Demographics of Sweden

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The Demographics of Sweden is about the demographic features of the population of Sweden, including population growth, population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. In addition to the ethnic Swedish majority, Sweden has historically had smaller minorities of Sami people in the northernmost parts of the country and Finns in the Mälardalen and in the north of Sweden. The demographic profile of Sweden has changed significantly as a result of immigration since World War II.

Demographics of Sweden, Data of FAO, year 2005 ; Number of inhabitants in thousands.
 This article may be confusing or unclear to readers. Please help clarify the article; suggestions may be found on the talk page. (March 2009)

Contents

[edit] Ethnicity

This section requires expansion.

Beside the Swedes, the Sweden-Finns are the largest ethnic minority comprising approximately 50,000 along the Swedish-Finnish border, and 450,000 first and second generation immigrated ethnic Finns. Also in the farthest North a small population of Samis live. About 100,000 Assyrians/Syriacs live in Sweden, including 40,000 in Stockholm County. The first group of Assyrians/Syriacs moved to Sweden from Lebanon in 1967. Many of them live in Södertälje, also known as Mesopotälje (after Mesopotamia).[1][2] There are around 40,000 Roma in Sweden.[3]

[edit] Language

Main articles: Swedish Language and Languages of Sweden

The Swedish language is by far the dominating language in Sweden, and is used by the government administration. The indigenous Finno-Ugric languages were repressed well into the 1960s. Since 1999 Sweden has five officially recognized minority languages: Sami, Meänkieli, Standard-Finnish, Romani chib and Yiddish. The Sami language, spoken by about 7,000 people in Sweden, may be used in government agencies, courts, preschools and nursing homes in the municipalities of Arjeplog, Gällivare, Jokkmokk and Kiruna and its immediate neighbourhood. Similarly, Finnish and Meänkieli can be used in the municipalities of Gällivare, Haparanda, Kiruna, Pajala and Övertorneå and its immediate neighbourhood. Finnish is also official language, along with Swedish, in the city of Eskilstuna[citation needed].

The largest minority languages are those spoken by immigrants, the most popular of which are Turkish, Finnish, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Arabic, Syriac, Persian, Spanish, Kurdish, English and Somali.[4]

[edit] Emigration

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In the 19th century, Sweden's yearly population growth rate peaked at 1.2% (i.e. it doubled in less than 60 years), compared to 1% today (migration excluded). This considerable population growth rate led, before the Industrial Revolution, to a pauperization of the rural population, for each generation inherited smaller and smaller shares. Due to years of crop failure in the 1840s and 1860s, the U.S. Homestead Act of 1862, and to a lesser extent religious persecution, emigration started and grew. Between 1850 and 1930 1,050,000 Swedes emigrated (re-migration excluded), chiefly to Canada, U.S. and to Denmark. If they had not left, Sweden's population would have been about 2,000,000 higher today, given that famine and civil war hadn't been the outcome of their staying. (After 1929 the net-migration has been directed towards Sweden.)

The re-migration of Swedish nationals from the U.S. was culturally more important than the absolute figures reveal. The re-migrants often re-settled in their native parish, where their relative wealth and foreign experience ensured a prestigious position in the community. U.S. views, values and not the least world-view followed the re-migrants, ensuring a popular perception of closeness to U.S., contrary to the situation in for instance neighbouring Denmark or Finland (and contrary to the Swedish elite's closeness to Germany and Europe).

[edit] Immigration

Year Migrant

/1000 of population
1989 1
1990 3
1991 3
1992 3
1993 2
1994 3
1995 2.62
1996 2.27
1997 1.69
1998 1.69
1999 1.68
2000 0.86
2001 0.91
2002 0.95
2003 1.00
2004 1.67
2005 1.67
2006 1.66

As of 2008, 17.9% of the population had foreign origins.[5]

Immigration increased markedly with World War II. Historically, the most numerous of foreign born nationalities are ethnic Germans from Germany and other Scandinavians from Denmark and Norway. In short order, 70,000 war children were evacuated from Finland, of which 15,000 remained in Sweden. Also, many of Denmark's nearly 7,000 Jews who were evacuated to Sweden decided to remain there.

From the late 1940s and until 1973 work-force immigration dominated, peaking in the late 1960s. Finns make up about 5% of the whole population. The occupant population of northern Sweden, the Sami people, (a ethnic group living in 4 countries) is only about 20,000 persons.

The largest immigrant groups in Sweden are Finns, Assyrians/Syriacs, Russians from the former USSR (including Ukrainians and Russian Jews), Turks from Turkey and Cyprus, Greeks from Greece and Cyprus, Albanians from Albania and the Republic of Macedonia, and South Slavic peoples from the former Yugoslavia (namely Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina) representing both work-force immigration and war refugees.

Migration triggered by political crises and economic disparities in the second half of the 20th century include refugee groups of Assyrians/Syriacs from Syria, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq; Persians; Kurds from Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey; Palestinians; Koreans from South Korea and Manchuria, China; Filipinos; Vietnamese; Argentinians; Baluchis from Pakistan; Moroccans; Spaniards; Sicilians from Italy; Hungarians; and Chileans.

Sweden has taken in refugees from various countries fleeing persecution, including people from the former East Germany, Poland, Iran, Myanmar, Vietnam, Nicaragua and Guatemala; and more recently from conflict-zones in the former Yugoslavia, Chechnya, Libya, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Somalia.

