The language in Närpes

Närpes is a multicultural society and every fifth resident is foreign-born. About 9600 people live here and the population is slowly but surely approaching 10,000. Most of the inhabitants of Närpes have Swedish as their mother tongue, but when moving around town you hear many different languages in addition to Swedish and Finnish, namely 20 different languages are spoken. 76.4% speak Swedish, 5.3% Finnish and 18.3% other languages. Of the other languages, Vietnamese and Bosnian that are the most common. Almost 40 different spoken languages are present in Närpes. In Närpes, many locals speak a distinct dialect of Swedish.

In Finland we have two official languages, Finnish and Swedish. There is thus a strong multilingual tradition within the region, and e.g. city names or street names are written in both languages such as Närpes in Swedish and Närpiö in Finnish. In Närpes, linguistic and cultural diversity is perceived as a resource.