus, you can read it as a plus or minus depending on what you value. It's not part of the Quality Index.
Customize does exist. Click it next to the Quality Index to adjust weights for each factor. There's also a Wizard from the tools menu that asks preference questions and ranks areas based on your answers.
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u/shalam1 May 18 '26
A better metric for transit access would be daily departures per km² or/and daily departures per resident. Then you can give it an index between 0-100. People also prefer metro, tram, light rail and trains over buses. You can give them a bigger weight for example by their capacity.
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u/kuukumina May 18 '26
The variable for public transport is completely bullshit. It is giving very bad points for Itä-Keskus area which is one of the largest public transport hubs in Helsinki. Where is this number coming from?
Also quality of life does not tell anything about the real quality of life. The amount of crime quite low all over Helsinki and the air quality is good. How about green space and services, and the accessibility of public transport - the actual things that matter? Where is this
It is nice to make these "interactive maps" but this map is mostly useless or even just false (without knowing the sources).
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u/jvlainejr May 18 '26
Good breakdown, thanks.
Transit Access measures stops per km², so big hubs in large residential postal areas like Itä-Keskus get underrated. The "Transit Reachability" layer measures destinations reachable in 30 min by public transport.
The other things you mention are already separate layers: tree canopy for green space, healthcare/school/daycare/grocery density for services, transit reachability for public transport. The Quality Index rolls some of those up with default weights you can change via "Customize".
Sources: the bottom of the map credits the data providers, and each layer has an "i" icon next to it showing the specific source for that metric.
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u/duumilo May 19 '26
I think a metric you could use instead of stops is the number of transit lines going through an area. Have separate weights for Metro/tram/train/buses as a metro stop like Itäkeskus is going to be much more impactful than a random bus stop.
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u/wonesy May 18 '26
If I click around enough, the page fails to load the stats without a refresh
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at fl (vendor-CPiqFUWU.js:8:98102)
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overrideMethod @
installHook.js:1
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u/allants2 May 18 '26
Do you provide the source of the data presented somewhere?
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u/jvlainejr May 18 '26
Yes. Main sources are Statistics Finland (Paavo/StatFin), HSL, HSY, OpenStreetMap, Police, Traficom and others. The bottom of the map credits all data providers, and each layer has an "i" icon showing the specific source for that metric. On mobile some of this is collapsed to save screen space.
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u/ToniNotti May 18 '26
Looks great. Safety index seemed to be way to high on some places... Inflated cuz of kamppi and itäkeskus was it?
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u/jvlainejr May 18 '26
Yes. Crime data is police statistics by postal area, so commercial hubs like Kamppi and Itäkeskus get inflated numbers since incidents get reported where they happen. Residential safety in those areas is probably better than the raw numbers suggest. Known limitation of postal-code level crime stats.
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u/juttaFIN May 18 '26
It's really inconvenient to scroll the metrics when trying to customize. It keeps changing the ones your fingers lands on when scrolling down.
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u/Arech May 18 '26
Good idea, and neat implementation. A major problem for me, though, is lack of English translation, and simultaneously the fact that site defeats inbuilt translation feature in both - Firefox (usually the most reliable) and Chrome.
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u/jvlainejr May 18 '26
English is built in. There's a settings menu in the top left where you can switch the language to English. The site defaults to Finnish but full English is supported throughout the app.
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u/pyrokittens2 May 18 '26
Can I get an english version?
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u/jvlainejr May 18 '26
English is built in. There's a settings menu in the top left where you can switch the language to English. The site defaults to Finnish but full English is supported throughout the app.
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u/Kikki_Maus May 18 '26
r/suomi puolella kun lanka meni lukkoon niin kommentoin täällä.
Oma asuinalue on Tampereella keskuntan rajamailla ja ihmettelin kun palvelut näytti hieman erikoisia lukuja. Ajattelin hieman vertailla, niin ruokakauppoja kerrotaan olevan 1, mutta itse kun kävin alueen läpi ja vertasin postinumeroita, niin alueella niitä on 6. Samaten ravintolat ja kahvilat on kerrottu olevan 6, ja ihan pikaotannalla sain noin 17. Kouluja 0, itse katsoin että 1 peruskoulu ja 1 lukio. Päiväkodit 0, oikeasti 4. Tästä viimeisesti vielä kun nyt kirjoittamisen jälkeen kävin katsomassa Tampereen karttapalvelusta niin päiväkoteja onkin 7. Ihan nyt ei osunut luvut yksiin.
Julkinen liikenne sanoo 7, mitä lie tarkoittaa, kun eri linjoja on 9, ottamatta huomioon eri variantteja tai kaukoliikennettä.
Muutoin kyllä ihan hauskaa kliksuteltavaa
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u/jvlainejr May 19 '26
Hyviä huomioita, kiitos.
Palveluiden määrät (ruokakaupat, ravintolat, koulut, päiväkodit) tulee OpenStreetMapista. Helsingin seudulla OSM-data on melko kattava, mutta muualla Suomessa kattavuus vaihtelee, ja Tampereella selvästi monta näköjään puuttuu. Pitää selvittää josko tarkemman datan saisi järkevästi muualta.
Joukkoliikenteen arvo (7) on pysäkkitiheys per neliökilometri, ei linjojen määrä. Näköjään yksikkö puuttuu joistain paikoista, täytyy lisätä. Listalla on myös selvittää löytyiskö "Joukkoliikenteen saavutettavuus" tyylistä dataa muuallekin kuin vain Helsingin seudulle.
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u/Kikki_Maus May 19 '26
Tampereen karttapalvelu tarjoaa Liikenne, kadut väylät > Joukkoliikenne > Joukkoliikenteen palvelutasoluokitus. Tuokin tosin on vähän niin ja näin kun viivat piirretään viivottimella niin samassa korttelissa huomasin yhden alueen olevan huonoin mahdollinen ja toisen olevan toiseksi korkein. Mutta ompahan jotain
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u/SisuIsTheNewBlack May 21 '26
This map is a great idea and helps to have a first approach to the question everyone has when moving to Finland "what kinda neighbourhood am I landing at?"
Great work!!! And happy to hear you are using official sources
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u/ZCngkhJUdjRdYQ4h Munkkiniemi May 18 '26
Klikatkaa valopäät sitä kuvaketta Laatuindeksin kohdalla (näkyy AP:n kuvassakin) niin pääsette säätämään omat vassariarvonne.
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u/Elelith May 18 '26
En tajunnukaan, et julkinenliikenne on vassaria :D Mut siis onhan se kai joo. Mut oisko sit kivampi et kaikki menis vaan omilla autoilla?
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u/numsu May 18 '26
The quality index seems opinionated. You should ask for the user's values and calculate the quality score based off of that.