People have spread to Finland from many different directions over the course of the region's history. After the continental glacier retreated and the climate became more temperate, humans began to spread to Finland from the south. This happened approximately 10 000 years ago. These first Finns survived mostly by hunting, fishing and gathering forest goods. 

As this kind of a hunter-gatherer economy was quite inefficient, the population of Finland was quite low. During these early days, the Finnish population was a couple of thousand people in size. It was dispersed mostly along the Finnish coastline. 

The population began to increase only when Finns learned to cultivate crops and to take care of livestock. The first agricultural Finns moved to Finland approximately 4 000–5 000 years ago, probably from the south.

The Swedish-speaking population of Southern and Southwestern Finland developed during the 13th century, when people from Sweden began to move into the coastal areas of Finland. Large Swedish-speaking populations remain in these areas to this day. 

In addition to the Finnish-speaking majority of the population, Finland is home to a large variety of smaller minority groups, of which Swedish-speaking Finns are the largest. They comprise approximately 290 000 or 5,3 % of the total Finnish population.