Demographics of Sweden

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The demographics of Sweden have changed significantly as a result of immigration since World War II. In addition to the ethnic Swedish majority, Sweden has historically had smaller minorities of Sami people in the northernmost parts of the country and Finnish people in the Mälardalen and in the north of Sweden.

Demographics of Sweden, Data of FAO, year 2005 ; Number of inhabitants in thousands.
Demographics of Sweden, Data of FAO, year 2005 ; Number of inhabitants in thousands.

Contents

[edit] Ethnicity

Beside the Swedes, the Sweden-Finns are the largest ethnic minority comprising approximately 50,000 indigenous people along the Swedish-Finnish border, and 450,000 first and second generation immigrated ethnic Finns. Also in the farthest North a small indigenous population of Samis live (sometimes referred to as "Lappar" ("Lapps"), which, however, is considered a pejorative term by the Sami).

[edit] Language

Main articles: Swedish Language and Languages of Sweden

The Swedish language is by far the mominating language in Sweden, and is used by the government administation. The indigenous Finno-Ugric languages were repressed well into the 1960s. Since 1999 Sweden has five officially recognized minority languages: Sami, Meänkieli, Standard-Finnish, Romani chib and Yiddish. The Sami language, spoken by about 7,000 people in Sweden, may be used in government agencies, courts, preschools and nursing homes in the municipalities of Arjeplog, Gällivare, Jokkmokk and Kiruna and its immediate neighbourhood. Similary, Finnish and Meänkieli can be used in the municipalities of Gällivare, Haparanda, Kiruna, Pajala and Övertorneå and its immediate neighbourhood. Finnish is also official language, along with Swedish, in the city of Eskilstuna.

The largest minority languages are those spoken by immigrants, the most popular of which are Turkish, Finnish, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Arabic, Aramaic, Persian, Spanish, Kurdish, English and Somali.[1]

[edit] Emigration

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In the 19th century, Sweden's yearly population growth rate peaked at 1.2% (i.e. it doubled in less than 60 years), compared to 1% today (migration excluded). This considerable population growth rate led, before the Industrial Revolution, to a pauperization of the rural population, for each generation inherited smaller and smaller shares. Due to years of crop failure in the 1840s and 1860s, the U.S. Homestead Act of 1862, and to a lesser extent religious persecution, emigration started and grew. Between 1850 and 1930 1,050,000 Swedes emigrated (re-migration excluded), chiefly to Canada, U.S. and to Denmark. If they had not left, Sweden's population would have been about 2,000,000 higher today, given that famine and civil war hadn't been the outcome of their staying. (After 1929 the net-migration has been directed towards Sweden.)

The re-migration of Swedish nationals from the U.S. was culturally more important than the absolute figures reveal. The re-migrants often re-settled in their native parish, where their relative wealth and foreign experience ensured a prestigious position in the community. U.S. views, values and not the least world-view followed the re-migrants, ensuring a popular perception of closeness to U.S., contrary to the situation in for instance neighbouring Denmark or Finland (and contrary to the Swedish elite's closeness to Germany and Europe).

[edit] Immigration

Year Migrant

/1000 of population
1989 1
1990 3
1991 3
1992 3
1993 2
1994 3
1995 2.62
1996 2.27
1997 1.69
1998 1.69
1999 1.68
2000 0.86
2001 0.91
2002 0.95
2003 1.00
2004 1.67
2005 1.67
2006 1.66

As of 2004, 13.5% of the population was foreign-born.

Finns make up about 5% of the whole population. The occupant population of northern Sweden, the Sami people, (a ethnic group living in 4 countries) is only about 20,000 persons. Approximately 77,500 of the nation's population is from Africa.[citation needed] Many of the latter are refugees from the Horn of Africa, consisting of Ethiopians who fled from Communist rule in the 1970s and 1980s, and Somalis and Eritreans who escaped ongoing fighting in their respective nations.[citation needed]

Sweden has taken in refugees from various countries fleeing repression, including people from Chile, Vietnam, Iran, and more recently from conflict-zones in the former Yugoslavia, Iraq and the Horn of Africa. In fact, Sweden has a history of providing refuge to asylum seekers. On a smaller scale, it took in political refugees from Hungary and Czechoslovakia after their countries were invaded by the Soviet Union in 1956 and 1968 respectively. Some American draft dodgers from the Vietnam War also found refuge in Sweden.

