. . . of course, there are many excellent travel books about Sweden and Stockholm which you might wish to pick up for your trip. Facts: Area: 450,000 km² (174,000 sq. mi.), third largest country in Western Europe Forests: 53% Mountains: 11% Cultivated land: 8% Lakes and rivers: 9% Longest north-south distance: 1,574 km (978 mi.) Longest east-west distance: 499 km (310 mi.) Capital: Stockholm Population: 9 million inhabitants Languages: Swedish; recognized minority languages: Sami (Lapp), Finnish, Meänkieli (Tornedalen Finnish), Yiddish, Romani Chib (a Gypsy language). Form of government: Constitutional monarchy, parliamentary democracy. Parliament: The Riksdag, with 349 members in one chamber. Religion: 80% belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sweden. Average life expectancy: men 78 years, women 82 years. Most important export goods: Electrical and telecom equipment, machinery, passenger cars, paper, pharmaceuticals, iron and steel. Most important imported goods: Electrical and telecom equipment, machinery, foodstuffs, crude oil, textile products, footwear, passenger cars. Average temperatures: JANUARY JULY Malmö -0.2° C (+31.6° F) + 16.8° C (62.2° F) Stockholm -2.8° C (+27.0° F) +17.2° C (63.0° F) Kiruna -16.0° C (+3.2° F) +12.8° C (55.0° F) Daylight: JANUARY 1 JULY 1 Malmö 7 hours 17 hours Stockholm 6 hours 18 hours Kiruna 0 hours 24 hours |
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Sweden's cultural heritage can be described as largely based on a skillful reshaping of impulses borrowed from other, larger cultures. But deep down there is a uniquely Swedish poetic tone, characterized by simplicity, but also wit and sensitivity to new impressions, as well as an ever-present love - and respect - for our Nordic natural scenery, which is evident in great Swedish artists like August Strindberg, Ingmar Bergman and Astrid Lindgren. International observers are often amazed at the richness and diversity of the Swedish cultural heritage. Many foreign visitors can hardly believe that Swedish culture is too young to have experienced such epochs as classical antiquity and the Renaissance. Swedish culture is characterized by a constant longing for greatness and a refusal to be content with the role of a small backwater far from the main highway. This applies to literature, design, art, cinema, dance, opera and theater, classic and modern music, architecture, art handicrafts and many other cultural expressions. During the past decade, Swedish creative culture has undergone a rebirth and opened its doors wide to other countries. The phenomenon of contemporary Swedish creativity has attracted attention internationally, in traditional cultural genres such as literature and art, and especially in more recently recognized art forms such as design, fashion, pop music and gastronomy. |
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During the 20th century, what is often described as the "Swedish economic miracle" occurred. In the space of a few decades, a poor agrarian country was transformed into one of the world's most prosperous and sophisticated industrial nations. The foundation for this amazing growth was northern Sweden's enormous wealth of forests, ore and hydroelectric power. The value of these natural resources was enhanced by a long series of ingenious Swedish inventions and refinements of inventions - the steam turbine, the roller bearing, the gas-powered beacon, the telephone, the cream separator, the safety match, the adjustable wrench, the Tetra Pak beverage packaging system, the AXE System (computer-controlled digital telephone switching system), the Brånemark® System (osseointegration), and the Leksell® Gamma knife, to name only a few. Even today, this kind of engineering brilliance remains at the core of the Swedish business sector. With an insufficient domestic market, major Swedish companies were "forced" right from the start to invest in exporting to customers worldwide. In many cases, this early globalization is regarded as having given Swedish companies a leg up in international competition - one reason why Sweden today has an extremely large number of multinational corporations and brands for its modest population. Volvo, Saab, Ericsson, ABB, AstraZeneca, Electrolux, IKEA, H&M, Hasselblad and Absolut are only a few of these Swedish-rooted companies and brands. Although raw materials and processed raw materials still account for a sizable proportion of Swedish exports, the future of Swedish business is said to lie primarily in knowledge-intensive industries, where Sweden can take advantage of its advanced technological development, sophisticated infrastructure and high general educational level. Information technology (IT) and biomedicine are two such knowledge-intensive sectors in which Sweden has been among the global leaders for years. Aside from these, nowadays a third Swedish industry of the future is mentioned increasingly often - the "experience industry." This concept is a new, comprehensive label for such inter- related creative sectors as design, music, fashion, the art industry, gastronomy, media, advertising and tourism, in which Sweden has experienced a creative revolution over the past decade that has attracted worldwide attention and given the country substantial new export income. |
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Education & Research
