were lifted to take care of war refugees, but the figures for Finland were not altered, and 1954 again saw but 560 new Finnish immigrants in the United States. 45 However, to these numbers must be added the occasional few returning to the United States and receiving permission to stay permanently, being American citizens by birth.

Using the figures of immigrants arriving annually as a guide, many have tried to estimate the total number of Finnish Americans at any given time. However, the only relatively accurate basis for any such figure are given in the Bureau of the Census compilation by decades, which have listed the numbers of Finns, born in Finland, and living in the United States, as follows

1900    62,641   1930    142,478

1910    129,669   1940    117,210

1920    149,824   1950    95,506 (46)

In addition, the Census figures list second generation numbers, too; that is, when one or both parents have been foreign born, and in the case of those of Finnish descent, the 1940 figure came to 168,080, and the 1950 figure to 172,370.47 Beyond this the statistics do not go, and yet, even three and four generations of Finnish descent are not unusual, and a few fifth generation Finns are known. At the same time, of course, there have been mixed marriages as well, but to try to measure the degree of Finnish blood thus involved would amount to pure conjecture.

In 1925, the pastor and historian Salomon Ilmonen estimated the total number of Finns in the United States to be 422,000. The following year Consul Edwin Lundström made a tabulation by geographic areas and arrived at a total of 349,000.48 Teo Snellman published a study in 1929 in which the number of Finns in the United States was estimated to be 400,000, with another 70,000 in Canada. 49 On the other hand, Elis Sulkanen maintained in 1951 that the number of Finns never exceeded 400,000.50 All the estimates given remain basically unreliable on one point: although it can be quite accurately stated how many Finns left Finland and in part, also, how many of them actually arrived in the United States, information on how many of them later returned permanently to Finland remains vague.

45. New York Times, March 4, 1955.

46. U. S. Census of Population, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940 and 1950.

47. U. S. Department of Commerce. Official Copy on March 29, 1954. Series PC-14 No. 20. 48. E. Sulkanen, op. cit. p. 20.

49. Teo Snellman, Ulkokansalaistoiminta ja Siirtolaisten Huolto I. Helsinki, 1929. p. 16. 50. E. Sulkanen, op. cit. p. 20.

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