Nordic and Scandinavian Americans
Total population | |
---|---|
11,890,524 3.8% of U.S. population (2012)[1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
![]() | 1,603,124 |
![]() | 1,224,541 |
![]() | 739,043 |
![]() | 728,248 |
![]() | 575,991 |
![]() | 403,888 |
![]() | 355,458 |
![]() | 339,031 |
![]() | 338,161 |
![]() | 333,405 |
Languages | |
Religion | |
61% Protestant; 22% Roman Catholic, 14% other (no religion, Mormonism, etc.)[2] | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Scandinavians, Scandinavian Canadians |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Census_Bureau_2000%2C_Scandinavians_in_the_United_States.png/450px-Census_Bureau_2000%2C_Scandinavians_in_the_United_States.png)
Scandinavian Americans are Americans of Scandinavian (in the broad sense), or part-Scandinavian ancestry, defined in this article to include Danish Americans (estimate: 1,453,897), Faroese Americans (no estimates), Finnish Americans (estimate: 677,272), Greenlandic Americans (estimate: 352), Icelandic Americans (estimate: 51,234), Norwegian Americans (estimate: 4,602,337), Sami Americans (estimate: 30,000), Swedish Americans (estimate: 4,293,208). Also included are persons who reported 'Northern European' ancestry (estimate: 230,027) or 'Scandinavian' ancestry (estimate: 582,549). According to 2010 census data, there are approximately 11,890,524 people of Scandinavian ancestry in the United States.[3]
Background
The broad definition of Scandinavia includes Norway, Sweden, Denmark (without Greenland and the Faroese Islands), the semi-independent Finnish territory of Åland and the Swedish-speaking people of Finland (mostly concentrated in Western Finland). The joint ruling of Denmark and Norway from the mid-14th century until 1814, and then the joint rule of Sweden and Norway until 1905, have contributed towards a coherent culture and language. The Scandinavian languages are all descended from old Norse, and unlike Faroese and Icelandic, which have kept more of the old Norse grammar and spelling, the Scandinavian languages have undergone more or less the same simplifications and are mutually intelligible and readable, although the degree of ease with which people understand each other varies depending on country (and region) of origin.
The term Scandinavia is often misused when the term Nordic is meant. The Nordic countries consists of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Greenland (a semi-independent Danish realm), the Faroese Islands (a semi-independent Danish realm), Åland (a semi-independent Swedish-speaking Finnish realm) and Finland. Sometimes also Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are included, due to the tiny group of Estonian Swedes in the archipelago of Northern Estonia. Unlike the three linguistically Scandinavian countries, the Nordic countries have languages that are only partially mutually intelligible (closest being Icelandic-FaroeIslandish on one hand and Danish-Norwegian-Swedish on the other) so therefore English is often used as a common language when Nordic people communicate. The Nordic countries have a lot of common history, as they have all been invaded/colonized by Scandinavians at one time, but even if there are close historical ties, these countries are also more culturally and genetically diverse than the Scandinavian countries with Greenlanders, Samis and Finns having a unique origin apart from the Germanic-Keltic Norsemen known as Scandinavians.