The principle of access to free (tax-financed) education for the whole population, throughout life, is among the pillars of the Swedish welfare state. Education begins in day care centers and preschools, which an overwhelming majority of all Swedish children attend, then continues with the nine-year compulsory school and the voluntary upper secondary school, to which practically all Swedish youngsters continue nowadays. More remarkable in an international perspective is that university and college education in Sweden is also heavily tax-financed and thus more or less free, as well as supported by a generous system of study loans and grants that makes higher education accessible to people from all social classes. During the past decade, large investments have been made in higher education and the number of students has risen by 50 percent. Also characteristic of the Swedish educational ethos are extensive publicly subsidized systems of further education, retraining, adult schools and study circles. In addition, the private business sector offers a well-developed system of further education and self-improvement. In a highly developed industrial nation like Sweden, with a steady and insatiable need for advanced knowledge, research plays a key role as an investment in the future. Sweden has a long history of ambitious research and development programs, both in the private business sector and the public sector - and often including collaboration between the two. Sweden tops European comparative statistics both in terms of research investments as a percentage of GDP and in the number of published scientific works per capita. |
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Sweden is a constitutional monarchy, in which King Carl XVI Gustaf is head of state, but royal power has long been limited to official and ceremonial functions. The nation's legislature is the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag), with 349 members. Parliamentary elections are held every four years. After the 2006 election, twelve years of Social Democratic government ended when the four Alliance parties – the Moderates (formerly Conservatives), Liberals, Center (formerly Agrarians) and Christian Democrats – formed a government. The prime minister is the 41-year chairman of the Moderates. The Social Democrats, who ruled Sweden for most of the 20th century and enjoyed a uniquely dominant position of power over national policy compared to other Western European countries, turned in one of their worst election performances ever. In the new Parliament they are in opposition along with the Left Party (ex-communists) and the Green Party. After the 2006 election, the Riksdag set a new "world record" because 47 percent of its elected members are women. Sweden has a history of strong political involvement by ordinary people through its "popular movements" - trade unions, the women's movement, the temperance movement, the sports movement and many more. Election turnout in Sweden has always been very high in international comparisons. In Sweden it is often portrayed as a serious democratic problem that this political involvement has declined in recent decades. Voter turnout has fallen, though only to 80 percent, which is still a high figure in international terms. Throughout the 20th century, Swedish foreign policy was based on the principle of non-alignment in peacetime, neutrality in wartime. Since 1995 Sweden has been a member of the European Union, and as a consequence of a new world security situation the country's foreign policy doctrine has been partly modified, with Sweden playing a more active role in European security cooperation as well. Sweden is also very active in international peace efforts, especially through the United Nations, and in support to the Third World. |
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During the 20th century, at the price of the world's highest tax burden, Sweden built up what is often called the world's most generous general social welfare system, with such elements as virtually free (that is, tax-financed) schools, child care, health care, pensions, elder care, social services and various economic security systems. Although Sweden has always been a solid market economy, the Social Democratic governments in power for most of the 20th century borrowed many ideas from socialism. Swedish prosperity has been redistributed among the population to a greater degree than in perhaps any other country. "From each according to ability, to each according to needs" - that was the radical basic doctrine of a welfare state in which all inhabitants would always be guaranteed basic economic security in all stages of life. This welfare state, known in Sweden as the "home of the people," was a unique experiment in social engineering that has attracted great attention among political scientists and politicians worldwide. Many of its features have been emulated in other countries. The international labels for the Swedish model are numerous -"the middle way," "the country that protects its citizens from the cradle to the grave" or simply "the Swedish model," to name just a few. In recent decades, once the country's previous steady, high economic growth had come to an end, the Swedish welfare state has been under heavy pressures. Today the country's economic security systems are financially burdened and are struggling with serious structural problems. Without a doubt, Sweden has become "harder around the edges." Yet the main features of the Swedish welfare state, with its publicly guaranteed and publicly financed safety net for everyone in the country, so far remain intact. |
