annually at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. Founded in 1963, the conference links a general audience with the world's foremost scholars and researchers in conversations centered on contemporary issues related to the natural and social sciences. It is the first ongoing academic conference in the United States to have the official authorization of the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. Demographics A few small towns in the U.S. have retained a few visible Swedish characteristics. Some examples include Silverhill, Alabama; Cambridge, Minnesota; Lindstrom, Minnesota; Karlstad, Minnesota; Scandia, Minnesota; Lindsborg, Kansas; Gothenburg, Nebraska; Oakland, Nebraska; Andover, Illinois; Kingsburg, California; Bishop Hill, Illinois; Jamestown, New York; Mount Jewett, PA, Wilcox, PA, and Westby, Wisconsin, as well as significant areas of central Texas, including New Sweden and Georgetown, and areas in northern Maine: New Sweden, Stockholm, Jemptland, and Westmanland. Around 3.9% of the U.S. population is said to have Fennoscandinavian ancestry (which also includes Norwegian Americans, Danish Americans, Finnish Americans, and Icelandic Americans). According to the 2005 American Community Survey, only 56,324 Americans continue to speak the Swedish language at home, down from 67,655 in 2000, most of whom are recent immigrants. Swedish American communities typically switched to English by 1920. Swedish is rarely taught in high schools or colleges, and Swedish-language newspapers or magazines are rare. Swedish Americans by state In 2020, Minnesota had the most Swedes, both by number (410,091) and by the percent of the state's population they make up (7.3%). Notable people See also Nordic and Scandinavian Americans Languages of the United States#Swedish Swedes in America, a documentary film Allt för Sverige, reality show about Swedish Americans Sweden – United States relations Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church Sweden-bashing Swedish Canadians Swedish American of the Year – annual award program The American-Scandinavian Foundation Swede Hollow, neighborhood of St Paul Minnesota Swedes in Chicago Swedes in Omaha, Nebraska Nordstjernan – Swedish-American Newspaper American Swedish Historical Museum List of Swedish Americans American Swedish Institute References Further reading Akenson, Donald Harman. Ireland, Sweden, and the Great European Migration, 1815–1914 (McGill-Queen's University Press; 2011) 304 pages; compares the Irish and Swedish emigration Anderson, Philip J. and Dag Blanck, eds. Swedish-American Life in Chicago: Cultural and Urban Aspects of an Immigrant People, 1850–1930 (1992) Anderson Philip J. and Blanck Dag, editors. Swedes in the Twin Cities: Immigrant Life and Minnesota's Urban Frontier (2001). Anderson, Philip J., "From Compulsion to Persuasion: Voluntary Religion and the Swedish