The proportion has been steadily diminishing since the early 19th century, when Swedish was the mother tongue of approximately 15% of the population and considered a prestige language.

According to a 2007 statistical analysis made by Fjalar Finnäs, the population of the minority group is stable,[14][15] and may even be increasing slightly in total numbers since more parents from bilingual families tend to register their children as Swedish speakers.

Some debators insist for the use of the more traditional English-language form, Finland-Swedes, as they view the labelling of them as Swedish-speaking Finns as a way of depriving them their ethnic affiliation, reducing it to merely a matter of language and de-emphasising the "Swedish part" of Finland-Swedish identity, i.e. their relations to Sweden.

Simultaneously the growth of population in Sweden, together with lack of land, resulted in Swedish settlements in Southern and Western coastal areas of Finland.

[24][25] In 1966, the historian Hämäläinen (as referenced by McRae 1993) addressed the strong correlation between the scholar's mother-tongue and the views on the Scandinavian settlement history of Finland.

It was supported by the Russian central administration for practical reasons, as a security measure to weaken Swedish influence in Finland.

However, gradually after the Second World War, the concept of minority has been increasingly applied to Swedish speakers, even within the Finland-Swedish political discourse.

[Note 14][citation needed] The urbanization and industrialization that began in the late 19th century increased the interaction between people speaking different languages with each other, especially in the bigger towns.

During most of the 20th century, marriages across language borders tended to result in children becoming Finnish speakers, and knowledge of Swedish declined.

[Note 19] According to another view (e.g. Tarkiainen 2008) the two major areas of Swedish language speakers (Nyland and Ostrobothnia) were largely uninhabited at the time of the arrival of Swedes.

[Note 20] According to an interpretation based on the results of recent (2008) genome-wide SNP scans and on church records from the early modern period, Swedish-speaking peasantry has been overwhelmingly endogamous.

Historian Tarkiainen (2008) presents that from the late Middle Ages onwards until relatively recent times, Swedish-speaking peasants tended to select their marriage partners from the same parish, often from the same village as themselves.

As tightly knit peasant communities tend to assimilate potential newcomers very quickly, this has meant that most marriages within the Swedish-speaking peasantry during this period were contracted with members of the same language group.

During the time of early immigration by Swedes to the coastal regions (approximately between 1150 and 1350), the situation was different and according to a study from the 1970s (as referenced by Tarkiainen, 2008) the intermarriage rate between local Finns and Swedish newcomers was considerable.

Under the lead of Edith Södergran, who also captivated audiences in the English-speaking world, Gunnar Björling and Elmer Diktonius, the Finland-Swedish modernists of the early 20th century had a significant impact on the whole of Scandinavian modernism.

This study however was comparing one small Swedish-speaking municipality of 4652 inhabitants to Finnish-speaking provinces and only tells about the origin of two different Y-DNA haplotypes.

At the time of the Late Middle Ages, Latin was still the language of instruction from the secondary school upwards and in use among the educated class and priests.

The Church required fluency in Finnish from clergymen serving in predominantly or totally Finnish-speaking parishes (most of the country); consequently clerical families tended to maintain a high degree of functional bilingualism.

[citation needed] As a result, the wealthier burghers in Sweden (and in cities as Turku (Åbo) and Vyborg (Viborg)) during the late Middle Ages tended to be of German origin.

In the 19th century, a new wave of immigration came from German-speaking countries predominantly connected to commercial activities, which has formed a notable part of the grand bourgeoisie in Finland to this day.

Even though the proportional distribution of Swedish-speakers among different social strata closely reflects that of the general population, there is still a lingering conception of Swedish as a language of the historical upper class culture of Finland.

The Swedish-speaking areas in Finnish Mainland do not have fixed territorial protection, unlike the languages of several national minorities in Central Europe such as German in Belgium and North Italy.

The current language act of Finland has been criticized as inadequate instrument to protect the linguistic rights of Swedish-speaking Finns in practice.

The school subjects are not called Finnish or Swedish; the primary language in which lessons are taught depends upon the pupil's mother tongue.

Lessons in the "other domestic language" usually start in the third, fifth or seventh form of comprehensive school and are a part of the curriculum in all secondary education.

In polytechnics and universities, all students are required to pass an examination in the "other domestic language" on a level that enables them to be employed as civil servants in bilingual offices and communities.

[61] According to a report by Finland's Swedish think tank, Magma, there is a widespread perception among immigrants that they are more easily integrated in the Swedish-speaking community than in the majority society.

In Minnesota, a number settled on the Iron Range, in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, and in the northeastern part of the state including Duluth and along the North Shore of Lake Superior.

The issue has been debated in the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag) several times, with the 2017 attempt failing due to the ethnic group not being established in the country prior to 1900.

[71][72] The Swedish-Finn Historical Society is a Washington state, USA-based association which aims to preserve the ethnic group's emigration history.