Swedish people (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 Swedes in
mainland Finland - speaking Swedish dialect commonly referred as
Finland Swedish (östsvenska mål) and the almost exclusively Swedish population of the
Åland Islands speaking in a manner closer to the adjacent dialects in Sweden than to adjacent dialects of Finland Swedish. 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 had also included Finland, Northern Estonia, a small section of Northern Germany and Poland, as well as some areas of Norway and Denmark (see History of Sweden). Since there was no separate Finnish nationality at those times, 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 some 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 and
Daner), since the latter term does not include the
Geats and the
Gotlanders and whose descendants became a part of the 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 and ). Another detailed nuclear genetic study has also implied that Swedes may have a recent common origin with Finns.
English texts
In English texts, the concept of
ethnic Swedes may or may not be used for the following:
- People of Swedish heritage in Sweden or elsewhere, typically immigrants to the Americas (usually called 'Swedish Americans' sv svenskamerikaner)
- Swedish speakers outside Sweden
Ethnic Swedes and Swedish speakers outside of Sweden
In Finland
The Swedes or
Finland-Swedes form an ethnic
minority group in Finland of about 265,000, comprising 5.10% of the population of mainland Finland, or 5.50 %
if the 26,000 inhabitants of Åland are included (there are also about 60,000 Swedish-speaking Finns currently resident in Sweden). 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
New Russia (today
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 be considered ethnic Swedes. 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
Varangians, Vikings mostly from Sweden, were instrumental in the formation of the first
Russian state. Swedish soldiers taken prisoner during the
Great Northern War were sent in considerable numbers to
Siberia. They numbered perhaps 25 % of the population of
Tobolsk, the capital of Siberia, and some settled permanently.
There are numerous ethnic Swedes in places like the US and Canada (Swedish Americans, Swedish Canadians), descendants of 19th and 20th century immigrants, including some who still speak Swedish. There are also Swedes located in St Petersburg Russia.
See also
References
External links
