The number of inhabitants in Sweden with Finnish backgrounds has increased substantially in recent years, new figures have shown. The news comes via a new study results published by Sisu uutiset, the Finnish-language counter part of Stockholm-based news agency SVT. The report said that the number of Finnish individuals in Sweden has grown by nearly 40,000 people in just four years. A total of 712,000 ethnic Finns now live in the neighbouring country, comprising 7.4 per cent of Sweden’s total population.
The border town of Haparanda has the largest portion of Finns in Sweden, as about 83 per cent of its residents claim to be from Finnish backgrounds. Significant numbers also reside elsewhere in Norrbotten County, as well as in Gothenburg, Stockholm and Uppsala, according to a YLE report published on Friday (22 February).
Despite the overall trend, the report said that the number of Finns immigrating to Sweden is on the decline. Recent figures from Statistics Sweden show that about 164,000 of the country’s inhabitants in 2012 were born in Finland, marking a drop of about 6.3 per cent from 2008. Conversely, the number of second and third-generation Finnish Swedes continues to rise.