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| Sweden | Plants and Animal | Back to Top |
Alpine and arctic vegetation prevail in northern Sweden. The highest mountain areas are barren of vegetation; the next highest regions are moorlands with various kinds of mosses and lichens. Below the moorlands is a zone of birch and willow trees, often dwarfed and stunted. The next lower, and largest, zone is covered with coniferous forests, primarily of spruce and Scotch pine. In the south, deciduous trees, including oak and beech, are found. Roe deer and elk are plentiful in Sweden’s forests. Reindeer are common in the north, where they are herded by the Saami. Bears, lynx, and wolves are now quite rare. Lemmings are abundant in the upland moorlands. Various wild birds are plentiful, with many rare species protected in nature preserves.
| Sweden | Communications | Back to Top |
excellent domestic and international facilities; automatic system domestic: coaxial and multiconductor cables carry most of the voice traffic; parallel microwave radio relay systems carry some additional telephone channels international: 5 submarine coaxial cables; satellite earth stations - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean), 1 Eutelsat, and 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions); note - Sweden shares the Inmarsat earth station with the other Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Norway)
| Sweden | Culture | Back to Top |
The genuine rural folk traditions are disappearing with increasing settlement in urban areas. Among those still vital in Gotland, Dalarna, and various other areas are special national costumes, dances, folk music, and the like, and many traditions are retained even in urban settlements. Spring is celebrated on the last night of April with bonfires and song across the country. This is a great students' festival in university towns, such as Uppsala and Lund. The bright Midsummer Eve is celebrated around June 24, about the time of the year's longest day; in the ceremony a large pole, decorated with flowers and leaves, is placed into the ground. Some celebrations have a religious association: Advent, St. Lucia's Day, Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide. Pagan elements are still sometimes evident in these holiday ceremonies.
Sweden has developed a modern industrial culture based on natural resources, technical skills, and a sense of quality. The people have tended to maintain provincial traditions and customs because of the isolated location of the country. Swedish society and life are characterized by simplicity and even severity resulting from geographic and economic conditions. Over the centuries, however, Swedish traders have returned with ideas and products that have been assimilated into Swedish culture. In the 18th century French influence was especially important in modifying Swedish culture.
J.H. Roman, an 18th-century composer, has been called the father of Swedish music, but the Romantic composer Franz Berwald received wider acclaim for his 19th-century symphonies and other works. Notable 20th-century composers include the “Monday group,” who were inspired by the antiromantic Hilding Rosenberg in the 1920s and drew also upon leading modern composers from abroad. The vital Swedish folk song has been developed further by a number of musicians. A number of Swedish opera singers, among them Jenny Lind, Jussi Björling, and Birgit Nilsson, gained renown throughout the world.
| Sweden | Defence | Back to Top |
Military branches: Swedish Army, Royal Swedish Navy, Swedish Air Force
Military manpower - military age: 19 years of age
Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 2,062,566 (2001 est.)
Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 1,803,995 (2001 est.)
Military manpower - reaching military age annually: males: 51,506 (2001 est.)
| Sweden | International Disputes | Back to Top |
none
| Sweden | Economy | Back to Top |
Sweden has an urban industrialized economy based primarily on extensive forests, rich iron-ore deposits, and abundant waterpower resources. Although more than 90 percent of Swedish industry is privately owned, the government exercises substantial control over the economy to moderate economic fluctuations. The national budget in 1998 included revenues of $90.9 billion and expenditures of $99 billion. Although Sweden enjoys one of the world’s highest standards of living, the country has experienced a serious recession since 1991. The Swedish government has responded with austerity measures and a reassessment of its traditional commitment to full employment and the welfare state. Steps taken include a 10 percent reduction in civil service employment.
Sweden's gross national product (GNP) per capita is among the highest in the world, but so are its taxes. Most enterprises are privately owned and market-oriented, but roughly 60 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) passes through the public sector if transfer payments, such as pensions, sick pay, and child allowances, are included. Government involvement in the distribution of national income, however, has lessened since 1983. With the value of exports amounting to 30 percent of its GDP, Sweden is highly dependent on free international trade to maintain its living standard. In 1991 Sweden attached its currency to the European Currency Unit (ECU) and applied for full membership in the European Community (EC). Sweden also has to cope with problems of competitiveness that have caused industry to invest much more abroad than at home. Most of Sweden's large industrial companies today are transnational, and some employ more people abroad than in Sweden, where production costs are high.
