Languages of Sweden
In 2009, the Riksdag passed the Language Law recognizing Swedish as the "main" and "common" language of society as well as being the official language in "international contexts", the five national minority languages, and Swedish sign language .
Swedish-speaking population of Finland
According to a sociological study published in 1981, the Swedish-speaking Finns meet the four major criteria for a separate ethnic group: self-identification of ethnicity, language, social structure, and ancestry. However, not all Swedish-speaking Finns are willing to self-identify as representatives of a distinct ethnicity. The major political organisation representing the Swedish-speakers in Finland, the Swedish People's Party, has defined the Swedish-speaking Finns as a people who express Finnish identity in the Swedish language. The issue is debated: an opposite view is still that the Swedish-speaking Finns are a sub-group of the ethnic Swedes, "östsvenskar" or "East Swedes".