Sweden
| Kingdom of Sweden Konungariket Sverige
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| Motto: (Royal) "För Sverige i tiden"[a] "For Sweden – With the Times" |
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| Anthem: Du gamla, du fria[b] Thou ancient, thou free Royal anthem: Kungssången The Song of the King |
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![Location of Sweden (dark green)– on the European continent (green & dark grey)– in the European Union (green) — [Legend]](/web/20161212080311/https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EU-Sweden.svg) Location of Sweden (dark green)
– on the European continent (green & dark grey) |
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| Capital and largest city |
Stockholm 59°21′N 18°4′E / 59.35°N 18.067°E |
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| Official languages | Swedish[c] | |||||
| Ethnic groups | 90.8% Swedes[1][d] ~3% Finns[2] and Finnish is recognized as a minority language.[3] ~1% other Nordics ~5,2% other (2011)[4][5] |
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| Demonym | Swedish or Swedes | |||||
| Government | Constitutional monarchy, Unitary parliamentary representative democracy |
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| - | Monarch | King Carl XVI Gustaf | ||||
| - | Prime Minister | Stefan Löfven (SDP) | ||||
| - | Speaker of the riksdag |
Per Westerberg (M) | ||||
| Legislature | Riksdag | |||||
| Consolidation Middle Ages | ||||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 449,964 km2 (57th) 173,745 sq mi |
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| - | Water (%) | 8.7 | ||||
| Population | ||||||
| - | 2012 census | 9,514,406[6] | ||||
| - | Density | 20.6/km2 (195th) 53.8/sq mi |
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| GDP (PPP) | 2011 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $381.719 billion[7] | ||||
| - | Per capita | $40,393[7] | ||||
| GDP (nominal) | 2011 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $538.237 billion[7] | ||||
| - | Per capita | $56,956[7] | ||||
| Gini (2005) | 23 low |
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| HDI (2010) |  0.885[8]very high · 9th |
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| Currency | Swedish krona (SEK) | |||||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | |||||
| - | Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||||
| Date format | yyyy-mm-dd | |||||
| Drives on the | right[e] | |||||
| Calling code | 46 | |||||
| Internet TLD | .se[f] | |||||
| a. ^ För Sverige – I tiden has been adopted by Carl XVI Gustaf as his personal motto. b. ^ Du gamla, du fria has never been officially adopted as national anthem, but is so by convention. |
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Sweden (Swedish: Sverige) is a Nordic country in the part of Europe called Scandinavia. Its neighbors are Finland and Norway. Sweden is also connected to Denmark in the south by a bridge. It is a developed country. It is famous for its welfare state. People who live in Sweden are called Swedes.
Sweden's capital city is Stockholm. Sweden is a constitutional monarchy because it has a king, Carl XVI Gustaf, but he does not have any real power. Sweden is a parliamentary state meaning that the government is elected by the parliament which is appointed by the people. The country is democratically ruled by a government headed by an elected prime minister. Stefan Löfven was elected Prime Minister in September 2014. He took office in October 2014.
The population of Sweden is about 9.9 million people.[12]
Sweden has an official majority language, (called svenska in Swedish). Sweden has five official minority languages, Finnish, Yiddish, Sami, Meänkieli and Romani.
Sweden became a member of the European Union on 1 January 1995. It is not a member of the Eurozone. Sweden has not begun to use the euro as currency. This is because the people have voted against this. The currency remains the Swedish krona (Swedish crown).
Sweden has 25 historical provinces (landskap). They are found in three different regions: Norrland in the North, Svealand, the central region, and Götaland in the South.
History[change | change source]
Sweden has been a country for a thousand years. In the Middle Ages Sweden had the same king as Denmark and Norway. In the early 16th century Sweden got its own king, Gustav Vasa. During the 17th century Sweden was a great power. Sweden had taken Estonia, Latvia and Finland and parts of Norway, Germany and Russia. In the 18th century Sweden became weaker and lost these places. In the early 19th century Sweden's king died without an heir and the Swedish parliament voted for Jean Baptiste Bernadotte as the new king. Bernadotte fought Denmark and made them allow Norway to enter a personal union with Sweden.
This was Sweden's last war and Sweden has not been at war for 200 years. In 1905, the Swedish-Norwegian personal union was dissolved. In many wars, including World War I and the Cold war, the country was neutral, meaning it did not take sides. During World War II, it traded with both the British and the Germans in order to protect its neutrality.
