Map of Sweden and geographical facts
Sweden on the world map. Map of Sweden with cities
Map of Sweden with cities. Where Sweden is on the world map. The main geographical facts about Sweden - population, country area, capital, official language, religions, industry and culture.
Sweden Fact File
Region Northern Europe
Official name Kingdom of Sweden
Form of government Constitutional monarchy with single legislative body (Parliament = Riksdag)
Capital Stockholm
Area 449,964 sq km (1 73,731 sq miles)
Time zone GMT + 1 hour
Population 8,877,000
Projected population 2015 8,625,000
Population density 19.7 per sq km (51.1 per sq mile)
Life expectancy 79.8
Infant mortality (per 1,000) 3.4
Official language Swedish
Other languages Lapp, Finnish
Literacy rate 99 %
Religions Lutheran 94%, Roman Catholic 1.5%, Pentecostal 1 %, other 3.5%
Ethnic groups Swedish 91 %, others include Lapp, Finnish, Yugoslav, Danish, Norwegian, Greek, Turkish 9%
Currency Swedish krona
Economy Services 68.6%, industry 28.2%, agriculture 3.2%
GNP per capita US$ 25,400
Climate Temperate in the south, with cold winters and mild summers; subpolar in the north, with severe winters
Highest point Kebnekaise 2,111 m (6,926 ft) Map reference Pages 284-85
The fourth largest country in Europe, Sweden shares the Scandinavian Peninsula with Norway, which sits between it and the North
Literacy rate 100 %
Religions Lutheran 94%; Baptist, Pentecostalist, Methodist and Roman Catholic 6%
Ethnic groups Germanic (Nordic, Alpine, Baltic) 97%, others include Lapp minority 3%
Currency Norwegian krone
Economy Services 61 %, industry 36%, agriculture 3%
GNP per capita US$ 31,800
Climate Cold in north and inland, temperate and wet on coast
Highest point Glittertind 2,469 m (8,101 ft)
Map reference Pages 284-85, 286
Norway's long, narrow landmass wraps around the western part of Sweden and the north of Finland and shares a land border with the northwest tip of the Russian Federation. Its rugged western coastline is washed by the North Sea in the south and the Norwegian Sea further north. Its northern tip juts into the Arctic Ocean, making it the northernmost part of Europe. To the south the Skagerrak Strait separates it from the northern tip of Denmark. Like the Swedes and Danes, modern Norwegians are descendents of the Vikings, Teutonic peoples who settled the area and, from the ninth to the eleventh centuries ad, raided and conquered lands to the north, east, and west. In the fourteenth century Denmark, Sweden, and Norway came under Danish rule. Although Sweden became independent in the sixteenth century, Norwegians remained subject to the Danes. In 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, in which Denmark sided with France, control of Norway was transferred to the Swedish crown. The modern Norwegian state dates from 1905, when the country declared its independence. Norway remained neutral in the First World War and was not attacked. However, Nazi forces invaded in 1940 and, despite spirited resistance, subdued the country. Norway joined the NATO alliance in 1949, and in 1994, as already in 1972, attempted to join the European Union, a move that was thwarted when the option was defeated at a referendum. Norway is a parliamentary democracy with a monarch as the titular head of state.
Norway's more than 21,000 km (13,000 miles) of coast is punctuated by deep fiords. Most of the country consists of mountains with deep valleys formed by ancient glaciers. There are also vast areas of high plateaus. More than one-quarter of the land surface is forested, mainly with conifers, and there are many lakes. The population is centered in the lowlands on the southern coasts and in the southeast. Only a tiny proportion of the land area is suitable for cultivation and agriculture is limited mainly to areas around lakes.
Norway has large oil and gas reserves in the North Sea and produces more oil and gas than any other European country. Its electricity, produced mainly from hydroelectric plants, is used largely to power industry. Key industries include pulp and paper manufacture, shipbuilding, and aluminum production. Fishing and fish farming are also major industries and farmed salmon is a main export.
Provinces
Alvsborg • Blekinge • Gavleborg Goteborg and Bohus • Gotland Halland • Jamtland • ]6nk6ping Kalmar • Kopparberg • Kristianstad Kronoberg • Malmohus • Norrbotten Orebro • Ostergotland • Skaraborg Sodermanland • Stockholm • Uppsala Varmland • Vasterbotten Vasternorrland • Vastmanland
Atlantic Ocean.
To the northeast Sweden shares a border with Finland, and its eastern coastline is separated from the west coast of Finland by the Gulf of Bothnia. Its southern shores are washed by the Baltic Sea, and south of the land border with Norway the Kattegat Strait divides it from the northern tip of Denmark. Close to Sweden's southeast tip are Gotland and Oland, the largest of many islands dotted around the Swedish coastline.
