The tornedalians are a Finnic people, traditionally speaking Meänkieli (which is widely considered to be a Finnish dialect). They constitute a Finnic minority in northern Norway, and along the Swedish side of the Finnish border that follows the Torne Valley. Tornedalians are often considered to be Sweden Finns.

Their minority status was officially recognized by the Swedish government in 1999 by the recognition of Meänkieli as one of the acknowledged minority languages in Sweden. Sweden does not distinguish minority groups in population censuses, but the number of people who identify themselves as Tornedalians is usually estimated to be between 30,000 and 150,000. Estimates are complicated by the fact that their remote and sparsely-populated area has been particularly struck by twentieth century urbanization and unemployment. As a result of the long-lasting effects of Finland's Winter War, Continuation War, and Lapland War, their migration was chiefly to central Sweden, where many Tornedalians strove to assimilate and become indistinguishably Swedish.

Cultural imperialism, in combination with a fear of Russia, led to Swedish attempts to assimilate and “Swedify” the Finnish-speaking population between 1850 and 1950. Since the 1970s, efforts have been made to reverse some of the effects of Swedification, notably education and public broadcasts in Finnish, to raise the status of Finnish. As a result, a written standard of the local dialect Meänkieli has been established and taught, which has given rise to critical remarks from Finland, suggesting that standard Finnish would be of more use to the pupils.

Olaus Magnus (1490–1557) might have referred to the Tornedalians as Bothnians in his Description of the Northern Peoples, since they lived near the Gulf of Bothnia, although he classified their language as Saami.