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List of municipalities of Finland in which Finnish is not the sole official language

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This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: The statistics are from 2013. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (November 2019)
  Officially monolingual Finnish-speaking municipalities   Bilingual municipalities with Finnish as the majority language   Bilingual municipalities with Swedish as the majority language   Monolingual Swedish-speaking municipalities (Åland)   Sami bilingual municipalities

There are 53 municipalities of Finland in which Finnish is not the sole official language. In Finland, as of December 31, 2013, 89.3% of the population speak Finnish, 5.3% Swedish and 0.04% Sami languages. Both Finnish and Swedish are official languages of Finland. Officially, a municipality is bilingual if the minority language group consists of at least 8% of the population, or at least 3,000 speakers. A previously bilingual municipality remains so if the linguistic minority proportion drops below 8%, up to 6%. If it drops below 6%, it is possible for the municipality to remain bilingual by government decree, on the recommendation of the municipal council, for a further ten years. Municipalities that make use of the 3,000-speaker rule include the national capital Helsinki and the cultural center of Swedish Finns, Turku. On the Åland archipelago, where Finnish is almost absent from daily life, the language law does not apply. On the mainland, the highest proportion of Swedish-speakers is found on the western coast, in Ostrobothnia.

Of the 310 Finnish municipalities, 16 are monolingually Swedish. 33 municipalities are bilingually Finnish and Swedish; of these, 15 have a Swedish-speaking majority and 18 a Finnish-speaking one. Four municipalities, all located in Lapland, have a Finnish-speaking majority and a Sami-speaking minority: Enontekiö, Inari, Sodankylä and Utsjoki. Initially, only Swedish was accorded official bilingualism, through a language act of 1922; similar provisions were extended to Sami through a 1991 law. The 1922 law was replaced by new but largely similar legislation in 2003.