A sizable community from the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) arrived during the Second World War, but most of them returned to their countries of birth after the war.[2]

Immigration increased markedly with World War II. In short order, 70,000 war children were evacuated from Finland, of which 15,000 remained in Sweden. Also, many of Denmark's nearly 7000 Jews who were evacuated to Sweden decided to remain there. Until 1973 work-force immigration dominated, peaking in the late 1960s. The largest immigrant groups are Finns and peoples from the former Yugoslavia representing both work-force immigration and war refugees. Migration triggered by political crises include refugee groups of Persians, Kurds, Palestinians, Jews, Vietnamese, Chileans, Baluchis and Hungarians.

[edit] Religion

Although only one fifth of Swedes in one investigation chose to describe themselves as believing in God [3], the majority (78%) of the population belongs to the Church of Sweden, the Lutheran church that separated from the state in 2000. This is because until recently, those who had family members in the church automatically became members at birth. Other Christian denominations in Sweden include Roman Catholic (see Catholic Church of Sweden), Orthodox, Baptist, and other evangelical Christian churches (frikyrkor = "free churches"). Some of the Sami practice Animism. There are also a number of Muslims, Buddhists, Bahai and Jews in Sweden, mainly from immigration.

[edit] Statistics

According to Statistiska centralbyrån (Statistics Sweden), Sweden's population reached 9,000,000 on August 12, 2004. See the Swedish population web counter.

  • Population: 9,081,100 (July 2006 est.)
  • Population growth rate: 0.72% (2006 est.)
  • Population growth: Averaging 1 person/15 minutes
  • Net migration rate: 0.91 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2001 est.)
  • Total fertility rate: 1.85 children born/woman (2006 est.)
  • Infant mortality rate: 2.8 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)
  • Life expectancy at birth: 79.71 years
    • Male: 77.07 years
    • Female: 82.5 years (2001 est.)