In fact, Sweden has a history of providing refuge to asylum seekers. On a smaller scale, it took in political refugees from Hungary and the former Czechoslovakia after their countries were invaded by the Soviet Union in 1956 and 1968 respectively. Some tens of thousands of American draft dodgers from the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970's also found refuge in Sweden.

Today, Sweden has one of the largest exile communities of Assyrians/Syriacs.

A sizable community from the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) arrived during the Second World War.[6]

[edit] Religion

Main article: Religion in Sweden

Although only one fifth of Swedes in one investigation chose to describe themselves as believing in God [7], the majority (78%) of the population belongs to the Church of Sweden, the Lutheran church that separated from the state in 2000. This is because until recently, those who had family members in the church automatically became members at birth.[citation needed] Other Christian denominations in Sweden include Roman Catholic (see Catholic Church of Sweden), Orthodox, Baptist, and other evangelical Christian churches (frikyrkor = "free churches"). Shamanism persisted among the Sami people up until the 18th century, but no longer exists in its traditional form as most Sami today belong to the Lutheran church. There are also a number of Muslims, Buddhists, Bahá'í and Jews in Sweden, mainly from immigration.[citation needed]

[edit] Statistics

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According to Statistiska centralbyrån (Statistics Sweden), Sweden's population reached 9,000,000 on August 12, 2004. See the Swedish population web counter.[dead link]

  • Population: 9,081,100 (July 2006 est.)
  • Population growth rate: 0.72% (As of 2006 est.)
  • Population growth: Averaging 1 person/15 minutes
  • Net migration rate: 0.91 migrant(s)/1,000 population (As of 2001 est.)
  • Total fertility rate: 1.91 children born/woman (2008 est.)
  • Infant mortality rate: 2.8 deaths/1,000 live births (As of 2006 est.)
  • Life expectancy at birth: 79.71 years
    • Male: 77.07 years
    • Female: 82.5 years (As of 2001 est.)

Within Sweden's current borders, the historic population has been estimated to the following values:[8]

At the end of year Population Annual growth
Total Per thousand
1570 900,000 - -
1650 1,225,000 4,063 3.86
1700 1,485,000 5,200 3.86
1720 1,350,000 - 6,750 - 4.75
1755 1,878,000 15,086 9.48
1815 2,465,000 9,783 4.54
1865 4,099,000 32,680 10.22
1900 5,140,000 29,743 6.48

[edit] Births and deaths

Births Deaths Birth rate Death rate
1900 138,139 86,146 27.0 16.8
1905 135,409 82,443 25.7 15.6
1910 135,625 77,212 24.7 14.0
1915 122,997 83,587 21.6 14.7
1920 138,753 78,128 23.6 13.3
1925 106,292 70,918 17.6 11.7
1930 94,220 71,790 15.4 11.7
1935 85,906 72,813 13.8 11.7
1940 95,778 72,748 15.1 11.4
1945 135,373 71,901 20.4 10.8
1950 115,414 70,296 16.5 10.0
1955 107,305 68,634 14.8 9.5
1960 102,219 75,093 13.7 10.0
1965 122,806 78,194 15.9 10.1
1970 110,150 80,026 13.7 9.9
1975 103,632 88,208 12.6 10.8
1980 97,064 91,800 11.7 11.0
1985 98,463 94,032 11.8 11.3
1990 123,938 95,161 14.5 11.1
1995 103,326 96,910 11.7 11.0
2000 90,441 93,285 10.2 10.5
2005 101,346 91,710 11.2 10.2
2006 105,913 91,177 11.7 10.0

Source:[citation needed]

[edit] CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

For the latest statistics, see this country's entry in the CIA World Factbook

[edit] Population

[edit] Age structure

  • 0–14 years: 15.7% (male 733,597; female 692,194)
  • 15–64 years: 65.5% (male 3,003,358; female 2,927,038)
  • 65 years and over: 18.8% (male 753,293; female 650,171) (As of 2009 est.)

[edit] Net migration rate

  • 1.66 migrant(s)/1,000 population (As of 2009 est.)

[edit] Sex ratio

  • at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  • under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  • 15–64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  • 65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
  • total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (As of 2009 est.)

[edit] Infant mortality rate

  • total: 2.75 deaths/1,000 live births

[edit] Life expectancy at birth

  • total population: 80.86 years
  • male: 78.59 years
  • female: 83.26 years (As of 2009 est.)

[edit] Total fertility rate

  • 1.67 children born/woman (As of 2009 est.)

[edit] Religions

  • Lutheran (Church of Sweden) 87%, other 13%

[edit] Literacy

  • definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  • total population: 99% (As of 2003 est.)

[edit] Nationality

  • noun: Swede(s)
  • adjective: Swedish

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Assyrians/Syriacs in Sweden (Swedish)
  2. ^ K. Nordgren, Who Does History Belong To? History as Consciousness, Culture and Action in Multicultural Sweden, Karlstad University, Sweden, 2006. (Swedish)
  3. ^ Romani people in Sweden
  4. ^ http://www.integrationsverket.se/tpl/NewsPage____1038.aspx
  5. ^ Summary of Population Statistics 1960 - 2008 - Statistics Sweden (proportion of foreign background, including foreign-born and Swedish-born with two foreign-born parents)
  6. ^ The Swedish Integration Board (2006). Pocket Facts: Statistics on Integration. Integrationsverket, 2006. ISBN 9189609301. Available online in pdf format. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
  7. ^ Sifo, Din egen livsåskådning
  8. ^ Gustav Sundbärg, Sveriges land och folk (1901), page 90.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Sweden"
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