Statistics Finland (StatFin) MCP

Query Finland's official statistics with your AI agent. Population, economy, labour, housing, prices, and regional data — straight from Statistics Finland's StatFin database, delivered as clean, ready-to-read rows. Ask a question in natural language; the server finds the right table, figures out its structure, and returns the numbers.

Example: "What was Finland's population at the end of 2024 and 2025, by sex?" → the agent searches StatFin, reads the table's structure, and answers with the figures.

This package is a lightweight, open bridge that connects any MCP client (Claude Desktop, etc.) to the hosted, maintained Statistics Finland MCP server on Apify. The bridge holds no data logic — it forwards your requests to the hosted service, which does the hard part (querying StatFin and decoding its json-stat2 cubes) and meters usage to your own Apify account.

Tools

Tool	What it does
search_tables	Find statistical tables by keyword (3,000+ tables).
get_table_metadata	List a table's variables and value codes — how to query it.
get_data	Get clean, labelled data rows (the dimensional cube decoded for you).

Covers the whole StatFin database, plus municipal key figures and postal-code-area (Paavo) data via an optional database parameter. Languages: English, Finnish, Swedish.

Setup

1. Get access + an Apify API token

This bridge calls a hosted, paid Actor on Apify. You need your own Apify account and API token:

1. Open the Actor on the Apify Store: https://apify.com/nectia/statfin-mcp
2. Subscribe / rent the Actor (usage is billed per call — pay only for what you use).
3. Copy your API token from Apify Console → Settings → Integrations → API token.

2. Add it to your MCP client

Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "statfin": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "statfin-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "APIFY_API_TOKEN": "PASTE_YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart your client. That's it — no build step, no other keys.

Why hosted?

Statistics Finland's data is open, but building and maintaining a reliable agent interface is not: table discovery, non-obvious variable codes, and decoding StatFin's json-stat2 dimensional responses into flat rows. The hosted Actor does all of that, stays updated, and you pay only per call — no infrastructure to run.

How it works

Your MCP client  ──stdio──►  statfin-mcp-server (this bridge)  ──HTTPS──►  Hosted Actor on Apify  ──►  StatFin API

The bridge authenticates to the hosted Actor with your APIFY_API_TOKEN and transparently proxies the three tools. Your token stays on your machine; Apify meters the calls to your account.

Data & attribution

Data © Statistics Finland, StatFin database, licensed CC BY 4.0. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Statistics Finland.

License

MIT © Nectia Automation. The bridge code is open source; the hosted Actor is a commercial service.