Divisions[change | change source]
Sweden is divided into twenty-one counties. They are Stockholm, Uppsala, Södermanland, Östergötland, Jönköping, Kronoberg, Kalmar, Gotland, Blekinge, Skåne, Halland, Västra Götaland, Värmland, Örebro, Västmanland, Dalarna, Gävleborg, Västernorrland, Jämtland, Västerbotten and Norrbotten.
Religion[change | change source]
Sweden has been Christian for a thousand years. Sweden is traditionally a Protestant country, but it is now one of the least religious countries in the world. 46-85% of all people in Sweden are agnostics or atheists. This means they do not believe in a god.[13] About 6.4 million people in Sweden, that is 67% of all, are members of the Church of Sweden, but only 2% of members go to church often.[14]
Music[change | change source]
In popular music, ABBA, Roxette, Entombed, At the gates, Dark Tranquillity, Hypocrisy, Grave, Dissection, Avicii, Tove Lo, Watain and Ace of Base have had several hits throughout the years.
Sports[change | change source]
- See also: Sweden at the Olympics and Sweden national football team
Sweden is a country with many talents in sports, such as soccer player Zlatan Ibrahimović. Sweden has two bronze medals and one silver medal from the World Cup in football (soccer) - 1950, 1958 and 1994. The soccer league in Sweden is called Allsvenskan. Sweden has also performed well in ice hockey along with the USA, Canada, Finland, Russia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The men's ice hockey top division in Sweden is called SHL. Sweden has also had several successful table tennis players, including Stellan Bengtsson and Jan-Ove Waldner, as well as alpine skiers like Ingemar Stenmark, Pernilla Wiberg and Anja Pärson, as well as biathlete Magdalena Forsberg and tennis players Björn Borg, Mats Wilander and Stefan Edberg.
Sweden also has great success in cross country skiing, having won several medals in the Olympic games.
References[change | change source]
- ↑ "Befolkningsstatistik". www.scb.se. http://www.scb.se/Pages/Product____25785.aspx?produktkod=BE0101&displaypressrelease=true&pressreleaseid=257212. Retrieved 2009-06-16.
- ↑ "På lördag kan 440 000 flagga blått och vitt" (in Swedish). www.scb.se. 2008-12-05. http://www.scb.se/Pages/PressRelease____255905.aspx. Retrieved 2009-06-16.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Landes, David (2009-07-01). "Swedish becomes official 'main language'". The Local. thelocal.se. http://www.thelocal.se/20404/20090701/. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
- ↑ "Summary of Population Statistics 1960–2008". www.scb.se. http://www.scb.se/Pages/TableAndChart____26041.aspx. Retrieved 2010-06-03.
- ↑ Note that Swedish-speaking Finns or other Swedish-speakers born outside Sweden might self-identify as Swedish despite being born abroad. Moreover, people born within Sweden may not be ethnic Swedes.
- ↑ "Befolkningsstatistik". Statistiska centralbyrån. http://www.scb.se/Pages/Product____25799.aspx. Retrieved 2010-05-18.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 "Sweden". International Monetary Fund. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2012/01/weodata/weorept.aspx?pr.x=92&pr.y=3&sy=2009&ey=2012&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=144&s=NGDPD%2CNGDPDPC%2CPPPGDP%2CPPPPC%2CLP&grp=0&a=. Retrieved 2012-04-22.
- ↑ "Human Development Report 2010". United Nations. 2010. http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2010_EN_Table1.pdf. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
- ↑ "Språklagen" (in Swedish). Språkförsvaret. 2009-07-01. http://www.sprakforsvaret.se/sf/fileadmin/PDF/spraklagen_200509.pdf. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
- ↑ "Är svenskan också officiellt språk i Sverige?" (in Swedish). Språkrådet (Language Council of Sweden). 2008-02-01. http://www.sprakradet.se/servlet/GetDoc?meta_id=2119#item100400. Retrieved 2008-06-22.
- ↑ Summary of Population Statistics 1960 – 2008 – Statistics Sweden (proportion of foreign background, including foreign-born and Swedish-born with two foreign-born parents)
- ↑ "Sweden website". Statistics Sweden website. 31 May 2013. https://sweden.se/quick-facts/population/. Retrieved 27 July 2013.
- ↑ Zuckerman, Phil (2007), Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns PDF i Cambridge Companion to Atheism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-60367-6
- ↑ "Liturgy and Worship", Church of Sweden
Other websites[change | change source]
Media related to Sweden at Wikimedia Commons 
Sweden travel guide from Wikivoyage
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