It is very difficult to find official census data on languages in Sweden. As stated in the sixth periodical report for the ECRML from Sweden: “Sweden does not compile official statistics on the ethnic origins of individuals, other than their citizenship and country of birth, because no methods are available for determining ethnic origin that are both ethically acceptable and scientifically reliable. There are thus no official statistics with regard to ethnic, linguistic or cultural affiliation. On the other hand, collected data and knowledge about national minorities are available, based on qualitative and quantitative studies of various types, where participants have contributed voluntarily” and that “Sweden takes a restrictive view of statistics and data collection in relation, inter alia, to the national minorities, and there is good reason to uphold this approach”; also since some minority groups “partly for historical reasons, take a negative attitude”. (For more information, please refer to Research Brief #2) There is no official national data on the number of Sign Language users in Sweden; the Swedish Language Council estimated that around 30 000 people use Swedish Sign Language, of which 13 000 have Swedish Sign Language as their mother tongue. Swedish Sign Language (STS) has often been described as being the first officially recognised sign language in the world (1981) – however, as Larsdotter et al. pointed out in 2025 (link below), that the implementation of these rights was left ambiguous and STS is not granted the same rights as Sweden’s minority languages.