Swedish-speaking population of Finland
The Swedish-speaking population of Finland (whose members are called by many names[Note 1]—see below; Swedish: finlandssvenskar; Finnish: suomenruotsalaiset) is a linguistic minority in Finland. They maintain a strong identity and are seen either as a separate cultural or linguistic group[6][Note 2][Note 3][Note 4] or, while not regularly,[11] as a distinct nationality.[Note 5] They speak Finland Swedish, which encompasses both a standard language and distinct dialects that are mutually intelligible with the dialects spoken in Sweden and, to a lesser extent, other Scandinavian languages.
Not to be confused with Sweden Finns, a minority in Sweden.
According to Statistics Finland, Swedish is the mother tongue of about 260,000 people in mainland Finland and of about 26,000 people in Åland, a self-governing archipelago off the west coast of Finland, where Swedish speakers constitute a majority. Swedish-speakers comprise 5.2% of the total Finnish population[13] or about 4.9% without Åland. The proportion has been steadily diminishing since the early 19th century, when Swedish was the mother tongue of approximately 15% of the population and considered a prestige language.
According to a 2007 statistical analysis made by Fjalar Finnäs, the population of the minority group is stable,[14][15] and may even be increasing slightly in total numbers since more parents from bilingual families tend to register their children as Swedish speakers.[16] It is estimated that 70% of bilingual families—that is, ones with one parent Finnish-speaking and the other Swedish-speaking—register their children as Swedish-speaking.[17]
Terminology[edit]
The Swedish term finlandssvensk (literally 'Finland's-Swede'), which is used by the group itself, does not have an established English translation. The Society of Swedish Authors in Finland and the main political institutions for the Swedish-speaking minority, such as the Swedish People's Party and Swedish Assembly of Finland, use the expression Swedish-speaking population of Finland, but Swedish-speaking NGOs often use the term Finland-Swedes.[18]
The Research Institute for the Languages of Finland proposes Swedish-speaking Finns, Swedish Finns, or Finland-Swedes, the first of which is the sole form used on the institute's website. Some debators insist for the use of the more traditional English-language form, Finland-Swedes, as they view the labelling of them as Swedish-speaking Finns as a way of depriving them their ethnic affiliation, reducing it to merely a matter of language and de-emphasising the "Swedish part" of Finland-Swedish identity, i.e. their relations to Sweden.[Note 6][Note 7]
Among Finnish Americans the term Swede-Finn became dominant before the independence of Finland in 1917, and the term has remained common to the present, despite later immigrants tending to use different terms such as Finland-Swede.[21] The expressions Swedish-speaking Finns, Swedes of Finland, Finland Swedes, Finnish Swedes, and Swedish Finns are all used in academic literature.
Genetics[edit]
In a 2008 study a joint analysis was performed for the first time on Swedish and Finnish autosomal genotypes. Swedish-speakers from Ostrobothnia (reference population of the study representing 40% of all Swedish-speakers in Finland) did not differ significantly from the neighbouring, adjacent Finnish-speaking populations but formed a genetic cluster with the Swedes[Note 23] and also the amount of genetic admixture between the groups which have taken place historically. According to a 2008 Y-DNA study, a Swedish-speaking reference group from Larsmo, Ostrobothnia, differed significantly from the Finnish-speaking sub-populations in the country in terms of Y-STR variation. This study however was comparing one small Swedish-speaking municipality of 4652 inhabitants to Finnish-speaking provinces and only tells about the origin of two different Y-DNA haplotypes.[Note 24]
Of the Swedish-speaking population of Finland,