Swedes

This article is about the Swedes as an ethnic group. For information on the population of Sweden, see Demographics of Sweden.

Swedes
(Svenskar)

Gustav Vasa • Carl Linnaeus • J. J. Berzelius • Alfred Nobel Selma Lagerlöf • Ann-Margret • Björn Ulvaeus • Markus Näslund
Regions with significant populations
Sweden:      8,000,000 (est.) Other significant population centers:
United States	4,500,000
Canada	500,000
Finland	9,000 (Swedish citizens) 290,000 (Finland Swedes or Swedish-speaking Finns)
Brazil	250,000
Argentina	175,000
Australia	100,000
United Kingdom	Est 100,000
Norway	100,000
Germany	50,000
Spain	50,000 (2006)
Estonia	50,000 (2006)
Other regions	400,000
Languages
Swedish Related languages include Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Faroese, and to a lesser extent, all Germanic languages
Religion
Historically Norse paganism, Christianity (Mainly Lutheranism) and more recently Secularism. Also see Religion in Sweden.
Related ethnic groups
Danes, Norwegians, Germans, Icelanders, Faroese, Finns and to a lesser extent, all Germanic ethnic groups

Swedish people or Swedes (Swedish: svenskar) are a Nordic ethnic group indigenous to Sweden defined by a common Swedish culture, speaking the Swedish language and/or being of Swedish descent.

Geography

The largest area inhabited by Swedes, as well as the earliest known original area inhabited by their linguistic ancestors, is in the country of Sweden, situated on the eastern side of the Scandinavian Peninsula and the islands adjacent to it, situated west of the Baltic Sea in northern Europe. The Swedish-speaking people living in near-coastal areas on the north-eastern and eastern side of the Baltic Sea also have a long history of continuous settlement, which in some of these areas possibly started about a millennium ago. These people include the Swedish-speaking Finns - who consist of the Swedish-speaking minority in mainland Finland speaking Finland Swedish and the almost exclusively Swedish-speaking population of the Åland Islands speaking in a manner closer to the adjacent dialects in Sweden than to adjacent dialects of Finland Swedish - and the small Swedish-speaking minority in Estonia. Smaller groups of historical descendants of 18th-20th century Swedish emigrants who still retain varying aspects of Swedish identity to this day can be found in the Americas (especially Minnesota and Wisconsin, see Swedish-Americans) and in Ukraine.

Before 1809, the kingdom of Sweden also included Finland, and there was no separate Finnish nationality. Therefore, it is not unusual that sources predating 1809 refer both to Swedes and Finns as "Swedes". This is particularly the case with New Sweden, where many of the "Swedish" settlers were actually of Finnish origin.

Origin

The ancient Germanic tribe of the Suiones, sometimes called Svear in academic works, were at the roots of Swedish statehood and contemporary with the Geats and the Daner in Scandinavia. Notably, in modern Scandinavian languages, with the exception of Icelandic, there is a distinction between svenskar and svear (as between danskar (Danes) and Daner), since the latter term does not include the Geats and the Gotlanders and other populations whose descendants acquired a Swedish ethnicity.

According to recent genetic analysis, both mtDNA and Y chromosome polymorphisms showed a noticeable genetic affinity between Swedes and central Europeans, especially Germans (conclusions also valid for Norwegians). For the global genetic make-up of the Swedish people and other peoples (see also [3] and [4]). Another detailed nuclear genetic study has also implied that Swedes may have a recent common origin with Finns. [5]

English texts

In English texts, the concept of ethnic Swedes may or may not be used for the following:

• People of Swedish heritage, typically immigrants to the Americas (usually called 'Swedish Americans' sv svenskättlingar)
• Swedish speakers outside Sweden

Swedish speakers outside Sweden

Swedish speakers outside Sweden are minorities outside of Sweden with Swedish as their mother tongue who, however, might not always describe themselves as 'ethnically Swedish'.

in Finland

The Swedish-speaking Finns or Finland-Swedes form a minority group in Finland of about 265,000, comprising 5.10% of the population of mainland Finland, or 5.50 %[6] if the 26,000 inhabitants of Åland are included (there are also about 60,000 Swedish-speaking Finns currently resident in Sweden). Their inclusion in either Finns or Swedes is controversial. There are also 9,000 Swedish citizens living in Finland.

in Estonia and Ukraine

The presence of Swedish speaking permanent residents in what is now Estonia (Estonia-Swedes) was first documented in the 14th century, and possibly dates back to the Viking Age. There were an estimated 12,000 Swedes resident in Estonia in 1563 . Estonia was under Swedish rule 1558–1710, after which the territory was ceded to Russia in the 1721 Treaty of Nystad. In 1781, 1,300 Estonia-Swedes of the island of Hiiumaa (Dagö) were forced to move to Ukraine by Catherine II of Russia, where they formed Gammalsvenskby (Old Swedish Village). According to the 1934 census there were 7,641 Estonia-Swedes (Swedish speaking, 0.7% of the population in Estonia), making Swedes the third largest national minority in Estonia, after Russians and Germans. During World War II almost the entire community of Estonia-Swedes fled to Sweden. Today there are, at most, a few hundred Estonia-Swedes living in Estonia and a few hundred in Ukraine, with the estimates varying widely depending on who identifies, or can be identified, as a Swede. Many of them are living in northwestern mainland Estonia and on adjacent islands and on the island of Ruhnu (Runö) in the Gulf of Riga.

The majority of the 'Estonia-Swedes' who reside in Estonia and most 'Ukraine-Swedes' do not speak Swedish any more, but may yet be considered ethnic Swedes (cf ethnic German). In a nationalist context, the ethnic Swedes living outside Sweden are sometimes called 'East-Swedes' (in Swedish: östsvenskar), to distinguish them from the ethnic Swedes living in Sweden proper, called rikssvenskar or västsvenskar ('Western-Swedes'), reflecting irredentist sentiments.

Other

The descendants of Swedes who immigrated to places like the US and Canada (Swedish Americans), some of whom still speak Swedish.

There are also Swedes located in St Petersburg Russia.

See also

• Culture of Sweden
• List of Swedes
• Finland Swedes
• Swedish Canadian
• Swedish American
• British Swedish
• List of ethnic groups

External links

• A Typical Swede (humorous article, with some gross stereotypes and inaccuracies, but also some truths)
• The Global Etiquette Guide: Sweden
• VisitSweden - Sweden's official website for tourism and travel information Template:En icon