Sweden
Fast facts
- Capital
- Stockholm
- Official language
- Swedish
- Currency
- Swedish krona
- Time zone
- CET
- Drives on
- right
- Calling code
- +46
Facts from Wikipedia’s “Sweden” page (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Sweden () is a Nordic country in the part of Europe called Scandinavia. Its neighbors are Finland and Norway. It is a developed country. It is famous for its welfare state. People who live in Sweden are called Swedes.
The population of Sweden is about 10 million people. Sweden’s capital city is Stockholm, which is also Sweden’s largest city, with almost one million people. Other large cities are Gothenburg and Malmö. These cities are all in the southern half of the country, where it is not as cold as in the north. Swedes drink filmjölk, it is a traditional fermented milk product from Sweden. It is made by fermenting cow’s milk. Glögg, is spiced mulled wine which people drink around Christmas. It normally contains red wine, sugar, orange peel, and spices. Swedes eat yellow pea soup with pork (or pork sausages) along with mustard.
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. Ulf Kristersson was elected Prime Minister in September 2022. He took office in October 2022.
Sweden has an official majority language, Swedish (the Swedish word for the language is svenska). Sweden has five official minority languages: Finnish, Yiddish, Sami, Meänkieli, and Romani.
Sweden became a member of the European Union (EU) on 1 January 1995 and NATO on 7 March 2024. Unlike most countries in the European Union, Sweden is not a member of the Eurozone and has not begun to use the euro as currency. This is because the people have voted against using the euro. The currency remains the Swedish krona (Swedish crown).
History
Sweden has been a kingdom for a thousand years. In the 15th century, during the Kalmar Union, Sweden had the same king as Denmark and Norway. In the early 16th century Sweden got a new 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 did not take sides. During World War II, it traded with both the British and the Germans in order to protect its neutrality.
Region
Sweden has 25 historical provinces (landskap). They are found in three different regions: Norrland in the North, Svealand in the central region, and Götaland in the South.
Counties
Sweden is divided into 21 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.
County governments largely regulate regional public transportation and healthcare.
Municipalities
Sweden is further divided into 290 municipalities. The municipalities are responsible for many social issues, like schools, daycare centers, the care for older and disabled people and fire departments.
Religion
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. Statistical surveys say 46-85% of all people in Sweden are agnostics or atheists. This means that they doubt or they do not believe in the existence of a god. About 6.4 million people in Sweden, which is 67% of all the people, are members of the Church of Sweden, but only 2% of members go to church often.
Music
In popular music, ABBA, Roxette, The Cardigans, Europe, Entombed, At the Gates, In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, Hypocrisy, Grave, Dissection, Avicii, Tove Lo, Laleh, Watain, and Ace of Base have had several hits throughout the years.
Sports
Sweden is a country with many talented athletes, such as soccer player Zlatan Ibrahimović. Sweden (men and women’s teams combined) has five bronze medals and two silver medals from the World Cup in football (soccer). The soccer league in Sweden is called Allsvenskan (men’s) and Damallsvenskan (women’s). Sweden has also performed well in ice hockey. The men’s ice hockey top division in Sweden is called SHL and the women’s SDHL. Sweden has also had several successful table tennis players, including Stellan Bengtsson and Jan-Ove Waldner, as well as alpine skiers including Ingemar Stenmark, Pernilla Wiberg, and Anja Pärson. Other champions include biathlete Magdalena Forsberg and tennis players Björn Borg, Mats Wilander, Stefan Edberg, and Jonas Björkman. Swimmer Sara Sjöström has several gold, silver and bronze medals from the Olympic Games and holds several world records.
Sweden also succeeds in cross-country skiing, having won several medals in the Olympic Games.
Video-Games
The most famous Swedish game is Minecraft, an open-world phenomenon originally created by individual developer Markus Persson before his studio, Mojang Studios, grew into an industry giant. The country is also home to Arrowhead Game Studios, the creative minds behind the massive cooperative shooter Helldivers 2, and EA DICE, a long-running Stockholm studio that built the blockbuster Battlefield franchise. For cooperative adventures, film director turned game designer Josef Fares founded Hazelight Studios in the capital to create the critically acclaimed It Takes Two. Additionally, the nation excels in smaller-scale cult hits, such as the brutal action game Hotline Miami by Jonatan Söderström and Dennis Wedin (Dennaton Games), and the popular survival game Valheim.
Written for younger readers
Sweden, in simpler words
This version comes from Wikijunior, a set of books written for children aged 8 to 11. It is shorter and uses plainer language than the article above.
