finlandssvenska

Finlandssvenska refers to the Swedish-speaking population of Finland and to the Swedish language as used by this community. It denotes both the linguistic variety spoken by Swedish-speaking Finns and the cultural-linguistic group that lives across Finland. Finlandssvenska is mutually intelligible with standard Swedish but includes regional dialects and influences from Finnish.

Most Swedish-speaking Finns live along Finland’s coast and in the Archipelago Sea, with large numbers in Ostrobothnia and the Helsinki metropolitan area, and a Swedish-speaking majority in the Åland Islands. The Swedish-speaking population makes up about 5 percent of Finland’s total population, totaling roughly 290,000 people, many of whom are bilingual in Swedish and Finnish.

Swedish is one of Finland’s official languages, alongside Finnish. Swedish-language services are available in government, education, media, and public life across the country. The autonomous Åland Islands are unilingually Swedish and operate within Finland with Swedish as the sole official language. Finland’s language rights framework includes protection for Swedish as a national minority language and alignment with the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

Culture, media, and education are organized in Swedish as well as in Finnish. Swedish-language newspapers such as Hufvudstadsbladet and regional outlets, Swedish-language programming by YLE, and Swedish-language higher education institutions like Åbo Akademi University sustain a distinct Finns Swedish-speaking culture. Many towns maintain Swedish-language schools and cultural associations alongside Finnish-language institutions.

Linguistically, Finlandssvenska comprises several regional varieties, including Ålandic, Ostrobothnian, and Turku Swedish, with Finnish loanwords and distinctive pronunciation. The community has a long history dating back to medieval times, shaped by Finland’s transition from Swedish rule to its current status within the Finnish state.