Back İsveç finləri Azerbaijani Sverigefinner Danish Schwedenfinnen German Ruotsinsuomalaiset Finnish Švedski Finci Croatian Svédországi finnek Hungarian Finnosvedesi Italian Finstalige Zweden Dutch Fino-Suecos Portuguese Шведские финны Russian

Sweden Finns

Not to be confused with Swedish-speaking population of Finland who comprise a linguistic minority in Finland.

Sweden Finns
ruotsinsuomalaiset
sverigefinnar
Flag of the Sweden Finns
Total population
estimated c. 426,000–712,000
Regions with significant populations
Stockholm46,927[1]
Gothenburg20,372
Eskilstuna12,072
Västerås11,592
Södertälje10,722
Borås9,821
Uppsala8,838
Botkyrka Municipality8,408
Huddinge Municipality7,729
Haninge Municipality7,015
Languages
Finnish (Sweden Finnish) and Swedish
Religion
Lutheranism
Related ethnic groups
Other Finns

Sweden Finns (Finnish: ruotsinsuomalaiset; Swedish: sverigefinnar) are a Finnish-speaking national minority in Sweden.[2]

People with Finnish heritage comprise a relatively large share of the population of Sweden. In addition to a smaller part of Sweden Finns historically residing in Sweden, there were about 426,000 people in Sweden (4.46% of the total population in 2012) who were either born in Finland or had at least one parent who was born in Finland.[3] In 2017 that number was 720,000.[4] Like the Swedish language, the Finnish language has been spoken on both sides of the Gulf of Bothnia since the late Middle Ages. Following military campaigns in Finland by Sweden in the 13th century, Finland gradually came under Swedish rule and Finns in Finland and Sweden became subjugates of Sweden. Already in the 1400s, a sizeable population of Stockholm spoke Finnish, and around 4% in the 1700s.[5] Finland remained a part of Sweden until 1809 when the peace after the Finnish War handed Finland to the Russian Empire, leaving Finnish populations on the Swedish side of the Torne river.

In the 1940s, 70,000 young Finnish children were evacuated from Finland. Most of them came to Sweden during the Winter War and the Continuation War, and around 20% remained after the war. Helped by the Nordic Passport Union, Finnish immigration to Sweden was considerable during the 1950s and 1960s. In 2015, 156 045 people in Sweden (or 1.58% of the Swedish population) were Finnish immigrants.[6] Not all of them, however, were Finnish speakers.

The national minority of Sweden Finns usually does not include immigrated Swedish-speaking Finns, and the national minority of Sweden Finns is protected by Swedish laws that grant specific rights to speakers of the Finnish language. English somewhat lacks the distinction between Finns in Sweden (Swedish: sverigefinländare), which emphases nationality rather than linguistic or ethnic belonging and thereby includes all Finnish heritage regardless of language, and Sweden Finns (Swedish: sverigefinnar) which emphases linguistic and ethnic belonging rather than nationality and usually excludes Swedish-speaking Finns. Such distinctions are, however, blurred by the dynamics of migration, bilingualism, and national identities in the two countries. Speakers of Meänkieli are singled out as a separate linguistic minority by Swedish authorities.[7]

  1. ^ "Ruotsinsuomalaiset". Archived from the original on 19 December 2007.
  2. ^ "Ds 2001:10 Mänskliga rättigheter i Sverige". The Government of Sweden. p. 20. Archived from the original on 19 January 2022. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  3. ^ "Fler med finsk bakgrund i Sverige". Sveriges Radio. Sverige Radio. 22 February 2013. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
  4. ^ Vuonokari, Kaisa; Laitinen, Merja; Karlsson, Veronica (24 February 2017). "Ruotsissa on nyt 719 000 suomalaistaustaista". Archived from the original on 28 May 2023. Retrieved 10 July 2023 – via sverigesradio.se.
  5. ^ "SOU 2005:40 Rätten till mitt språk (del 2)" (in Swedish). SOU 2005:40. pp. 217–218. Archived from the original on 25 January 2022. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  6. ^ "Finland och Irak de två vanligaste födelsälnderna". Statistics Sweden. 2005. Archived from the original on 22 September 2017. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  7. ^ "Nationella minoriteter". The Government of Sweden. 24 September 2014. Archived from the original on 26 February 2017. Retrieved 23 February 2017.

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