 Finland was a part of Sweden from the 13th century until the loss of the Finnish territories to Russia in 1809 . Swedish was the sole administrative language until 1902 as well as the dominant language of culture and education until Finnish independence in 1917 . The percentage of Swedish speakers in Finland has steadily decreased since then . The Swedish @-@ speaking population is mainly concentrated in the coastal areas of Ostrobothnia , Southwest Finland and Nyland where the percentage of Finland Swedes partly is high , with Swedish being spoken by more than 90 % of the population in several municipalities , and on Åland , where Swedish is spoken by a vast majority of the population and is the only official language . Swedish is an official language also in the rest of Finland , though , with the same official status as Finnish . The country 's public broadcaster , Yle , provides two Swedish @-@ language radio stations , Yle Radio Vega and Yle X3M , as well a TV channel , Yle Fem . 
