About Sweden
(Source: The Swedish Institute of International Affairs)
| Number of inhabitants: | 9,1 million |
|---|---|
| Capital: | Stockholm 786,500 |
| Other principal cities: |
Gothenburg, 490,700 (as of 2007) Malmö, 277,600 (as of 2007) Uppsala, 185,700 Linköping, 138,900 |
| Form of government: | Constitutional Monarchy |
| GDP per capita: | U.S. $41,945 (2006) |
| Time zone: | GMT +1 h |
| Ethnic groups: |
Swedes 83% non-Nordic Europeans 4 % Finns 2 % Other groups 11 % |
| Language: | Swedish and five official minority languages |
| Natural resources: | forest, iron, copper, lead, zinc, silver, gold, uranium |
| Export of goods: | approx. U.S. $130.2 billion (2005) |
| Principal exports: | manufactured goods and other industrial products; paper and cardboard, raw materials (timber, pulp, ore); chemical products; iron and steel |
| Import of goods: | approx. U.S. $111.2 billion (2005) |
| Principal imports: | manufactured goods and other industrial products; chemical products; fuel; foodstuffs |
| Literacy rate: | almost 100 % |
Geographically, Sweden’s population is very unevenly distributed. Approximately 85 % of the country’s inhabitants live in the southern part of the country, primarily in the three largest metropolitan areas.
When the first national census was completed in 1749, the area now known as Sweden had a population of 1.8 million inhabitants. By 1850, Sweden had grown to 3.5 million inhabitants, and, as times, the country found it difficult to feed its growing numbers. As a result, many Swedes migrated to new countries. It is estimated that between 1865 and 1930, 1.4 million Swedes emigrated, the majority to North America. By 1950, the Swedish population had increased to 7 million, and by 1999, it was 8.9 million. In part, this increase is due to the fact that Sweden has more immigrants than emigrants since the 1930’s.
The Sami people have lived in the northernmost regions of Scandinavia since prehistoric times. This minority group speaks Finno-Ugrian language. It is estimated that the Sami population in Sweden today numbers around 17,000.
In the year 2000, certain minority languages in Sweden received special protected status. They are Sami, Finnish, Meänkieli (the Finnish spoken in Tornedalen), Romani chib (the language of the Roma, or Gypsies) and Yiddish.
Membership in the Church of Sweden has steadily declined and was calculated at 77 % in 2005 compared with 86 % ten years earlier. Only a small percentage attends church regularly. The most recent decades of immigration have meant that Muslims and Catholics are now the two largest religious groups in Sweden after members of the Church of Sweden.
Universal education in Sweden was introduced in 1842. In 1962, the number of years of compulsory education at the primary level (grundskola) was increased to nine years, although this law first took full effect in 1972-73. School attendance is mandatory in Sweden for children between the ages of seven and sixteen years. As of 1998, all children were given the right to begin attending school at the age of six.
Roughly 95 % of Swedish pupils continue to upper secondary school (gymnasium). One-third of those who graduate from the gymnasium continue their studies at one of the country’s over 30 university colleges or one if its 14 universities.
For many years, Sweden had an advantage over almost all the other European countries because of its well-functioning industrial sector – a sector unharmed during World War II. Consequently, Sweden’s GDP doubled between 1939 and 1960, and Sweden’s economic growth continued throughout the 1960’s.
A crisis occurred in the middle of the 1970’s with high oil prices and increasing labour costs. Many jobs in the manufacturing industry disappeared while the number of jobs in the public sector increased. Around 1990, fundamental weakness in the economy could no longer be managed, which lead to the greatest decline in the Swedish economy since the 1930’s.
Its entrance into the EU in 1995 and the need to comply with EMU currency requirements stipulating the achievement of sound national finances and an independent central bank with low inflation as its goal helped the reorganisation of Sweden’s economy. This new economic policy resulted in lower interest rates and higher wages thanks to low inflation.
An OECD report issued in early 2007 praised the state of the Swedish economy, citing the decisive measures applied during the crisis in the beginning of the 1990’s as largely responsible for the turn-around.