Finnish Americans, residents of the United States who trace their ancestry to Finland. Some 798,000 people claimed Finnish heritage in the 2000 U.S. census. Finnish Americans live throughout the northern states from Maine to Washington and are especially concentrated in the northern portions of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

The overwhelming majority of Finnish immigrants are Lutherans (see Lutheranism). The Finnish language, still spoken by more than 50,000 people in the United States, is unrelated to the Indo-European languages spoken by most Americans, making translation and comprehension difficult. Although the Finnish language helps maintain Finnish identity in the United States, it often separates Finnish immigrants from English-speaking Americans and other immigrant groups.

For most of its history, Finland was incorporated into the Kingdom of Sweden. Finns were among the settlers who founded New Sweden, a Swedish colony that existed between 1638 and 1654 in the area of present-day Delaware. Finland became part of the Russian Empire in 1809. In 1864 Finnish miners were recruited to work in the copper mines of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Emigration from Finland grew gradually between the 1870s and the 1890s, reaching its highest levels after the turn of the century. Almost half of the 300,000 Finns who eventually settled in the United States immigrated between 1900 and 1914.

The majority of these Finnish immigrants came to the United States for economic reasons. Although Finnish industry began to expand during the late 19th century, their economy remained based primarily on farming. Finnish laws guaranteed that the eldest male in the family would inherit all land, creating an incentive for the younger sons to seek their fortunes abroad. Political developments also compelled many people to leave Finland. In 1899 Russia launched a program of “Russification” in Finland, designed to force Finns to adopt the Russian language and culture. Finns were required to serve in the Russian army for the first time in 1901. Many young Finns left the country to avoid military service. In 1906 socialists in Finland circulated a document known as the Vyborg Manifesto, which urged Finns to protest Russian rule by refusing to pay taxes or serve in the army. When the Russians imprisoned the leaders of this movement, many Finnish socialists fled to the United States.

Most Finnish immigrants were young men from farms in northwest Finland. About 98 percent of them were literate in Finnish, because the state church of Finland had insisted that every member be able to read the Bible. In the United States, Finnish men worked in industries such as mining, lumber, and fishing. Many Finnish women found employment as domestic workers for wealthy American families.

Finnish American settlement expanded from the copper-mining region in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan to the iron-mining districts of northeastern Minnesota. Although Finnish Americans established communities throughout the northern United States, over 60 percent of Finnish Americans settled in the northern parts of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. After working for a few years in mining or other industrial jobs, many established farms on unowned land that could be claimed by settlers under the Homestead Laws.

Finnish immigrants comprised a diverse group. Some were extremely conservative Laestadians, members of a religious movement established in Finland in the early 1800s. At the other end of the spectrum were Finnish American Communists, 6,000 of whom left the United States for the Soviet province of Karelia during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Finnish Americans actively took part in labor unions and the temperance movement, the campaign to restrict or ban the sale of alcoholic beverages. Finns formed associations, societies, and cooperatives of all kinds: workingmen’s associations, fraternal orders, gymnastic clubs, debate societies, drama groups, reading circles, and publishing associations. Most of these groups had women’s auxiliaries and youth leagues.

Nearly a century and a half after the first Finns came to the United States, their descendants still take pride in being Finnish. The best-known Finnish contribution to American popular culture is the sauna, or dry steam bath. In a sauna, rocks are heated in a crib on top of the sauna stove. Then water is ladled on the heated rocks, creating a burst that can momentarily be as hot as 79° to 93° C (175° to 200° F). Many health clubs and hotels throughout the United States feature saunas.