Press release from Statistics Sweden

2009-06-04 9:30 AM Nr 2009:65

Nearing Denmark's and Sweden's National days:

250 000 Swedes can celebrate from abroad

On Saturday Sweden's population of about 9.3 million inhabitants can celebrate Sweden's National Day. Moreover, around 250 000 Swedish-born persons living abroad can celebrate the day too. Meanwhile, celebrations can begin on Friday for some 58 000 Danes who live in Sweden. June 5 marks Denmark's Constitution Day.

Sweden celebrates on Saturday…

Since 6 June 1916, Sweden has celebrated Flag Day. In 1983 it was decided that this day would also be Sweden's National Day. The number of Swedish-born who can celebrate National Day abroad has increased since 1980. However, this group is much smaller than the some 600 000 Swedes who lived abroad in the beginning of the 1900s.

...while Denmark celebrates on Friday

On 5 June 1849 Denmark's first constitution was introduced. On Friday Denmark's population of about 5.5 million can celebrate. Celebrations can begin in Sweden then since some 58 000 Danes live in Sweden. About 32 000 of these are men while around 26 000 are women. Over half of all Danes in Sweden live in the southern province of Skåne. Celebrations will probably be the biggest in Malmö where one in twenty inhabitants of this municipality is Danish.

Definitions and explanations

Swedish inhabitants are those who were registered in the population on 31 December 2008. Danes living in Sweden refer to those persons with Danish citizenship or who were born in Denmark.

Responsible authority and producer

Statistics Sweden, Forecast Institute
Box 24 300
SE-104 51 Stockholm, Sweden
Fax +46 8 506 947 72

Enquiries

Christian Skarman
Phone +46 8 506 942 83
E-mail christian.skarman@scb.se
Karin E Lundström
Phone +46 8 506 947 02
E-mail karin.e.lundstrom@scb.se

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