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Norway, with its 1920 population pegged at 2,691,855, saw 693,450 Norwegians setting sail for American shores, constituting 32.4% of the Scandinavian influx. Denmark, home to 3,268,907 people in 1920, chipped in with 300,008 immigrants, forming 14.1% of the Scandinavian immigration to the US across that century.
Indeed, some estimates suggest that during the great immigrations of the 19th century Norway lost a higher proportion of its people to the U.S. than any country other than Ireland. Recollections of an Immigrant, 1929. Emigration from Norway to North America started more slowly, however.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in the Great Lakes states, the northern Great Plains, and in enclaves scattered among northern U.S. cities, a visitor might imagine that he or she was traveling through a unique new nation—Scandinavian America.
Norsemen had explored the eastern coast of North America as early as the 11th century, though they created no lasting settlements. Later, a Swedish colony briefly existed on the Delaware River during the 17th century.
Before the 19th century, the people of the Scandinavian lands—Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland—had often visited North America. Some came for exploration, some came to launch colonial adventures, and some came to stay and follow their faith.
Norwegian Americans ( Bokmål: Norskamerikanere, Nynorsk: Norskamerikanarar) are Americans with ancestral roots in Norway. Norwegian immigrants went to the United States primarily in the latter half of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th century.
Feb 21, 2024 · Documented Norwegian migration to North America began on July 4, 1825, with the sailing of the sloop Restauration, from Stavanger, bound for New York City. Norwegian Americans have meticulously documented their migration movements, lives of the immigrants, and the developed settlements.
