Why Is Swedish Spoken in Southwest Finland?

Many people are surprised to hear Swedish spoken along Finland’s southwest coast—but the reason lies in history.

For nearly 600 years, Finland was part of the Kingdom of Sweden. During that time, Swedish settlers established communities along the coast and on the Åland Islands, especially in fishing and trading areas. While Finnish was spoken mainly inland, Swedish became the dominant language along the shores.

Geography helped preserve this coastal Swedish-speaking belt. Strong maritime ties to Sweden, combined with relative isolation from inland regions, allowed the language and culture to survive for centuries.

Even after Finland became part of the Russian Empire in 1809—and later an independent nation—Swedish remained an important language of administration, education, and culture.

Today, Swedish is one of Finland’s two official languages, spoken natively by about 5% of the population, with many bilingual municipalities in the southwest and a fully Swedish-speaking Åland Islands.

Swedish in Finland isn’t a foreign influence—it’s a historic, native part of Finnish society.