
() is the common name for the areas in
Finland
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
where the majority of the
Swedish-speaking population of Finland
The Swedish-speaking population of Finland (whose members are called by many names—see below; ; ) is a linguistic minority in Finland. They maintain a strong identity and are seen either as a separate cultural, ethnic or linguistic group or ...
live. The term can also more broadly refer to Finland's Swedish-speaking society as a whole, rather than a specific geographic region.

There are four traditional areas of (Finnish names are given within brackets):
* Nyland (
Uusimaa
Uusimaa (; , ; both lit. 'new land') is a region of Finland. It borders the regions of Southwest Finland, Tavastia Proper (Kanta-Häme), Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme), and Kymenlaakso. Finland's capital and largest city, Helsinki, alo ...
), that is, the northern coast of the
Gulf of Finland
The Gulf of Finland (; ; ; ) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and Estonia to the south, to Saint Petersburg—the second largest city of Russia—to the east, where the river Neva drains into it. ...
, from
Hangö (Hanko) to Pyttis (
Pyhtää
Pyhtää () is a municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is located in the Kymenlaakso regions of Finland, region, west of the city of Kotka.
Overview
The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is wa ...
), including the capital Helsingfors (
Helsinki
Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...
);
*
Southwest Finland
Southwest Finland (, ; ) is a Regions of Finland, region ('','' ) of Finland. It borders the regions of Satakunta, Pirkanmaa, Tavastia Proper, Tavastia Proper (Kanta-Häme), Uusimaa, and Åland. The regional capital and most populous city is Tu ...
, chiefly the region around Ã…bo (
Turku
Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...
), and especially
Ã…boland
Ã…boland () is a sub-region in the archipelago of the Southwest Finland region in south-western Finland.
Åboland and Turunmaa are also informal names of the region, but in this context Särkisalo () is normally included and in the Finnish nam ...
;
*
Coastal Ostrobothnia
Ostrobothnia (; ) is a regions of Finland, region in Western Finland, western Finland. It borders the regions of Central Ostrobothnia, South Ostrobothnia, and Satakunta. It is one of six regions that together form Ostrobothnia (historical provin ...
;
*
Ã…land
Ã…land ( , ; ) is an Federacy, autonomous and Demilitarized zone, demilitarised region of Finland. Receiving its autonomy by a 1920 decision of the League of Nations, it is the smallest region of Finland by both area () and population (30,54 ...
(Ahvenanmaa);
At one point in the 19th century, around 15% of the inhabitants of the
Grand Duchy of Finland
The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed from 1809 to 1917 as an Autonomous region, autonomous state within the Russian Empire.
Originating in the 16th century as a titular grand duchy held by the Monarc ...
spoke
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
as a mother tongue, with the language enjoying prestige status all over Finland. Following the rise of
Fennomania
The Fennoman movement or Fennomania was a Finnish nationalist movement in the 19th-century Grand Duchy of Finland, built on the work of the ''fennophile'' interests of the 18th and early-19th centuries.
History
After the Crimean War, Fennoman ...
however, there was a nationalistic push for urban Finns to "ditch" Swedish culture, including making a switch for the more "authentic"
Finnish language
Finnish (endonym: or ) is a Finnic languages, Finnic language of the Uralic languages, Uralic language family, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official langu ...
still spoken by the majority of Finland's lower classes. Demographic shifts, particularly 19th and 20th century urbanization, also resulted in some historically Swedish-speaking areas shifting to having a Finnish-speaking majority, as many Finnish speakers from the interior of Finland
moved to historically Swedish-speaking cities. These shifts were accelerated by the
evacuation of Finnish Karelia
As a result of the 1940 Moscow Peace Treaty that concluded the Winter War, Finland ceded a portion of Finnish Karelia along with other territories to the Soviet Union. As a result, about 410,000 people, or 12% of Finland's population, were reloc ...
, which saw the vast majority of Karelia's population (including the city of
Viborg (Viipuri), Finland's largest "monolingual" Finnish city before its annexation into the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
) resettled elsewhere in Finland, many of whom in large, historically Swedish-speaking or multilingual cities such as Ã…bo (Turku) and the Helsingfors (Helsinki).
Nevertheless, many municipalities in historical maintain a policy of
official bilingualism
An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (either their own or that of the ...
, while Ã…land remains monolingually Swedish, as part of a settlement on its
historically disputed status. Swedish also enjoys national language status, and is a mandatory subject to all Finnish schoolchildren, regardless of region or cultural background.
is sometimes jokingly known as (, ),
a term originally coined by
Ian Wachtmeister
Count Ian Melcher Shering Wachtmeister af Johannishus (; 24 December 1932 – 11 November 2017) was a Swedish industrialist and politician. He was a member of the Riksdag, Swedish Riksdag from 1991 to 1994. He was the son of Count Ted Wachtmeiste ...
in a 1988 book of the same name about
Swedish culture
The Culture of Sweden is characterised by its art, music, dance, literature, traditions, religious practices and more. It is similar to but distinct from the cultures of neighboring countries. Sweden's modern history has a well-established tradi ...
.
See also
*
Swedish population of Finland
*
Finland Swedish
Finland Swedish or Fenno-Swedish (; ) is a Variety (linguistics), variety of the Swedish language and a closely related group of Swedish dialects spoken in Finland by the Swedish-speaking population of Finland, Swedish-speaking population, common ...
References
External links
Svenskfinland.fi
Swedish-speaking population of Finland
Finland Swedish
Geography of Finland
Culture of Finland
Regions of Finland
{{Finland-stub