4.2.3 Finland Population
Description
This article is from the Nordic countries FAQ, by Antti Lahelma and Johan Olofsson, with numerous contributions by others.
4.2.3 Finland Population
Finland is a bilingual country (with a Swedish-speaking minority
living mostly in the coastal areas).
The autonomous island-province of Åland is an exception: the province
is monolingually Swedish-speaking.
Åland Islands, with approximately 25,000 inhabitants, is a
demilitarized area with its own flag (a red Nordic cross outlined in
yellow, on blue background) and a separate local legislation. Its
autonomy is based on international treaties.
The Swedish-speaking minority of Finland descends chiefly from the
settlers that arrived with the Christian missionaries and crusaders in
the early middle ages. They speak a variety called "finlandssvenska"
that differs slightly from Swedish spoken in Sweden ("rikssvenska"),
most notably for its Finnish intonation and some archaic vocabulary.
Today 5.7 % of Finland's population is registered as Finland-Swedish.
The proportion has been steadily diminishing since the 18th century
when 20% of the population had Swedish as mother tongue.
The Romani, or Gypsies, who arrived to Finland in late 16th century
have long had to experience the prejudices of the majority population,
but in recent years their situation has been improving, and Romani
language is now taught at schools. They number approximately 5.500.
Different from the situation in Scandinavia the Gypsies of Finland
have usually not preserved their own language, but have Finnish as
their mother tongue. On the other hand, they have preserved their
dress customs a lot more.
In Lapland (the northernmost province of Finland), a small Sami (Lapp)
minority still survives. Their number is only around 5,000, with even
fewer reporting Sami as their native language, but nowadays there are
schools for Sami-speakers and the language is considered official in
municipalities with at least 7% of the population speaking Sami. For
more information about the Sami, see section 2.3.
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