Finnish Ethnicity in the State of Virginia

Abstrakti

The history of Finns in the state of Virginia dates well into the past, during which Finns have always been a very small minority of the state’s ethnic groups. Since 1970, a change of US Census questions regarding ancestry shows a change in ethnic concentration and an emergence of this ethnicity. Using maps and graphs, the distribution of Finns within the state shows that prior to 1980, Finns tended to cluster in the north-eastern and south-eastern counties of the state, with very little concentration in other counties. Over the past two decades, a stronger presence of Finns is encountered throughout the state. A representative survey of 120 Finns across the state conducted in the winter of 1997–98 indicates that over 75% of the respondents had, indeed, moved to the state after 1970. Reasons for this increase are correlated with employment opportunities with the federal government around Washington DC and with opportunities in the Armed Forces. The paper presents a look at the known history and present conditions of a small, but emerging ethnic population within the state.