Tornedalians (Meänkieli: tornionlaaksolaiset; Finnish: tornionjokilaaksolaiset; Swedish: tornedalingar) are an ethnic minority native to the Meänmaa (Torne Valley) region in northern Sweden and Finland. Tornedalians may refer to themselves using several different terms, though most commonly as Tornedalians, Kvens or Lantalaiset. Tornedalians were officially recognized as a national minority in Sweden in 2000.
Kvens (Kven: kvääni; Finnish: kveeni; Norwegian: kvener; Swedish: kväner; Northern Sami: kveanat) are a Balto-Finnic ethnic group in Northern Norway. In 1996, Kvens were granted minority status in Norway, and in 2005 the Kven language was recognized as a minority language in Norway.
The term Kven is sometimes used more broadly to include the Tornedalians, a closely related Balto-Finnic minority group in northern Sweden.
Finns or Finnish people (Finnish: suomalaiset, IPA: [ˈsuo̯mɑlɑi̯set]) are a Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland. Finns are traditionally divided into smaller regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland, both those who are native to these countries as well as those who have resettled. Some of these may be classified as separate ethnic groups, rather than subgroups of Finns. These include the Kvens and Forest Finns in Norway, the Tornedalians in Sweden, and the Ingrian Finns in Russia.
Finnish, the language spoken by Finns, is closely related to other Balto-Finnic languages such as Estonian and Karelian. The Finnic languages are a subgroup of the larger Uralic family of languages, which also includes Hungarian. These languages are markedly different from most other languages spoken in Europe, which belong to the Indo-European family of languages. Native Finns can also be divided according to dialect into subgroups sometimes called heimo (lit. 'tribe'), although such divisions have become less important due to internal migration.
The Baltic Finnic peoples, often simply referred to as the Finnic peoples, are the peoples inhabiting the Baltic Sea region in Northern and Eastern Europe who speak Finnic languages. They include the Finns, Estonians (including Võros and Setos), Karelians (including Ludes and Livvi), Veps, Izhorians, Votes, and Livonians. In some cases the Kvens, Ingrians, Tornedalians and speakers of Meänkieli are considered separate from the Finns.
The bulk of the Finnic peoples (more than 98%) are ethnic Finns and Estonians, who reside in the two independent Finnic nation states—Finland and Estonia.
The State Institute for Racial Biology (SIRB, Swedish: Statens institut för rasbiologi, SIFR) was a Swedish governmental research institute founded in 1922 with the stated purpose of studying eugenics and human genetics. It was the most prominent institution for the study of "racial science" in Sweden. It was located in Uppsala. In 1958, it was renamed to the State Institute for Human Genetics (Institutionen för medicinisk genetik) and is today incorporated as a department of Uppsala University.
The institute's first head was Herman Lundborg. He retired in 1935. He was succeeded by Gunnar Dahlberg. An early research priority was studying the commonness of the "Nordic" racial traits in the Swedish population and the alleged downsides of race-mixing between the majority population and Finns and the Sámi people. Between 1936 and 1960, the majority of research projects at SIRB concerned medical genetics but racial science was still an important aspect of the institute.