Languages don’t always fit neatly into national borders. There are German-speaking Italians in Alto Adige, Danish-speaking Germans in Schleswig-Holstein and Swedish-speaking Finns on Finland’s western coast, in Uusimaa, Turunmaa and Ostrobothnia, and in the Aland Islands.

Finland was part of Sweden until 1809 (when it became a Grand Duchy of Russia). Centuries ago, the Swedes implanted a Swedish aristocracy. And some other Swedes moved across. And many foreign merchants and craftsmen who came to Finland chose to learn Swedish rather than Finnish since it was the language of the elite and the language of administration (and a lot easier to learn than Finnish). It was only in 1863 that Finnish was recognised as one of Finland’s official languages. Read more here.

The Finnish Constitution provides that Finnish and Swedish are the national languages of Finland. The Finnish Constitution also provides the public authorities are required to provide for the culture and societal needs of the Finnish speaking and Swedish speaking populations on an equal basis.

All Finns are equal, but some are more equal than others.

Read more on the website here.