Swedes

The Swedes make up the majority of the population of the same country Sweden. Of the 9 million inhabitants, 90.8 % are in Sweden. The Swedes speak Swedish, which belongs to the Germanic languages.

The descendants of the emigrants, especially in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries 1.2 million Sweden today usually no linguistic or cultural attachment to Sweden. The former resident of Estonia Swedish minority (Estonia Sweden) fled to the end of World War II in the majority to Sweden.

History

Around the 6th century AD, several tribes in Scandinavia for the first time joined together into larger tribal units. In Sweden, while the residents of the central and southern part of the country Svear and Gauts played the most important role. The Germanic tribes had a common political and cultural center in Old Uppsala. At a state in the modern sense Sweden was only in the course of Christianity in the 9th to 12th centuries.

A subset of Sweden with a strong own identity (partly they see themselves as a separate people ) are the Skåne at the southern tip of Sweden, in the province of the same name (Swedish: Skåne). They speak Scanian, a dialect stood for a long time with the Danish in mutual influence.

Finland Sweden

In Finland, there is a Swedish-speaking part of the population that Finland Sweden, which accounts for about 5.6 % of the total population. However, the vast majority of Finland Sweden considers itself not to the Swedish people and Swedish cultural belonging. In 2005, the Svenska Finlands Folk Ting prompted, the official representative body of Finland Sweden, an investigation into the identity of Finland Sweden. This gave 82% of respondents claim to be finland swedish means " belonging to an own culture, but also to be fin under all other Finns ". Sweden and Swedish culture felt 59% of respondents as " interesting but far-fetched ", another 9 % as "totally uninteresting ".

Estonia Sweden

No later lived on the Estonian west coast and on the islands of Hiiumaa and Saaremaa Estonian Baltic Sea since the 13th century a Swedish minority, which was relocated mostly to Sweden 1943/44. In a census, just under 300 Sweden in 1989 in Estonia counted. Despite the small number of Swedish heritage in Estonia is maintained since the 1990s, again through museums and bilingual place-name signs.

Ukraine

1781/82 hiked several estonia Swedish families of Dagö from the Ukraine to escape the threat of serfdom in Russia. They founded the city of Gammalsvenskby (German Altschwedendorf ). Following the Russian Revolution, most Swedes from Gammalsvenskby moved to Sweden. Many moved subsequently to Canada, some families returned to Ukraine. Today live 150-200 Swedish descent in Gammalsvenskby.