Swedish Canadian
 
|
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (Swedish 341,845 (by ancestry, 2011 Census) 1.1% of Canada's population) |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Western Canada · Ontario | |
| Languages | |
| Canadian English · Swedish · Canadian French | |
| Religion | |
| Protestantism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Swedes · Swedish Americans · Swedish Britons · Swedish Australians |
Swedish Canadians (Swedish: Svenskkanadensare) are Canadian citizens of Swedish ancestry or Swedes who emigrated to and reside in Canada. The Swedish Canadian community in Canada numbers 330,000. The vast majority of them reside west of Lake Superior, primarily in Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. Toronto is the most popular settlement spot for newcomers. Despite having an influential presence and distinctive cultural bond, only 20,000 Canadian persons of Swedish descent speak Swedish.
A few Swedes trickled into Canada even before it became a country in 1867, but the first real wave of immigration began in the late 1890s and ended with the onset of the First World War in 1914. Included in this group were a significant number of farmers who had settled first in the United States.
The first Swede, Jacob Fahlström, arrived in Canada in 1809, as an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company. He was succeeded in 1812 by another Swedish man, who was accompanied by two other men from Norway and Ireland to populate the Red River Colony in lower Manitoba. A much more substantive wave of Swedish settlers immigrated to Canada from the United States between 1868 and 1914, as land for farming became more and more scarce in America. Crop failures in their home country between 1866 and 1868 encouraged a similar exodus from Sweden.
The second and largest wave, which came during the 1920s, endured both the depression of the 1930s and the Second World War 1939–45. The third wave, although not as numerous, has been steady since the 1950s.
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Wikipedia