How Many People Speak Swedish?

Swedish Speaking

When it comes to the Swedish speaking community, there are so many questions that come to mind. Some of such questions include “How many people speak Swedish?” Where do the Swedes live?

In fact, many people go as far as asking which countries speak Swedish as a second language or could it be the Finnish people or who?. Well, all of these questions is what this post will guide you through.

Learn more about these and other aspects of the Swedish speaking community with this in-depth guide. Plus, find out what it’s like to study in Sweden!

Which Countries are Majority Swedish

Swedish community who are people in Sweden and the U.S are native speakers of the Swedish language. Other people can learn to speak it as a second language, but only if they speak English as their first language. There are also Swedish speaking minorities living in countries like Canada, Norway, and Finland who are native Finnish speakers

Sweden has always been and will always be a European country, with some autonomous provinces that have their own separate languages that live within the country’s borders. The 17th century was when Swedish was first recognized as an official language of Sweden.

Today there are over 10 million speakers of Scandinavian languages worldwide!

How Many People Speak Swedish Worldwide

Swedish is a Scandinavian language, the national language of Sweden, and the first language of roughly 8 million people. In terms of speakers, it is ranked fifth in Europe and eleventh in the world.

It’s one of few national languages that is not an Indo-European or Afro-Asiatic language. More than 2/3 of the population speaks English to some degree, which has encouraged English speakers to learn Swedish as well.

In fact, just over 1% of Americans speak Swedish on a daily basis according to recent research. The Swedish culture developed primarily in Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia. The language was also heavily influenced by Greek during the 15th century with Christianization.

It shares a lot of similarities with other Nordic languages like Danish and Norwegian because of their proximity to each other geographically. Minority languages such as Finnish, Sami (Lapp), Yiddish (Jiddisch) are also spoken throughout the country alongside many others like Icelandic, Welsh, Serbian and Lithuanian.

A small percentage of Swedes live outside Scandinavia mainly in Canada where there are approximately 13,000 Swedes living today due to immigration from both World Wars for economic opportunities as well as escaping wars back home.

Why Sweden Has the Highest Number of Speakers?

Sweden has a disproportionately high number of speakers compared to other European countries because of the country’s high rate of integration with Denmark, which many Danes settled in and made it their home during the 18th century.

In 1814, Norway was ceded to Sweden through the Treaty of Kiel and, in 1867, Finland became a Finnish Grand Duchy by joining what was then considered a union between Finland and Russia.

Sweden has been at the forefront of Scandinavian and Indo-European language since the Middle Ages when Old Norse (which is heavily influenced by Danish) supplanted Latin as the lingua franca. From now on it’s safe to say that not only will you get what you ask for when you go into a restaurant but also when ordering fish at your local market.

Who Speaks Swedish as a Second Language?

Even though Swedish is not one of the most spoken languages in the world, there are plenty of people who speak it as a second language. The Scandinavian country Swedish community speaks with such diverse dialects that it has been deemed ungrammatical by non-native speakers.

So how many people speak Swedish? It’s hard to say because so many do and do not claim it as their first language. However, an estimated 7 million people speak Swedish as a second language.

These students have learned the language for educational purposes or for work reasons. There are also groups of immigrants from countries like Finland, Russia, Poland, Norway and Latvia that live within Sweden’s borders who also speak Swedish.

Why Do so Many People Learn Swedish?

Swedish is the fourth most common native language in the world, coming in behind Chinese (1st), Hindi (2nd), and Spanish (3rd). It’s also the official language of five countries, with 20% of the population being Swedish-speaking.

This level of distribution means that Swedes are highly sought after to work in multinational companies as well as international peacekeeping organizations. With a global economic recession that has led to many layoffs and reduced salaries, having a second language is becoming more important than ever.

All this considered, it’s easy to see why so many people want to learn this beautiful language today. We hope this guide helped you figure out what to expect when learning Swedish!

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