Finland's Official language
What languages are spoken in Finland?
What is the Official language of Finland?
There are more
than 1 hundred and 50 different languages spoken in the country of Finland. There
are two official languages of Finland (Finnish and Swedish) In addition to the
two official languages the country has other languages that have their 'users'
rights that are written down in the law. Sami languages are spoken by the
indigenous populations of Finland. The other autochthonous languages that have
a long history in the country of Finland include Finnish Romani, Finnish sign
language, Karelian, and Finland-Swedish sign language.
The Three Most Spoken
Languages of Finland
Finnish
With approximately
88.88% population of Finland speaks Finnish. Which is the 4,868,751 people of
Finland's population, the Finnish language is widely spoken by the majority in
the country. The Finnish language dates back about 500 hundred years and a
little less closely related to the Sami languages and closely related to
Estonian languages. Additionally, The Finnic languages belong to the Uralic
language family. Therefore Finnish is distantly related to various languages as
diverse as the Siberian Samoyedic language and Ugric language of Hungary known
as Nenets.
Swedish
Approximately about
by 9 million people in the world speak Swedish as their mother tongue. In
Finland country, about 290,747 people speak the language which is equivalent to
5.31percent of the country's total population. About 92.5 percent of Swedish
speakers in the country hail from the autonomous province of Åland. During the
start of the 20th century, the number of Swedish speakers represented an
equivalent of 14 percent of the total population of the country of Finland.
However, with the passage of time their numbers have since gone down. In 2012 about
by 44 percent of the country's citizens who registered a different primary
language could converse in Swedish. Being considered as a North Germanic
language and sub-branch of Indo-European, Swedish is closely related to Danish,
German, English, and Norwegian languages. Until the late 19th century, the
country of Finland’s language of administration was the Swedish language.
Together with Finnish language, in Finland schools they are the compulsory
languages with the only exception being children with a third language as their
native language. Porvoo, Vaasa, Helsinki and Espoo are 4 of the largest
Swedish-speaking communities in the country of Finland. Finland-Swedish are the
leading Swedish dialects that are spoken in the country of Finland.
Third most spoken language of Finland
Russian
Russian language is the country's 3rd most spoken language with
approximately 69,614 speakers which is 1.27 percent of the total population of
the country of Finland. As a result of the former Soviet influence in the
Europe, the Country's older generations is most likely to speak Russian language
either as a 3rd or fourth language. However, the language is not so much famous
and popular among the younger generations since it is quickly being replaced by
the language of English. As a matter of fact, the country of Finland is ranked
among the world's top four countries that are fluent in speaking English
language. Despite in Finland the language not having an official status;
historically, Russian language served as the 3rd co-official language in the
country. Together with the Swedish languages and Finnish languages, Russian
language was a co-official language for a brief moment between 1900 and 1917.
Other Languages Spoken In Finland
Besides the Åland, all municipalities in the country whose residents
speak both official languages account for at least three thousand people
equivalent to about 8 percent of the population. There are many other languages
that are spoken in the country of Finland either as a native language or as a
side language. The other languages includes the Estonian language accounting
for 0.84 percent of the population, English language with 0.31 percent, Somali
language with 0.31 percent, Arabic language with 0.27 percent, Kurdish language
with 0.20 percent, Chinese language with 0.18 percent, Albanian language with
0.16 percent, Persian language with 0.15 percent, Thai language with 0.15
percent, Vietnamese language with 0.14 percent, Turkish language with 0.12
percent, Spanish language with 0.12 percent, and German language with 0.11 percent.
Other languages and Sami account for 1.34 percent and 0.04 percent of the total
population of Finland respectively.
How many languages are
spoken in Finland?
|
Rank |
Languages |
No. of speakers
(>5,000) |
% Of Population Speaking The Language |
|
#1 |
Finnish language |
4868751 |
88.98 percent |
|
#2 |
Swedish language |
290747 |
5.31 percent |
|
#3 |
Russian language |
69614 |
1.27 percent |
|
#4 |
Estonian language |
38364 |
0.84 percent |
|
#5 |
English language |
16732 |
0.31 percent |
|
#6 |
Somali language |
16721 |
0.31 percent |
|
#7 |
Arabic language |
14825 |
0.27 percent |
|
#8 |
Kurdish language |
10731 |
0.20 percent |
|
#9 |
Chinese language |
10110 |
0.18 percent |
|
#10 |
Albanian language |
8754 |
0.16 percent |
|
#11 |
Persian language |
8103 |
0.15 percent |
|
#12 |
Thai language |
8038 |
0.15 percent |
|
#13 |
Vietnamese language |
7532 |
0.14 percent |
|
#14 |
Turkish language |
6766 |
0.12 percent |
|
#15 |
Spanish language |
6583 |
0.12 percent |
|
#16 |
German language |
6059 |
0.11 percent |
|
#17 |
Sami languages |
1949 |
0.04 percent |
|
#18 |
Other languages |
73543 |
1.34 percent |
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