Aided by peace and neutrality for the whole twentieth century, Sweden has achieved an enviable standard of living under a mixed system of high-tech capitalism and extensive welfare benefits. It has a modern distribution system, excellent internal and external communications, and a skilled labor force. Timber, hydropower, and iron ore constitute the resource base of an economy heavily oriented toward foreign trade. Privately owned firms account for about 90% of industrial output, of which the engineering sector accounts for 50% of output and exports. Agriculture accounts for only 2% of GDP and 2% of the jobs. In recent years, however, this extraordinarily favorable picture has been somewhat clouded by budgetary difficulties, high unemployment, and a gradual loss of competitiveness in international markets. Sweden has harmonized its economic policies with those of the EU, which it joined at the start of 1995. GDP growth is forecast for 4% in 2001.
| Sweden | Education | Back to Top |
In 1842 education in Sweden was made free and compulsory for all children between the ages of 7 and 14. The school system consisted of infant schools (7 to 9 years old) and elementary schools (9 to 14 years old). Children who did not attend public schools were required to provide evidence of private education. The Education Act of 1950 fundamentally changed Swedish education by abandoning the traditional two-track (university preparation and vocational education) school system of Europe and instituting the comprehensive, unitary system typical of the United States.
| Sweden | Government | Back to Top |
Popular government in Sweden rests upon ancient tradition. The Swedish parliament (Riksdag) stems from tribal courts (Ting) and the election of kings in the Viking age. It became a permanent institution in the 15th century. Sweden's government is a limited constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system. Executive authority is vested in the cabinet, which consists of a prime minister and 20 ministers who run the government departments. The present Social Democratic government, led by Prime Minister Göran Persson, came to power in 1994 after losing power briefly in 1991. King Carl XVI Gustaf (Bernadotte) ascended to the throne on September 15, 1973. His authority is formal, symbolic, and representational.
The unicameral Riksdag has 349 members, popularly elected every 4 years and is in session generally from September through mid-June.
Sweden is divided into 21 counties and 289 municipalities. Each county (län) is headed by a governor, who is appointed by the central government. Each county has a popularly elected council with the power of taxation, and each council has particular responsibility for education, public transportation, health, and medical care. Elected municipal councils are headed by executive committees roughly analogous to the boards of commissioners found in some U.S. cities.
Swedish law, drawing on Germanic, Roman, and Anglo-American law, is neither as codified as in France and other countries influenced by the Napoleonic Code, nor as dependent on judicial practice and precedents as in the United States. Legislative and judicial institutions include, in addition to the Riksdag, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, the Labor Court, Commissions of Inquiry, the Law Council, District Courts and Courts of Appeal, the Chief Public Prosecutor, the Bar Association, and ombudsmen who oversee the application of laws with particular attention to abuses of authority.
| Sweden | History | Back to Top |
During the seventh and eighth centuries, the Swedes were merchant seamen well known for their far-reaching trade. In the ninth century, Nordic Vikings raided and ravaged the European Continent as far as the Black and Caspian Seas. During the 11th and 12th centuries, Sweden gradually became a unified Christian kingdom that later included Finland. Queen Margaret of Denmark united all the Nordic lands in the "Kalmar Union" in 1397. Continual tension within the countries and within the union gradually led to open conflict between the Swedes and the Danes in the 15th century. The union's final disintegration in the early 16th century brought on a long-lived rivalry between Norway and Denmark on one side and Sweden and Finland on the other
In the 16th century, Gustav Vasa fought for an independent Sweden crushing an attempt to restore the Kalmar Union and laying the foundation for modern Sweden. At the same time, he broke with the Catholic Church and established the Reformation. During the 17th century, after winning wars against Denmark, Russia, and Poland, Sweden-Finland (with scarcely more than 1 million inhabitants) emerged as a great power. Its contributions during the Thirty Years War under Gustav II Adolf (Gustavus Adolphus) determined the political as well as the religious balance of power in Europe. By 1658, Sweden ruled several provinces of Denmark as well as what is now Finland, Ingermanland (in which St. Petersburg is located), Estonia, Latvia, and important coastal towns and other areas of northern Germany.
Russia, Saxony-Poland, and Denmark-Norway pooled their power in 1700 and attacked the Swedish-Finnish empire. Although the young Swedish King Karl XII (also known as Charles XII) won spectacular victories in the early years of the Great Northern War, his plan to attack Moscow and force Russia into peace proved too ambitious; he fell in battle in 1718. In the subsequent peace treaties, the allied powers, joined by Prussia and England-Hanover, ended Sweden's reign as a great power.
