Finnish was the second language of Sweden for centuries. Now Arabic is overtaking it.

Parkvall’s study focused on native languages rather than second languages, which he says are a better judge of what languages are actually spoken in a country (while English is widely spoken in Sweden, relatively few are native speakers). According to Sveriges Radio, in 2012 there were 200,000 people in Sweden who spoke Finnish as their native language, while 155,000 spoke Arabic.

Parkvall told WorldViews that the influx of refugees and migrants from the Middle East has shifted the balance in favor of Arabic over the past few years. Given the lack of hard data it’s hard to say exactly when Arabic will take over Finnish, Parkvall said, but he offered an estimate: “Sort of now.”

Sweden isn’t the only European country to have Arabic as a second most spoken language – Parkvall’s research found it was the same in Denmark and that Arabic was the third most spoken language in France and the Netherlands.