| Demographics Of Finland |
Article Index for Demographics Of |
Website Links For Demographics |
Information AboutDemographics Of Finland |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT DEMOGRAPHICS OF FINLAND | |
| demographics of finlanddemographics of finland | |
| geography of finland | |
| finnish society | |
| demographics by country | |
| finlande | |
|
of Finland. © Statistics Finland]] ''' alone. In arctic Lapland, on the other hand, there are only 2 people to every square kilometre. The earliest inhabitants of most of the land area that makes up today's Finland and Scandinavia were in all likehood hunter-gatherers whose closest successors in modern terms would probably be the Sami People (formerly known as the Lapps). There are 4,500 of them living in Finland today and they are recognised as a minority with their own language. They have been living north of the Arctic Circle for more than 7,000 years now. In the 1960's many Finns abandoned rural areas for Sweden , while most immigrants into Finland itself come from other European countries. The official languages are Finnish and Swedish , the latter being the native language of about five per cent of the Finnish population.1 There is a historical and a political explanation for the status of Swedish as an official language. From the 13th to the 19th century Finland was ruled by the Kingdom of Sweden. The status of the language has remained to these days as the Swedish speaking minority has a relatively high degree of power in Finland compared to its size. With 84 per cent of Finns in its congregation, the Lutheran Church is the largest in the country. LANGUAGE DISTRIBUTION Finnish people speak the Finnish Language , which the dominant language and is spoken everywhere in the country. Significant populations of Swedish-speakers are found only in coastal areas, from Ostrobothnia to the southern coast, and in the archipelago of Åland . Several rural communities on the western and southern coast have Swedish majorities. Coastal cities, however, are majority Finnish-speaking, with a few small towns as exceptions. There are very few Swedish-speakers in the inland. Generally speaking, Finnish language usage is still expanding in relative and absolute terms due to the slow but steady language switching of the Swedish-speaking population, natural population growth, and immigration. The immigrant population is growing faster than the general population, both naturally and by immigration, and immigrant minorities will become more significant in the future. Currently, the percentage of immigrants is one of the smallest in Europe. Concerning native languages, the Finnish-speaking population has a comparatively high natural growth rate (compared to other EU countries), while the death rate of the Swedish-speaking population is higher than its birthrate. It is predicted that these rates will even out in 2012 and that the absolute size of the Swedish-speaking population will remain constant. while its percentage of the total population will diminish as the total population grows. Politically, the result is that local Swedish majorities and dominance are diminishing. Most Swedish speakers lived in monolingually (more than 94%) Swedish areas in 1880, but the figure had dropped to 14% in 2002. However, 50% of Swedish speakers still live in communities in which they form the majority and exercise considerable political power. DEMOGRAPHICS At the end of 2006. Statistics Finland: Finland in Figures
AGE STRUCTURE At the end of 2006.
Rates per 1 000 mean population in 2006.
ETHNIC GROUPS
LANGUAGES At the end of 2006.
RELIGIONS At the end of 2006.
LITERACY
REFERENCES |
|
|