Municipalities

Name in majority language Name in minority language(s) Language(s) Percentage of population
speaking official language
other than Finnish
31 December 2013 		Region
Brändö — Monolingually Swedish 78.7 Åland
Eckerö — Monolingually Swedish 89.1 Åland
Enontekiö Northern Sami: Eanodat
Swedish: Enontekis		 Finnish majority, Sami minority 10.8 Lapland
Espoo Esbo Finnish majority, Swedish minority 7.8 Uusimaa
Finström — Monolingually Swedish 91.7 Åland
Föglö — Monolingually Swedish 85.7 Åland
Geta — Monolingually Swedish 87.2 Åland
Hammarland — Monolingually Swedish 92.5 Åland
Hanko Hangö Finnish majority, Swedish minority 42.8 Uusimaa
Helsinki Helsingfors Finnish majority, Swedish minority 5.9 Uusimaa
Inari Inari Sami: Aanaar
Skolt Sami: Aanar
Northern Sami: Anár
Swedish: Enare		 Finnish majority, Sami minority 6.4 Lapland
Ingå Inkoo Swedish majority, Finnish minority 54.3 Uusimaa
Jakobstad Pietarsaari Swedish majority, Finnish minority 55.8 Ostrobothnia
Jomala — Monolingually Swedish 90.1 Åland
Kaskinen Kaskö Finnish majority, Swedish minority 28.5 Ostrobothnia
Kauniainen Grankulla Finnish majority, Swedish minority 35.9 Uusimaa
Kimitoön Kemiönsaari Swedish majority, Finnish minority 70.3 Southwest Finland
Kirkkonummi Kyrkslätt Finnish majority, Swedish minority 17.6 Uusimaa
Kokkola Karleby Finnish majority, Swedish minority 13.1 Central Ostrobothnia
Korsholm Mustasaari Swedish majority, Finnish minority 69.0 Ostrobothnia
Korsnäs — Swedish majority, Finnish minority 87.2 Ostrobothnia
Kristinestad Kristiinankaupunki Swedish majority, Finnish minority 55.4 Ostrobothnia
Kronoby Kruunupyy Swedish majority, Finnish minority 80.7 Ostrobothnia
Kumlinge — Monolingually Swedish 90.3 Åland
Kökar — Monolingually Swedish 88.4 Åland
Lapinjärvi Lappträsk Finnish majority, Swedish minority 32.8 Uusimaa
Larsmo Luoto Swedish majority, Finnish minority 92.5 Ostrobothnia
Lemland — Monolingually Swedish 92.9 Åland
Lohja Lojo Finnish majority, Swedish minority 3.5 Uusimaa
Loviisa Lovisa Finnish majority, Swedish minority 42.0 Uusimaa
Lumparland — Monolingually Swedish 91.0 Åland
Malax Maalahti Swedish majority, Finnish minority 86.1 Ostrobothnia
Mariehamn Maarianhamina Monolingually Swedish 85.7 Åland
Myrskylä Mörskom Finnish majority, Swedish minority 9.8 Uusimaa
Nykarleby Uusikaarlepyy Swedish majority, Finnish minority 87.3 Ostrobothnia
Närpes Närpiö Swedish majority, Finnish minority 84.8 Ostrobothnia
Pargas Parainen Swedish majority, Finnish minority 56.4 Southwest Finland
Pedersöre Pedersören kunta Swedish majority, Finnish minority 89.7 Ostrobothnia
Porvoo Borgå Finnish majority, Swedish minority 30.4 Uusimaa
Pyhtää Pyttis Finnish majority, Swedish minority 8.1 Kymenlaakso
Raseborg Raasepori Swedish majority, Finnish minority 65.4 Uusimaa
Saltvik — Monolingually Swedish 92.8 Åland
Sipoo Sibbo Finnish majority, Swedish minority 35.6 Uusimaa
Siuntio Sjundeå Finnish majority, Swedish minority 29.6 Uusimaa
Sodankylä Northern Sami: Soađegilli
Inari Sami: Suáđigil
Skolt Sami: Suäʹđjel		 Finnish majority, Sami minority 1.6 Lapland
Sottunga — Monolingually Swedish 91.0 Åland
Sund — Monolingually Swedish 92.3 Åland
Turku Åbo Finnish majority, Swedish minority 5.4 Southwest Finland
Utsjoki Northern Sami: Ohcejohka
Inari Sami: Uccjuuhâ
Skolt Sami: Uccjokk		 Finnish majority, Sami minority 46.0 Lapland
Vaasa Vasa Finnish majority, Swedish minority 22.7 Ostrobothnia
Vantaa Vanda Finnish majority, Swedish minority 2.7 Uusimaa
Vårdö — Monolingually Swedish 90.1 Åland
Vörå Vöyri Swedish majority, Finnish minority 82.6 Ostrobothnia

See also

References

  1. ^ (in Finnish) "Ruotsin- ja kaksikieliset kunnat" ("Swedish and Bilingual Municipalities"), at the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities site; accessed June 18, 2014
  2. ^ Kenneth Douglas McRae, Mika Helander, Sari Luoma, Conflict and Compromise in Multilingual Societies: Finland, Volume 3, p. 231. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1999, ISBN 978-088920-347-1
  3. ^ "Väestö kielen mukaan sekä ulkomaan kansalaisten määrä ja maa-pinta-ala alueittain 1980 – 2013" ("Population according to language and the number of foreigners and land area by region 1980 – 2013", at the Statistics Finland site; accessed June 18, 2014
  4. Heikki E. S. Mattila, Comparative Legal Linguistics, p. 55. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2006, ISBN 978-075464-874-1
  5. ^ Olli-Pekka Salo, "Finland's Official Bilingualism – A Bed of Roses or of Procrustes?", in Jan Blommaert, Sirpa Leppänen, Päivi Pahta (eds.), Dangerous Multilingualism: Northern Perspectives on Order, Purity and Normality, p. 28–9. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, ISBN 978-023032-141-0
  6. Claus D. Pusch, "Old Minorities within a Language Space", in Peter Auer, Jürgen Erich Schmidt (eds.), Language and Space: An International Handbook of Linguistic Variation, Volume 1, p. 385–6. Walter de Gruyter, 2010, ISBN 978-311018-002-2
  7. "FINLEX ® - Uppdaterad lagstiftning: Statsrådets förordning om kommunernas språkliga… 53/2013".

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