[edit] Births and deaths

Births Deaths Birth rate Death rate
1900 138,139 86,146 27.0 16.8
1901 139,370 82,772 27.0 16.1
1902 137,364 79,722 26.5 15.4
1903 133,896 78,610 25.7 15.1
1904 134,952 80,152 25.7 15.3
1905 135,409 82,443 25.7 15.6
1906 136,620 76,366 25.7 14.4
1907 136,793 78,149 25.5 14.6
1908 138,874 80,568 25.7 14.9
1909 139,505 74,538 25.6 13.7
1910 135,625 77,212 24.7 14.0
1911 132,977 76,462 24.0 13.8
1912 132,868 79,241 23.8 14.2
1913 130,200 76,724 23.2 13.6
1914 129,458 78,311 22.9 13.8
1915 122,997 83,587 21.6 14.7
1916 121,679 77,771 21.2 13.6
1917 120,855 77,385 20.9 13.4
1918 117,955 104,594 20.3 18.0
1919 115,193 84,289 19.8 14.5
1920 138,753 78,128 23.6 13.3
1921 127,723 73,536 21.5 12.4
1922 116,946 76,343 19.6 12.8
1923 113,435 68,424 18.9 11.4
1924 109,055 72,001 18.1 12.0
1925 106,292 70,918 17.6 11.7
1926 102,007 71,344 16.8 11.8
1927 97,994 77,219 16.1 12.7
1928 97,868 73,267 16.1 12.0
1929 92,861 74,538 15.2 12.2
1930 94,220 71,790 15.4 11.7
1931 91,074 77,121 14.8 12.5
1932 89,779 71,459 14.5 11.6
1933 85,020 69,607 13.7 11.2
1934 85,092 69,921 13.7 11.2
1935 85,906 72,813 13.8 11.7
1936 88,938 74,836 14.2 12.0
1937 90,373 75,392 14.4 12.0
1938 93,946 72,693 14.9 11.5
1939 97,380 72,876 15.4 11.5
1940 95,778 72,748 15.1 11.4
1941 99,727 71,910 15.6 11.3
1942 113,961 63,741 17.7 9.9
1943 125,392 66,105 19.3 10.2
1944 134,991 72,284 20.6 11.0
1945 135,373 71,901 20.4 10.8
1946 132,597 70,635 19.7 10.5
1947 128,779 73,579 18.9 10.8
1948 126,683 67,693 18.4 9.8
1949 121,272 69,537 17.4 10.0
1950 115,414 70,296 16.5 10.0
1951 110,168 69,799 15.6 9.9
1952 110,192 68,270 15.5 9.6
1953 110,144 69,553 15.4 9.7
1954 105,096 69,030 14.6 9.6
1955 107,305 68,634 14.8 9.5
1956 107,960 70,205 14.8 9.6
1957 107,168 73,132 14.6 9.9
1958 105,502 71,065 14.2 9.6
1959 104,743 70,889 14.1 9.5
1960 102,219 75,093 13.7 10.0
1961 104,501 73,555 13.9 9.8
1962 107,284 76,791 14.2 10.2
1963 112,903 76,460 14.8 10.1
1964 122,664 76,661 16.0 10.0
1965 122,806 78,194 15.9 10.1
1966 123,354 78,440 15.8 10.0
1967 121,360 79,783 15.4 10.1
1968 113,087 82,476 14.3 10.4
1969 107,622 83,352 13.5 10.5
1970 110,150 80,026 13.7 9.9
1971 114,484 82,717 14.1 10.2
1972 112,273 84,051 13.8 10.3
1973 109,663 85,640 13.5 10.5
1974 109,874 86,316 13.5 10.6
1975 103,632 88,208 12.6 10.8
1976 98,345 90,677 12.0 11.0
1977 96,057 88,202 11.6 10.7
1978 93,248 89,681 11.3 10.8
1979 96,255 91,074 11.6 11.0
1980 97,064 91,800 11.7 11.0
1981 94,065 92,034 11.3 11.1
1982 92,748 90,671 11.1 10.9
1983 91,780 90,791 11.0 10.9
1984 93,889 90,483 11.3 10.9
1985 98,463 94,032 11.8 11.3
1986 101,950 93,295 12.2 11.1
1987 104,699 93,307 12.5 11.1
1988 112,080 96,743 13.3 11.5
1989 116,023 92,110 13.7 10.8
1990 123,938 95,161 14.5 11.1
1991 123,737 95,202 14.4 11.0
1992 122,848 94,710 14.2 10.9
1993 117,998 97,008 13.5 11.1
1994 112,257 91,844 12.8 10.5
1995 103,326 96,910 11.7 11.0
1996 95,297 94,133 10.8 10.6
1997 89,171 92,674 10.1 10.5
1998 88,384 92,891 10.0 10.5
1999 88,173 94,726 10.0 10.7
2000 90,441 93,285 10.2 10.5
2001 91,466 93,752 10.3 10.5
2002 95,815 95,009 10.7 10.6
2003 99,157 92,961 11.1 10.4
2004 100,928 90,532 11.2 10.1
2005 101,346 91,710 11.2 10.2
2006 105,913 91,177 11.7 10.0

[edit] Age structure

  • 0-14 years: 18.19% (male 828,308; female 786,353)
  • 15-64 years: 64.53% (male 2,911,949; female 2,814,730)
  • 65 years and over: 17.28% (male 649,296; female 884,417) (2001 est.)

[edit] Sex ratio

  • at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  • under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  • 15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  • 65 years and over: 0.73 male(s)/female
  • total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2001 est.)

[edit] Literacy

  • definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  • total population: 99% (2003 est.)

[edit] Nationality

noun: Swede(s)

adjective: Swedish

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.integrationsverket.se/tpl/NewsPage____1038.aspx
  2. ^ The Swedish Integration Board (2006). Pocket Facts: Statistics on Integration. Integrationsverket, 2006. ISBN 9189609301. Available online in pdf format. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
  3. ^ Sifo, Din egen livsåskådning

[edit] External links

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