Swedes in Chicago

Swedes constitute a considerable ethnic group in Chicago, with roughly 15,000 people in the city claiming Swedish ancestry.

[1] Today the majority of Chicagoland Swedes live outside of the city, with over 140,000 residents of Swedish ancestry in the Chicago metropolitan area.

By then, Swedes in Chicago, most of whom settled in the Andersonville neighborhood, especially in the years following the Great Chicago Fire, had founded the Evangelical Covenant Church and established such enduring institutions as Swedish Covenant Hospital and North Park University.

This paper was founded by Johan Alfred Enander, who argued that the Vikings were instrumental in enabling the "freedom" that spread not only throughout the British Isles, but America as well.

Many Chicago Swedes entered the construction business as part working their way up the economic ladder, though most started as carpenters and laborers.