Lapin Kansa reports slightly more Finns on the fells this ruska. September is still Lapland’s domestic month, but foreign stays have almost doubled since 2022.
On 24 September 2026 Lapin Kansa reported
that this autumn’s ruska has pulled people north, and that the fells have seen
slightly more Finnish travellers than last year. The share of foreign visitors in autumn,
Statistics Finland counts registered overnight stays in Lapland’s accommodation
establishments every month. In that count, September is when Finns travel and February is
when everyone else does. Last September the region logged 222 729 overnight stays, and
174 468 of them were by people living in Finland. In February 2026 the total was more than
twice as large, 487 405, and the Finnish share fell to fewer than one in five.
September 2026 is not in the statistics yet
Statistics Finland has not yet published September 2026. The newest month is August 2026,
still preliminary: 184 203 overnight stays in Lapland, against 191 936 in August 2025.
Whether this ruska really brought more Finns will show in the September figures.
The September total has barely moved: 231 926 overnight stays in 2022 and 222 729 in 2025.
Inside it, the balance has shifted. Stays by people living in Finland fell from 204 951 to
174 468, about 15 % fewer, while foreign stays rose from 26 975 to 48 261, close to a
doubling in three years. Lapland’s autumn is not growing. It is becoming less domestic.
The peak of the colour shifts from year to year. Foreca’s meteorologist Joanna Rinne
that in an average year the colour peaks in northern Lapland between 10 and 15 September,
and in southern Lapland between 15 and 20 September. Those are averages from past years,
not a forecast for any particular autumn.
Book the week, not the season. The peak moves by days and it moves from
north to south. Mid-September is the average for the north; the week after it is the
September is quieter than winter. Lapland logs fewer than half as many
overnight stays in September as in February, and the September total has not grown in
How ruska actually moves across Lapland, fell top to valley floor, is in our own explainer:
LaplandVibes accommodation hub covers the whole