A land of ancient bedrock, Sweden was settled later than most countries; yet its national government has relatively old roots. By the 16th century Sweden had evolved into a strongly centralized nation, with Stockholm as its capital. The size of the country has changed over the centuries: Finland was part of Sweden until 1809. What is now southern and western Sweden was conquered in 1658 from the then Danish-Norwegian union. During certain periods Sweden also had provinces on the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, and even colonies in North America and the West Indies. In 1905, a nearly century-old union with Norway was dissolved, but since 1812 Sweden’s borders have been unchanged and the country has been spared from war since 1814.

Today the Nordic countries (Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland), whose central portion is called Scandinavia, cooperate closely in many fields. Through its membership in many international organizations, including the United Nations (since 1946) and the European Union (since 1995), Sweden plays an active role in international cooperation.

Geology

Sweden is situated in a geologically very stable portion of the great Eurasian land mass. The southernmost part of the country (Skåne, or Scania) is a continuation of the fertile plains of Denmark and northern Germany. Further north is a heavily wooded highland region (Småland) with soils that are less rich. The rest of southern Sweden consists of a fairly level but fragmented landscape of primary rock with a varied terrain of fields, hills and lakes that is especially typical of the broad zone between the cities of Stockholm and Göteborg (Gothenburg).

North of this belt is a borderline area separating the more southerly regions from the terrain of Norrland – the region comprising the northern three-fifths of Sweden – with its rolling landscape of hills and mountains, forests and large river valleys. Along this borderline are deposits of iron and other ores, which gave rise to Sweden’s oldest industrial region, Bergslagen. Further north are the copper, lead and zinc ores of the Västerbotten region and the large iron ore deposits of Kiruna and Gällivare-Malmberget. In these northerly areas as in much of Sweden, however, granite and gneiss predominate.

The western border between Sweden and Norway mainly follows the Scandinavian mountain range. Its peaks, rising 1,000–2,000 meters (or some 3,000–7,000 feet) above sea level, were folded during the Silurian and Devonian periods but were raised during the Tertiary period. Sweden’s largest rivers originate in these mountains.

Also dating from more recent times (the Cambro-Silurian era) is the sand and limestone bedrock found on Öland and Gotland – two large, mainly flat islands in the Baltic – and in some other places in southern and central Sweden.

During several periods, Scandinavia has been covered by inland ice. The most recent Ice Age ended only about 10,000 years ago. The weight and movement of the ice sheet altered the landscape. The hard cliffs of primary rock were polished into the rounded shapes characteristic of Sweden’s archipelagoes. Hollows were deepened into valleys and lakes. Gravel, boulders, sand and clay created irregular moraine strata. Glacial rivers polished and rounded the stones and bits of gravel that were deposited in glacial estuaries and gravel ridges. These sandy ridges served for a long time as transportation routes in the humid lowlands, and the ridges were later important as sand pits. Finely ground material that sank slowly to the sea bottom outside the ice cap now forms the fertile clays of the central plains.

Natural scenery, flora and fauna

Much of the Swedish landscape is dominated by coniferous forests, in southern Sweden often blended with such deciduous trees as birch and aspen. Deciduous forests (beech, oak) used to grow along the southern and southwestern coast but have been replaced by farmland, and in recent years also by planted coniferous forest. But these and other hardwoods such as linden, ash, maple and elm trees are found throughout southern Sweden up to the border of Norrland. Other vegetation follows largely the same geography. Because of their lime-rich bedrock and favorable local climate, Gotland, Öland and parts of the Scandinavian mountain range have an interesting flora that includes numerous varieties of orchids.

Sweden’s fauna has been determined by the climate and history of the period since the last Ice Age and by human settlement. The wolf, not long ago threatened with eradication, is now expanding its habitat across northern and central Sweden. This creates conflicts between nature conservationists and livestock owners. Bear and lynx populations are also increasing. Throughout the country are large numbers of moose (elk), roe deer, foxes and hares. The moose is a great prize for hunters but is also a traffic hazard. Hunting is closely regulated, and many species of animal are fully protected. Winter bird life in Sweden is dominated by a few species, but summer brings large numbers of migratory birds from more southerly climes.

With its long coasts and many lakes, Sweden has a rich variety of waterborne life, but environmental pollution has taken its toll. The Baltic seal now seems to be recovering, to the frustration of fishermen whose nets are ravaged by these animals. Fish species vary from the cod and mackerel of the deep, salty Atlantic to the salmon and pike found in the far less saline Gulf of Bothnia and in lakes and rivers. Herring and its smaller relative the Baltic herring used to be an important staple food, but today they are among the delicacies served on the Swedish smörgåsbord, a festive buffet.

To protect its sensitive natural scenery and examples of its cultural heritage, in 1910 Sweden was the first European country to establish national parks, mainly in the mountainous districts of Norrland but also elsewhere in the country. In this way, part of Europe’s last wilderness was saved from exploitation. Numerous nature reserves and cultural heritage areas have also been established to protect environments regarded as important to preserve.

Under the customary right of common access, anyone is entitled to hike through the forests and fields and pick berries and mushrooms, without asking the landowner’s permission, but this right also carries with it an obligation to respect natural scenery and private property.

Climate

Sweden’s climate is a function of the country’s location in the border zone between Arctic and warmer air masses as well as its proximity to the Atlantic, with its warm Gulf Stream.

Because of the tilt in the earth’s axis and its rotation around the sun, the polar regions experience an extreme contrast between long summer days and equally long winter nights. In the summer, sunlight lasts around the clock in the portion of Sweden located north of the Arctic Circle, but even as far south as Stockholm (59N) the June nights have only a few hours of semi-darkness.

