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-   -   What states and/or cities have the highest concentration of Scandinavians (https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showthread.php?t=212866)

Nomayoplease Aug 20, 2014 9:10 AM

What states and/or cities have the highest concentration of Scandinavians
 
What states and/or cities have the highest concentration of Scandinavians and Eastern Europeans?

Guiltyspark Aug 27, 2014 9:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nomayoplease (Post 6698222)
What states and/or cities have the highest concentration of Scandinavians and Eastern Europeans?

Hawaii.

Why the hell would we know that? This is a skyscraper website. Google is your friend.

AviationGuy Sep 3, 2014 5:32 AM

Well, it's not a bad question at all. SSP is open to many topics, not just architecture.

I'd be curious to know, too. I always think of Minnesota as ground zero for Scandinavians in the U.S., but don't know if other states have a lot, too. How about the Dakotas?

wrab Sep 7, 2014 12:44 AM

NY, PA, IL, Upper Midwest (MN, WI, MI), Pacific NW, California.

By 1900, Chicago's Swedish population was the greatest of any city in the world outside of Stockholm. Link

Gordo Sep 7, 2014 1:38 AM

Why combination of Scandinavians and Eastern Europeans? Seems like an odd pairing, especially depending on what you're classifying as "Eastern Europeans".

Ch.G, Ch.G Sep 8, 2014 6:50 AM

The primary source is the US Census. Wikipedia has conveniently if not super consistently compiled the information in the section on Scandinavian Americans, Swedish Americans, Norwegian Americans, etc.

Here's the table from the Scandinavian American wiki:

1 Minnesota 1,580,776 32.1%
2 California 1,510,541 3.6%
3 Washington 739,043 12.5%
4 Wisconsin 728,248 13.5%
5 Illinois 575,991 4.6%
6 Michigan 403,888 4.0%
7 Texas 359,360 1.4%
8 Florida 355,458 2.1%
9 Oregon 339,031 9.9%
10 Iowa 338,161 11.5%
11 Utah 333,405 14.9%
12 Colorado 291,488 5.9%
13 Arizona 281,388 4.3%
14 New York 254,474 1.3%
15 North Dakota 231,875 36.1%
16 Massachusetts 182,339 2.8%
17 Nebraska 177,522 9.9%
18 South Dakota 172,941 21.5%
19 Pennsylvania 169,294 1.3%
20 Ohio 164,005 1.4%
21 Montana 136,688 14.1%
22 Idaho 136,620 8.9%
23 Missouri 135,340 2.2%
24 Virginia 130,099 1.6%
25 Kansas 124,017 4.4%
26 New Jersey 119,267 1.3%
27 Indiana 118,989 1.8%
28 North Carolina 110,362 1.1%
29 Nevada 102,638 3.9%
30 Connecticut 100,530 2.8%
31 Georgia (U.S. state) 97,209 1.0%
32 Maryland 79,656 1.4%
33 Tennessee 75,615 1.2%
34 Oklahoma 62,145 1.7%
35 Alaska 61,259 8.9%
36 Wyoming 51,755 9.7%
37 New Hampshire 47,955 3.6%
38 Maine 44,955 3.4%
39 Alabama 43,899 0.9%
40 South Carolina 43,306 0.9%
41 New Mexico 41,073 2.0%
42 Arkansas 38,308 1.3%
43 Kentucky 34,592 0.8%
44 Hawaii 30,976 2.4%
45 Louisiana 29,175 0.6%
46 Rhode Island 26,476 2.5%
47 Mississippi 19,501 0.6%
48 Vermont 18,378 2.9%
49 West Virginia 14,519 0.8%
50 Delaware 11,232 1.2%

As you can see, Minnesota is ground zero in terms of both relative (percent) and absolute ("total") populations. Other states ranking highly in both metrics include Wisconsin, Iowa, Utah, Washington, and Oregon. California, Illinois, Michigan, Texas, and Florida have high populations; North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Montana have high percentages. So basically the Midwest and West plus Texas and Florida. They're otherwise poorly represented in the South and are even less represented in the Northeast.

Andersonville is a very popular neighborhood in Chicago founded by Swedes, and it retains/displays the heritage pretty well. I'm not sure if there are any prominent Scandinavian ethnic enclaves in other large American cities, but there are for sure a bunch of thoroughly Scandinavian small towns. (Investigate further here.)

"Eastern European" could mean a ton of different nationalities/ethnicities, so you'll have to be clearer, though it's probably safe to say the answer will be the Northeast and/or Midwest, especially if you're talking about Slavic populations (e.g., Czechs, Poles, Russians, Ukrainians).

Centropolis Sep 18, 2014 1:33 AM

i've always understood the northern midwest and plains as being ground zero, of course including minnesota but just as much north dakota or more so. i've recently returned from seattle, but spent 5 days in outstate washington state and euro-americans in outstate immediately truck me as looking very northern european and many towns resembled lake towns in minnesota. it was even evident in seattle.

Centropolis Sep 18, 2014 1:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wrab (Post 6719876)
NY, PA, IL, Upper Midwest (MN, WI, MI), Pacific NW, California.

By 1900, Chicago's Swedish population was the greatest of any city in the world outside of Stockholm. Link

there's some saying about the swedes in chicago, like the "swedes built chicago," or something, but it always rubbed me the wrong way considering how many different groups built chicago.

Pavlov's Dog Sep 19, 2014 1:13 PM

I can only speak of Norwegians but 150-80 years ago the Upper Plains and Brooklyn were the primary destinations as they went primarily into farming or didn't get far from the harbor in New York for those that weren't too keen to maintain a rural lifestyle in the new world. Even in modern Norwegian we call Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and the Dakotas "The Norwegian States".

80-25 years ago the Puget Sound area along with Alaska were more recent destinations for those getting into fishing and forestry. The fishing industry in Seattle (which fishes in Alaska heavily) is largely Norwegian and the 17th of May parade in the Ballard neighborhood is, I believe, the largest outside Norway.

The past 25 years Houston, Texas has been the primary destination with over 5.000 Norwegians living there. Mostly they are there for energy related work and don't settle down. They are very well paid emigrant group.

Increasingly large number of Norwegians are buying condos and houses in Florida as an alternative to Spain. Most of these are seasonal residents.

JonathanGRR Sep 19, 2014 1:42 PM

Michigan's Upper Peninsula has a large population from Swedish and (primarily) Finnish backgrounds. Various institutions and local foods are a testament to this population.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...cestry.svg.png

mousquet Oct 21, 2014 5:26 PM

What . da . fuck, why do you even care, Michigan? Goddammit, hold on, we're coming at you and it's gonna get more accurate and painful.


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