By the seventh century ad, Teutonic tribes from the south had occupied much of central Sweden, and between the ninth and the eleventh centuries Swedes took part in Viking raids deep into Russia and south to the Black Sea. Over the following five centuries Sweden and Denmark vied for Scandinavian supremacy. Both Sweden and Norway came under the Danish crown in 1397, but fifty years later the Swedes rebelled and elected their own king. The accession to the Swedish throne in 1523 of Gustav I ended Danish claims to all but the south of Sweden. During the next 200 years Sweden became one of the most powerful states in Europe, annexing parts of Estonia, Finland, and Poland, driving the Danes out of southern Sweden, and playing a crucial role in curbing Habsburg expansion in northern Europe. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, however, a coalition of Russia, Poland, and Denmark forced Sweden to relinquish its Baltic possessions.
At the end of the Napoleonic wars, in 1815, Norway was ceded to Sweden, a union that lasted until 1905. In the mid-nineteenth century the beginnings of parliamentary democracy were introduced in Sweden with the establishment of a two-chamber parliament, although suffrage was limited largely to landowners and industrialists. Universal adult suffrage was introduced in 1919.
Sweden remained neutral in both the First and the Second World Wars. Following the Second World War it tried unsuccessfully to form a military alliance with Denmark and Norway. When these nations joined NATO Sweden did not follow, fearing closer ties with the West might damage its relations with the Soviet Union, and give it an excuse to absorb Finland into the Soviet bloc. Since then, although maintaining a high level of defence preparedness, it has kept its distance from NATO and maintained its reputation for neutrality, for playing an active role in international affairs, and as a negotiator in international disputes.
During the 1960s and early 1970s the Social Democrats, who had laid the foundations of a welfare state since 1932, held the majority of seats in the Riksdag and were able to govern alone. They then inaugurated the more radical socialist policies which came to define modern Swedish politics. Welfare services were extended, and "the Swedish Way" was seen by socialists as a model for the rest of Europe. After 1982 Olof Palme's government introduced what it called a middle way between capitalism and communism, with annual levies on profits and wages which went into "wage-earner funds" used to buy stock in private firms for the benefit of labor. Palme was assassinated in mysterious circumstances in Stockholm in 1986. By then the economic costs of the welfare state were becoming evident. The country had almost zero economic growth, and was becoming less competitive in world markets.
From the late 1970s domestic policy discussion has been less along socialist/capitalist lines and more concerned with ecological issues. Sweden has taken the lead in a number of environmental debates, and has been the venue of influential conferences devoted to such matters as global warming and greenhouse gases. An
application for EC (now EU) membership was lodged in 1992. In 1995 it was admitted to the European Union. Sweden is a constitutional monarchy with a single-chamber parliament that is elected every three years.
Physical features and land use Northeastern Sweden is a region of low plateaus that drop away to a coastal plain along the Gulf of Bothnia, but rise to the Kjolen Mountains along the Norwegian border. Most of the country's more than 95,000 lakes are in this mountainous region. Shaped by ancient glaciers, many of the lakes are in the upper valleys of the numerous rivers that flow east to the Gulf of Bothnia. They are the source of most of Sweden's hydroelectricity, which is gradually replacing nuclear energy as the main means of power generation. The mountains are heavily forested. Despite extensive land clearing for agriculture in the south, well over half the country remains forested, with spruce, pine and birch among the most prominent trees.
Central Sweden is a lowland area that stretches between Stockholm in the east and the country's second largest city, Goteborg, in the southwest. Four large lakes—the only remnants of a strait that once joined the Baltic to the Kattegat Strait— cover much of this region, the most heavily populated part of the country. The rich soils around these lakes support much of Sweden's agricultural produce, which includes cereals and vegetables and fodder crops for large herds of cattle. Dairy farming is the main form of agriculture, and Sweden is self-sufficient in dairy products.
South of the lakes is a low, largely infertile plateau and further south, stretching to the tip of the peninsula and across to the island of Gotland, is a rich plain—the most intensively cultivated part of the country. Significant areas of woodland still survive here, dotted between stretches of farming and grazing land.
Although it lacks oil and coal reserves, Sweden is rich in mineral resources, most of which are concentrated in the northeast. These include iron ore, zinc, lead, copper, and silver, and almost one-sixth of the world's known reserves of uranium.
Sweden industry, commerce, and culture
Sweden's vast forests are the basis for timber and paper manufacturing industries that form almost one-fifth of the country's exports. Machines, cars, trucks, aircraft, chemical and electrical goods, and communication equipment are among the chief manufacturing industries, based in the central region and Malmo in the southwest.
Apart from the Saami people (Lapps) in the far north of the country, Sweden is ethnically and culturally quite homogeneous. Despite there being a relatively high rate of unemployment, its citizens enjoy one of the highest standards of living in Europe and an extensive range of government-provided social services. Sweden also boasts one of Europe's highest rates of female participation throughout its workforce.