Swedish As A Foreign Language - Geographic Distribution

Geographic Distribution

In addition to the minorities in Sweden, Swedish is a compulsory subject in school for Finnish-speakers in Finland, where Swedish is a co-official language with Finnish; there's a five percent minority of Finns whose native language is Swedish. In official documents and in education, Swedish is considered "the second domestic language" (fi. toinen kotimainen kieli, sv. det andra inhemska språket) for Finnish-speakers, while the same holds true for Finnish for Swedish-speakers. Finland was a part of Sweden from 13th century to 1809, and the use of Swedish in government prevailed for much of 19th century. Language reforms did not replace Swedish, but gave Finnish (which is a completely unrelated Uralic language) an "equal status" as an official language of the state. This situation remains to this day, despite the near-complete switchover to Finnish in practical usage in governmental affairs. There is compulsory teaching and language testing on all levels of education, and a basic working knowledge in Swedish is required for state government officials.