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Cake day: February 7th, 2026

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  • I was hoping for better answers than the ones you got! Here’s my take as a Swedish/American dual citizen.

    Swedes and Norwegians are genetically so similar that genetic tests can’t make any meaningful distinction between them. They’ve interbred for thousands of years, since long before Norway and Sweden emerged as distinct kingdoms. Whether your ancestry is more Swedish or Norwegian doesn’t really matter since the two are very closely related genetically, culturally and even linguistically (Swedish and Norwegian languages are highly mutually intelligible). While there’s no way to know for sure without a well researched family tree, you’re almost certainly a mix of the two.

    Unless you’ve researched and know this not to be the case, it’s even possible that your ancestors were from a part of Sweden that was historically Norwegian and that’s why Norwegian culture was passed down to you. For example, Jämtland was ceded to Sweden in 1645 and even today Norwegian culture has a strong presence there.

    Lucky for you, there’s WAY more Norwegian culture in the US than there is Swedish culture. Unless you’re prepared to do some serious genealogical research to arrive at a conclusive answer, I’d say don’t worry about whether you’re technically more Norwegian or Swedish – just keep enjoying the Norwegian culture you’ve known your whole life.