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Sweden is a nation of amateur athletes and physical exercise enthusiasts. The Swedes love their grandiose Nordic nature above all else, and what most of them mean by "enjoying nature" is taking active advantage of it - by going out hiking, jogging, cross-country or Alpine skiing, long-distance ice skating, sailing, paddling a canoe, fishing, playing soccer (European football) or golf and practicing just about all other imaginable sports and leisure activities. The Swedish "sports movement" is highly developed and well-dispersed. It reaches a large proportion of the population - men and women, people of all social classes and of all ages. This active lifestyle is one reason why Swedes as a whole are in comparatively good health and have one of the world's longest average life expectancies. The breadth and popular support enjoyed by the Swedish sports movement also help explain why Sweden, considering its small population, has achieved remarkable success in major sports such as tennis, skiing, ice hockey, soccer and golf. The list of Swedish global sports stars of today and yesterday is long. Björn Borg, Mats Wilander and Stefan Edberg (tennis), Ingemar Stenmark and Pernilla Wiberg (Alpine skiing), Gunde Svan (cross-country skiing) and Jan-Ove Waldner (table tennis) are only a few of the major names from the past three decades. Among today's biggest Swedish sports stars are Annika Sörenstam (golf), Anja Pärson (Alpine skiing), Peter Forsberg, Mats Sundin and Niklas Lidström (ice hockey), Stefan Holm, Christian Olsson, Carolina Klüft and Kajsa Bergqvist (track and field) and Fredrik Ljungberg and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (soccer). |
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Sweden is a large country with long distances, a comparatively small population and a sometimes severe winter climate. During the 20th century, when Sweden was transformed in record time from a backward agrarian country into one of the world's strongest, most advanced industrial nations, there were thus heavy demands for infrastructure, transportation, communications and technological development. This background is one explanation for Sweden's sophisticated infrastructure and high degree of technological maturity today. Looking at infrastructure, this high degree of development is reflected in everything from the road and highway network, the railroads and other transportation systems to IT, a field in which Sweden is sometimes classified as the most developed nation in the world. One of the many eloquent indications of Sweden's internationally recognized speed in adopting new technology is that in 1900, Stockholm had more telephones - in absolute numbers - than London, Paris or Berlin. Sweden and the Swedish people have become so famous for their openness to new technology, new trends and patterns of behavior and consumption that to a growing extent, the country has come to be used as a test market by major multinational corporations in the development of new products and services. |
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On the whole, the Swedes are extremely well-traveled. Travel by charter tour packages took off in earnest during the 1950s, first to Mallorca and later the Canary Islands (Spain). Today travel has expanded to the point where it has become common among Swedish young people to make round-the-world trips and for Swedish middle-class families to travel as far as Thailand on their winter vacations. Heavy travel is an important explanation for the Swedish people's high degree of internationalization and good knowledge of English and other languages. A significantly more recent phenomenon is that travel into and out of Sweden is well on its way toward reaching a balance. Foreign tourism in Sweden has increased dramatically in recent years. What can be called "nature tourism" still accounts for most such travel. Sweden's exceptional natural scenery and enormous tracts of untouched wilderness are a major attraction to the inhabitants of more densely populated parts of Europe and the world. People from around the globe travel to Lapland to experience the magnificent natural scenery and such exotic phenomena as the midnight sun, the aurora borealis (northern lights), Arctic chill and total silence. During the warmer half of the year, people mainly from other countries of Europe travel to all parts of Sweden to enjoy the luxury of peaceful solitude in a splendid natural setting. However, the type of tourism in Sweden that has grown the fastest by far in recent years is big-city tourism. Stockholm has become a world attraction, luring tourists from all over the world with its unique mixture of natural beauty, cultural heritage and modern international urban culture, including its dynamic design, fashion, gastronomic, music, art and entertainment scenes. The country's second-largest city, Göteborg (Gothenburg), is a hub for maritime traffic on the North Sea and also has plenty to offer people in search of entertainment and cultural experiences. Since the opening of the Öresund Bridge, Sweden's third-largest city, Malmö, has joined the Danish capital of Copenhagen to form an exciting new cross-border metropolitan region. Copied without permission from SWEDEN.SE, which is administered by the Swedish Institute. It is a cooperative effort by: Swedish Government Offices, Swedish Trade Council, Invest in Sweden Agency, VisitSweden and the Swedish Institute.
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