From Wikijunior: Europe
Sweden is a large country in northern Europe. It is one of the 5 countries of Scandinavia. Sweden shares borders with Norway and Finland. The country is also linked to Denmark by a road bridge. The capital city of Sweden is Stockholm. Other big cities are Göteborg (English: Gothenburg) and Malmö (Malmo). Sweden has been part of the European Union since 1995. Sweden uses the Swedish krona as its currency.
The Vikings, who conquered the British Isles, many parts of western Europe and even visited North America, were from the area which today includes Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The Black Death hit Sweden very hard and large numbers of people were killed in the 14th Century.
During the 17th Century Sweden ruled over the Swedish Empire which included present-day Finland, Estonia, Latvia and parts of Norway, Poland and Germany. After 1709 the empire shrank because of a failed attempt to invade Russia. In the 19th and early 20th century large numbers of Swedish people emigrated to the USA and Canada.
The last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Sweden by military means forced Norway into a personal union with Sweden, a union which lasted until 1905. Sweden remained officially neutral during World War I and World War II.
Sweden covers 449.964 km 2 (173.732 sq mi) of land. Sweden is the third largest country by area in Northern Europe and fourth in all of Europe. Sweden is surrounded by Norway, Finland, the Skagerrak, Kattegat and Öresund straits, and the Baltic Sea. The highest mountain in Sweden is Kebnekaise at 2,111 metres.
Sweden has a temperate climate despite its northern latitude with distinct seasons and mild temperatures both in winter and summer. Sweden is much warmer than other places in the same latitude, mainly because of the Gulf Stream. In southern and central Sweden, summers are pleasantly warm (sometimes hot or cooler for a couple of days) with comfortable cool evenings; while the north experiences cooler temperatures. In the summer the sun hardly sets in Sweden, especially in the far north where it does not set at all. This allows activity until late in the evening, or even through the night. During winter, temperatures are close to freezing in the south, slightly below freezing in the central regions, and very cold, snowy and below freezing for around 6 months in the north.
Yearly average precipitation (rainfall) in most of the country is between 500 and 800 millimeters per year. In some parts though the average is between 1000 and 1700 millimeters. Thunderstorms account for most of the precipitation in the summer. Snowfall usually occurs between November and April, but in northern regions, snow could fall from September to May and stay on the ground for almost 6 months.
Just over 10 million people live in Sweden. The dominant language is Swedish, though it is not an official language. Other languages spoken include Finnish, Meänkieli, Sami, Romani, and Jiddisch. Sweden’s population is mostly made up of Scandinavians and Germans. Today most Swedish people are Atheist but traditionally most of the Swedish population have Christian Lutheranism as their religion. Around 5% of the population are Muslim, mostly because of recent emigration from south-eastern Europe and the Middle East.
All young children from 1-5 years old are guaranteed a place in a public day-care facility. Between ages 6-16, children attend required comprehensive school, divided in three stages. After completing the ninth grade, 90% of students continue with a three-year upper secondary school.
Sweden is the third largest exporter of music in the world after the UK and the USA. ABBA, The Hives, Ace of Base, The Cardigans, Caesars and Roxette are notable groups from Sweden which are popular all around the world.
Sweden is a constitutional monarchy, with King Carl XVI Gustaf as its current head of state.
Sweden is mostly visited by tourists from its neighboring countries Denmark, Norway and Finland. Tourists also come from Germany and the United Kingdom. Sweden has a large number of lakes and forests, and it is very good for fishing and canoeing. There are several large lakes. Walking is quite a popular activity in the summer. There are no very high mountains in Sweden, so climbing is somewhat limited.
Sweden is the 21st most visited country in the world with over 7 million foreign visitors every year. Stockholm is popular with tourists of all types and people often go further north to experience the wild and under-populated parts of Sweden. There are 14 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Sweden including Laponian area (Swedish Lapland) and the ancient town of Visby on the island of Gotland.
Where this page comes from
The article above is adapted from “Sweden” on Simple English Wikipedia, by its contributors. We removed reference markers, navigation boxes and tables, expanded measurement templates into readable numbers, and kept the prose otherwise intact. The simpler version is adapted from Wikijunior on Wikibooks.
Both sources are published under CC BY-SA 4.0, so this page is published under the same licence. You may share and adapt it, including commercially, as long as you credit the original and keep the same licence.
Worksheets, answer keys and printable layouts elsewhere on K5Print are our own work and are not covered by this licence.