Populations
Scandinavian Americans by state
State Rank | State | Scandinavian Americans | Percent Scandinavian Americans |
---|---|---|---|
- | ![]() |
11,269,320 | 3.8% |
1 | ![]() |
1,580,776 | 32.1% |
2 | ![]() |
1,510,541 | 3.6% |
3 | ![]() |
739,043 | 12.5% |
4 | ![]() |
728,248 | 13.5% |
5 | ![]() |
575,991 | 4.6% |
6 | ![]() |
403,888 | 4.0% |
7 | ![]() |
359,360 | 1.4% |
8 | ![]() |
355,458 | 2.1% |
9 | ![]() |
339,031 | 9.9% |
10 | ![]() |
338,161 | 11.5% |
11 | ![]() |
333,405 | 14.9% |
12 | ![]() |
291,488 | 5.9% |
13 | ![]() |
281,388 | 4.3% |
14 | ![]() |
254,474 | 1.3% |
15 | ![]() |
231,875 | 36.1% |
16 | ![]() |
182,339 | 2.8% |
17 | ![]() |
177,522 | 9.9% |
18 | ![]() |
172,941 | 21.5% |
19 | ![]() |
169,294 | 1.3% |
20 | ![]() |
164,005 | 1.4% |
21 | ![]() |
136,688 | 14.1% |
22 | ![]() |
136,620 | 8.9% |
23 | ![]() |
135,340 | 2.2% |
24 | ![]() |
130,099 | 1.6% |
25 | ![]() |
124,017 | 4.4% |
26 | ![]() |
119,267 | 1.3% |
27 | ![]() |
118,989 | 1.8% |
28 | ![]() |
110,362 | 1.1% |
29 | ![]() |
102,638 | 3.9% |
30 | ![]() |
100,530 | 2.8% |
31 | ![]() |
97,209 | 1.0% |
32 | ![]() |
79,656 | 1.4% |
33 | ![]() |
75,615 | 1.2% |
34 | ![]() |
62,145 | 1.7% |
35 | ![]() |
61,259 | 8.9% |
36 | ![]() |
51,755 | 9.7% |
37 | ![]() |
47,955 | 3.6% |
38 | ![]() |
44,955 | 3.4% |
39 | ![]() |
43,899 | 0.9% |
40 | ![]() |
43,306 | 0.9% |
41 | ![]() |
41,073 | 2.0% |
42 | ![]() |
38,308 | 1.3% |
43 | ![]() |
34,592 | 0.8% |
44 | ![]() |
30,976 | 2.4% |
45 | ![]() |
29,175 | 0.6% |
46 | ![]() |
26,476 | 2.5% |
47 | ![]() |
19,501 | 0.6% |
48 | ![]() |
18,378 | 2.9% |
49 | ![]() |
14,519 | 0.8% |
50 | ![]() |
11,232 | 1.2% |
- | ![]() |
7,523 | 1.3% |
- | ![]() |
641 | 0.0% |
Scandinavian languages by state
State Rank | State | Total[5] | Percent |
---|---|---|---|
- | ![]() |
200,630 | 0.0% |
1 | ![]() |
32,745 | 0.1% |
2 | ![]() |
17,998 | 0.3% |
3 | ![]() |
14,628 | 0.0% |
4 | ![]() |
13,543 | 0.0% |
5 | ![]() |
12,524 | 0.2% |
6 | ![]() |
8,825 | 0.0% |
7 | ![]() |
7,849 | 0.0% |
8 | ![]() |
7,528 | 0.0% |
9 | ![]() |
6,929 | 0.2% |
10 | ![]() |
6,599 | 0.1% |
11 | ![]() |
5,518 | 0.0% |
12 | ![]() |
4,510 | 0.1% |
13 | ![]() |
3,838 | 0.1% |
14 | ![]() |
3,364 | 0.5% |
15 | ![]() |
2,407 | 0.0% |
See also
References
- ^ "2006-2010 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates -- TOTAL ANCESTRY REPORTED"
- ^ One Nation Under God: Religion in Contemporary American Society, p. 120.
- ^ "2006-2010 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates -- TOTAL ANCESTRY REPORTED"
- ^ "2006-2010 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates -- TOTAL ANCESTRY REPORTED -- by all states"
- ^ U.S Census Bureau
Further reading
- Barton, H. Arnold. "Where Have the Scandinavian-Americanists Been?." Journal of American Ethnic History 15.1 (1995): 46-55. in JSTOR
- Brøndal, Jørn. Ethnic Leadership and Midwestern Politics: Scandinavian Americans and the Progressive Movement in Wisconsin, 1890-1914 (University of Illinois Press, 2004).
- Brøndal, Jørn. "'The Fairest among the So-Called White Races': Portrayals of Scandinavian Americans in the Filiopietistic and Nativist Literature of the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries." Journal of American Ethnic History 33.3 (2014): 5-36. in JSTOR
- Evjen, John O. Scandinavian Immigrants in New York 1630-1674 (Genealogical Pub. Co., Baltimore, 1972)
- Hoobler, Dorothy, and Thomas Hoobler. The Scandinavian American Family Album (Oxford University Press, 1997).
- Lovoll, Odd S. ed., Nordics in America: The Future of Their Past (Northfield, Minn., Norwegian American Historic Association. 1993)
- Norman, Hans, and Harald Runblom. Transatlantic Connections: Nordic Migration to the New World After 1800 (1988).
- Thernstrom, Stephan, ed. Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups (1980) online; scholarly coverage of all groups
- Wisby, Hrolf. "The Scandinavian-American: His Status." The North American Review 183.597 (1906): 213-223. online