Sweden suffered further territorial losses during the Napoleonic wars and was forced to cede Finland to Russia in 1809. The following year, the Swedish King's adopted heir, French Marshal Bernadotte, was elected Crown Prince as Karl Johan by the Riksdag. In 1813, his forces joined the allies against Napoleon. The Congress of Vienna compensated Sweden for its lost German territory through a merger of the Swedish and Norwegian crowns in a dual monarchy, which lasted until 1905, when it was peacefully dissolved at Norway's request.
Sweden's predominantly agricultural economy shifted gradually from village to private farm-based agriculture during the Industrial Revolution, but this change failed to bring economic and social improvements commensurate with the rate of population growth. About 1 million Swedes immigrated to the United States between 1850 and 1890.
The 19th century was marked by the emergence of a liberal opposition press, the abolition of guild monopolies in trade and manufacturing in favor of free enterprise, the introduction of taxation and voting reforms, the installation of a national military service, and the rise in the electorate of three major party groups--Social Democratic, Liberal, and Conservative.
During and after World War I, in which Sweden remained neutral, the country benefited from the worldwide demand for Swedish steel, ball bearings, wood pulp, and matches. Postwar prosperity provided the foundations for the social welfare policies characteristic of modern Sweden. Foreign policy concerns in the 1930s centered on Soviet and German expansionism, which stimulated abortive efforts at Nordic defense cooperation. Sweden followed a policy of armed neutrality during World War II and currently remains nonaligned. Sweden became a member of the European Union in 1995.
| Sweden | Introduction | Back to Top |
Sweden, officially Konungariket Sverige (Kingdom of Sweden), constitutional monarchy in northern Europe, occupying the eastern portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. It is bordered on the north and west by Norway, on the north-east by Finland, on the east by the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic Sea, and on the south-west by further bodies of water: the Öresund (Øresund), the Kattegatt, and the Skagerrak. Sweden includes the islands of Gotland and Öland in the Baltic Sea. It is the fourth-largest country in Europe. The total area of Sweden is 449,964 sq km (173,732 sq mi). Stockholm is the country's capital and largest city.
Population 8,858,000 (1996 official estimate) Population Density 20 people/sq km (51 people/sq mi) (1996 estimate) Urban/Rural Breakdown 83%Urban 17%Rural Largest Cities Stockholm711,119 Göteborg449,189 Malmö245,699 (1996 estimates) Ethnic Groups 89%Swedish 11%Other including Finns, Sami (Lapps), Danes, Norwegians, Turks, Iranians Languages Official Language Swedish Other Languages Finnish, Sami (Lappish), and other languages Religions 87%Swedish Evangelical Lutheranism 13%Other including other Protestant denominations, Roman Catholicism
| Sweden | Land | Back to Top |
N/A
| Sweden | Languages | Back to Top |
Swedish Language, language of Sweden and of Swedish settlers in other parts of the world, notably in Finland. Swedish belongs to the northern or Scandinavian branch of the Germanic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages. It is an eastern development of the language known as Dönsk tunga, spoken not only in Denmark but in all of Scandinavia even before the early Middle Ages.
| Sweden | Legal | Back to Top |
Legal system: civil law system influenced by customary law; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal Executive branch: chief of state: King CARL XVI GUSTAF (since 19 September 1973); Heir Apparent Princess VICTORIA Ingrid Alice Desiree, daughter of the monarch (born 14 July 1977) head of government: Prime Minister Goran PERSSON (since 21 March 1996) cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister elections: the monarch is hereditary; prime minister elected by the Parliament; election last held NA September 1998 (next to be held NA 2002) election results: Goran PERSSON reelected prime minister with 131 out of 349 votes Legislative branch: unicameral Parliament or Riksdag (349 seats; members are elected by popular vote on a proportional representation basis to serve four-year terms) elections: last held 20 September 1998 (next to be held NA September 2002) election results: percent of vote by party - Social Democrats 36.5%, Moderates 22.7%, Left Party 12%, Christian Democrats 11.8%, Center Party 5.1%, Liberal Party 4.7%, Greens 4.5%; seats by party - Social Democrats 131, Moderates 82, Left Party 43, Christian Democrats 42, Center Party 18, Liberal Party 17, Greens 16 Judicial branch: Supreme Court or Hogsta Domstolen (judges are appointed by the prime minister and the cabinet)
| Sweden | Life | Back to Top |
The principal cities of Sweden include Stockholm, the capital and largest city, with a population (1998 estimate) of 736,113; Göteborg (459,593), an industrial center and seaport; and Malmö (254,904), a commercial center and seaport. Other major cities include Uppsala, Linköping, Örebro, Norrköping, and Västerås.
