Swedish diaspora

The Swedish diaspora consists of emigrants and their descendants, especially those that maintain some of the customs of their Swedish culture. Notable Swedish communities exist in the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and Argentina as well as others.

The New Sweden Company established a colony on the Delaware River in 1638, naming it New Sweden. The colony was lost to the Dutch in 1655.

Between 1846 and 1930 roughly 1.3 million people, about 20% of the Swedish population, left the country.

The New York City Midsummer celebration is a particularly grand example of the Swedish diaspora's ability to hold on to its culture while fully integrating on a global scale.

In the United States members of the diaspora had access to Swedish films starting in 1922 with The Treasure of Arne which was shown in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Some films were made just for the Swedish American diaspora community such as The Film about Sweden and The Old Land of Dreams.

The first recognition by Sweden of the 19th century emigration to the United States occurred in 1923 with a visit by Nathan Söderblom and the 1926 visit by the crown prince, who would later rule as Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden. He would visit again in 1938.

Swedish expatriates in Manhattan celebrate Midsummer as "a particularly grand example of the Swedish diaspora's ability to hold on to its culture while fully integrating on a global scale."

The Swedish-speaking Finns or Finland-Swedes form a minority group in Finland. The characteristic of this minority is debated: while some see it as an ethnic group of its own some view it purely as a linguistic minority. The group includes about 265,000 people, comprising 5.10% of the population of mainland Finland, or 5.50 % if the 26,000 inhabitants of Åland are included (there are also about 60,000 Swedish-speaking Finns currently resident in Sweden). It has been presented that the ethnic group can also perceived as distinct Swedish-speaking nationality in Finland. There are also 9,000 Swedish citizens living in Finland.

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Wikipedia