Swedish emigration to the United States

In 1820, there were in Sweden due to a lower mortality rate and due to the progress of medicine to a strong increase of the population and rural-urban migration, especially from Värmland and Småland.

Between 1848 and 1930, wandered over 1 million Swedes ( about 20 % of the population ) in the United States and settled particularly in the Midwest, where cheap land being acquired (Minnesota, Kansas, Illinois).

The Homestead Act, which entered into force in the United States in 1862, also facilitated the immigration from the Old World. 1908, a report commissioned by the Swedish Parliament was published, called the root causes of emigration (poverty, dissatisfaction ). This led to social reforms in Sweden, so the general male suffrage was introduced about, improves the quality of housing and public education. After the First World War, the Swedish emigration gradually came to a halt.

About 20 % of the exiles returned early 20th century back; many were able to invest considerable sums of money, which they had developed in America.

In the House of Emigrants in Växjö ( Småland) there since 1968, a documentation center. The tourist route Utvandrarnas väg recalls the time of emigration.