| Sweden | organization | Back to Top |
AfDB, AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, CBSS, CCC, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, ECE, EIB, ESA, EU, FAO, G- 6, G- 9, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, MINURSO, NAM (guest), NC, NEA, NIB, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIKOM, UNITAR, UNMEE, UNMIBH, UNMIK, UNMOGIP, UNMOP, UNOMIG, UNTAET, UNTSO, UPU, WEU (observer), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTrO, ZC
| Sweden | People | Back to Top |
Sweden’s population is composed principally of Scandinavians of Germanic descent and a relatively small number of ethnic Finns. About 17,000 Saami live mainly in the northern part of the country. Sweden’s immigrant population is increasing rapidly, with approximately 500,000 aliens living in Sweden in the early 1990s. These included Finns, people from the former Yugoslavia, Iranians, Norwegians, Danes, Turks, Chileans, and others. Many came to Sweden as guest workers. Recently, increased numbers have entered Sweden to escape the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Swedish culture through the centuries, the population is unusually homogeneous in ethnic stock, language, and religion. It is only since World War II that notable change has occurred in the ethnic pattern. Of a population of 8.6 million in the early 1990s, some 1 million were born abroad or were the children of immigrant parents. From 1970 to the early 1990s net immigration accounted for some 70 to 80 percent of the population growth. By far, most of the immigrants have come from the neighbouring Nordic countries, with which Sweden has a common labour market. Immigration from other countries is regulated, but such regulation is relaxed under certain circumstances. For instance, many immigrants from Latin America and the Middle East were allowed entry as refugees; Yugoslavs, Turks, and Greeks were recruited by industries seeking labourers. Preservation of immigrant cultures and the teaching of native languages is supported by the state.
Sweden has one of the world's highest life expectancies and one of the lowest birth rates. The country counts at least 17,000 Sami among its population. About one fifth of Sweden's population are immigrants or have at least one foreign-born parent. The largest immigrant groups are from Finland, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iran, Norway, Denmark, and Poland. This reflects the Nordic immigration, earlier periods of labor immigration, and later decades of refugee and family immigration. The proportion of European immigrants has risen, the main reason being the conflicts in former Yugoslavia.
Swedish is a Germanic language related to Danish and Norwegian but different in pronunciation and orthography. English is by far the leading foreign language, particularly among students and those under age 50.
Sweden has an extensive child-care system that guarantees a place for all young children from 2-6 years old in a public day-care facility. From ages 7-16, children attend compulsory comprehensive school. After completing the ninth grade, 90% attend upper secondary school for either academic or technical education.
Swedes benefit from an extensive social welfare system, which provides for childcare and maternity and paternity leave, a ceiling on health care costs, old-age pensions, and sick leave among other benefits. Parents are entitled to a total of 12 months' paid leave between birth and the child's eighth birthday, with one of those months reserved specifically for the father. A ceiling on health care costs makes it easier for Swedish workers to take time off for medical reasons.
| Sweden | Politics | Back to Top |
Center Party [Lennart DALEUS]; Christian Democratic Party [Alf SVENSSON]; Communist Workers' Party [Rolf HAGEL]; Green Party [no formal leader but party spokesperson is Briger SCHLAUG]; Left Party or VP (formerly Communist) [Gudrun SCHYMAN]; Liberal People's Party [Lars LEIJONBORG]; Moderate Party (conservative) [Bo LUNDGREN]; New Democracy Party [Vivianne FRANZEN]; Social Democratic Party [Goran PERSSON]
| Sweden | Provinces | Back to Top |
21 counties (lan, singular and plural); Blekinge, Dalarnas, Gavleborgs, Gotlands, Hallands, Jamtlands, Jonkopings, Kalmar, Kronobergs, Norrbottens, Orebro, Ostergotlands, Skane, Sodermanlands, Stockholms, Uppsala, Varmlands, Vasterbottens, Vasternorrlands, Vastmanlands, Vastra Gotalands
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