| Group: | Poles in Sweden Svenskpolacker Szwedzcy Polacy |
| Population: | 115,985 (2022) |
| Popplace: | Stockholm, Malmö |
| Rels: | Christianity (Roman Catholicism, Protestantism), Judaism, Irreligious |
| Langs: | Polish, Yiddish, Swedish |
| Related: | Poles, Ashkenazi Jews |
Poles in Sweden (Swedish: Svenskpolacker) are citizens and residents of Sweden who emigrated from Poland.
According to Statistics Sweden, as of 2022, there are a total 98,387 Poland-born immigrants living in Sweden.[1] Both native Poles, as well as descendants of Polish Jewish immigrants from Poland.[2]
Sweden was the main destination for many immigrants from partitioned Poland. In 1797, Polish national hero Tadeusz Kościuszko stayed in Stockholm and Gothenburg.
In the spring of 1863, armed Polish volunteers from Western Europe assisted by foreigners of various nationalities attempted to reach partitioned Poland by sea via Sweden. This Lapinski expedition stopped on the island of Öland and in Malmö, where it was met with sympathy of the local Swedes.[3] The Swedish authorities, fearing Russia, were forced to put the Poles under arrest, so the Poles departed in May 1863 to attempt a naval landing near Klaipėda.[3]
Some 200 Poles lived in Sweden in the 1920s.[4]
During World War II, the Polish resistance movement, in cooperation with Polish outposts in Sweden, organized escapes of Poles from German-occupied Poland to Sweden by sea.[5]
In 1948, the Polish Veterans Association in Gothenburg was established by former Polish prisoners of Nazi German concentration camps, and in 1962 it was transformed into the Polish Cultural Association in Gothenburg.[6]
In 2010, there were 4,186 students with Polish as their mother tongue who participated in the state-run Swedish for Immigrants adult language program. Of these pupils, 251 had 0–6 years of education in their home country (Antal utbildningsår i hemlandet), 241 had 7–9 years of education in their home country, and 3,694 had 10 years education or more in their home country.[7] As of 2012, 5,100 pupils with Polish as their mother tongue and 5,079 Poland-born students were enrolled in the language program.[8]
There are several Polish organizations in Sweden, incl. the Polish Institute in Stockholm, the Polish Cultural Association in Gothenburg,[9] and Polonia Center in Gothenburg.