Languages of Sweden
The Kingdom of Sweden is a nation-state for the Swedish people, and as such, their national language is held in very high regard. Of Sweden's roughly ten million people, almost all speak Swedish as at least a second language, and the majority as a first language (7,825,000, according to SIL's Ethnologue). Swedish is also an official language in Finland where it is spoken by a large number of Swedish-speaking Finns. The language is also spoken to some degree by ethnic Swedes living outside Sweden, for example, just over half a million people of Swedish descent in the United States speak the language, according to Ethnologue.
Swedish-speaking population of Finland
Following an educational reform in the 1970s, both Swedish and Finnish became compulsory school subjects. The school subjects are not called "Finnish" or "Swedish"; the primary language in which lessons are taught depends upon the pupil's mother tongue. This language of instruction is officially and in general practice called the "mother tongue" (' in Finnish, ' in Swedish). The secondary language, as a school subject, is called the "other domestic language" (' in Finnish, ' in Swedish). Lessons in the "other domestic language" usually start in the third, fifth or seventh form of comprehensive school and are a part of the curriculum in all secondary education. In polytechnics and universities, all students are required to pass an examination in the "other domestic language" on a level that enables them to be employed as civil servants in bilingual offices and communities. The actual linguistic abilities of those who have passed the various examinations however vary considerably.