Considering its geographic location Scandinavia enjoys a very favorable climate. Atlantic low pressure areas often blow in warmth and precipitation from the southwest. The weather is changeable; a few hours of rain are often followed by sunlight and wind the next day and then new rainfall. Given this type of weather, the temperature differences between night and day, summer and winter, are not so great – especially in western Sweden. Another type of weather, however, creates a more contrasting climate: high pressure zones to the east, which create stable, dry, sunny weather. This high pressure leads to hot spells in summer and cold ones in winter. The battle between the more temperate Atlantic weather and the more extreme continental weather is an important reality to farmers and vacationers. The difference between the weather in southern and northern Sweden is slight in the summer, when Norrland warms up because of its very long days.

Fall and winter arrive early in the northern interior, while the southern coastal areas enjoy long, mild fall weather. Norrland has colder and longer winters than southern Sweden, where there is often rain interspersed with snowfall.

Population

Like the animal population, the first human beings are believed to have migrated into Scandinavia from the south after the ice cap withdrew northward, but some of the population, probably including the Sami people, came from the east.

About 1,000 years ago a central Swedish realm began to take shape, with its core in the fertile farmlands and waterways around Lake Mälaren. By the 16th century, when Sweden became a centralized state, the country had fewer than a million inhabitants within its present-day borders. During the 19th century, when Sweden enjoyed peace, the population began to grow rapidly. This resulted in a large wave of migration to the expanding forestry operations and wood product industry of Norrland, to industrial jobs in Swedish urban areas, as well as abroad to the cities and prairies of North America. Over a million of the country’s inhabitants emigrated during the period 1865–1914.

From an ethnic standpoint, Sweden has traditionally been a very homogeneous country. Swedish – a Germanic language – has historically been the mother tongue of nearly the entire population, and some 80% of the population belong to the Lutheran Church of Sweden. However, since World War II, the ethnic and religious composition of the population has changed and today roughly 12% of Swedish residents are foreign-born. Most immigrants have come from the neighboring Nordic countries, with which Sweden has a common labor market, and from elsewhere in Europe. For non-EU nationals, immigration is strictly regulated today but Sweden still accepts certain categories of immigrants and refugees.

In addition, Sweden has two minority groups of native inhabitants: the Finnish-speaking people of the northeast, along the Finnish border (about 30,000) and the Sami (Lapp) population of about 15,000. The Sami are scattered throughout the northern Swedish interior and in nearby northerly areas of Norway, Finland and Russia, numbering between 50,000 and 60,000 in all. Once a hunting and fishing people, they developed a reindeer herding system which they carry out very efficiently today, although most Sami in Sweden have other occupations. The Sami in Sweden have a Sami Parliament, the Sámediggi, which has decision-making authority on certain issues.

Patterns of settlement

About 90% of Sweden’s inhabitants live in communities with more than 2,000 residents. The most densely populated areas lie in the triangle formed by the three largest cities – Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö – and along the Baltic coastline north of the capital. The interior of Norrland is very sparsely populated, which creates problems in supplying adequate services and transportation facilities to its inhabitants.

By means of heavy government subsidies, the country’s housing stock has been modernized very rapidly, and nearly all inhabitants live in homes which are technically very well equipped, even in the countryside. Nearly half of the housing stock consists of single-family homes, but apartment buildings predominiate in larger cities.

Over a long period of history, Swedish farmers lived together in small villages with common grazing lands and allotments in common croplands. During the 18th and 19th centuries the central government implemented a major series of reforms that divided up the commons, brought together the scattered allotments of each farming family and moved their farmhouse to their “new” consolidated property. These reforms accelerated the technical development of Swedish agriculture but also had social consequences.

An abundance of second homes is characteristic of Sweden. There are large areas of recently built summer cottages along the coasts and lakes, especially near the three largest cities, but city dwellers have also acquired abandoned crofts and small farms. Construction is regulated to ensure that beaches and other valuable natural areas are accessible to everyone.

Communications

Good transportation and communications systems have always been vital to a country of Sweden’s size and sparse population. The central government that emerged in the 16th century organized the country’s road network and transportation system. For centuries, maritime shipping was dominant, with Stockholm as the main Baltic port. During the 17th century, Göteborg (Gothenburg) was established as an exporting harbor. Exports of timber led to the creation of ports along the Norrland coast.

In the mid-19th century, the Swedish government built a nationwide network of railroad trunk lines. The railroads and new steelmaking processes made it possible to begin mining the large high-phosphorus ore deposits of the north. Hydroelectric power was transmitted from the major waterfalls of Norrland to industrial plants and large cities further south. Nuclear power plants at four locations along the southern and central Swedish coasts have supplemented this north-to-south electric power system. Following a decision by Parliament, one of these nuclear power plants (located near the coast of Denmark) was shut down in 2005.

There is an extensive network of highways, with freeways (motorways) following the triangle between the three largest cities and continuing to the north. Remote rural areas usually have very good main highways, often constructed as government-financed relief work projects. In 2000, Sweden and Denmark inaugurated a 16 km (10 mile) long bridge and tunnel across the Öresund straits between Malmö and Copenhagen, the Danish capital. The domestic air traffic network is well developed, and Scandinavian cooperation has resulted in good airline connections with the whole world.

Most Swedish families have their own car. Many cities have an extensive network of bus lines, operated and subsidized by municipal governments and county councils. Large cities have such additional transit amenities as subways, streetcars and commuter trains, which are coordinated with other local transportation facilities. The fixed telecommunications network has been in place for many decades, and today there are also 7 million mobile telephones. Most people in Sweden, except some retirees, have access to the Internet.

Economic geography

Although nowadays less than 3% of Sweden’s labor force works in agriculture and less than 10% of the country’s area consists of farmland, agriculture is still an important sector of the Swedish economy. The largest agricultural acreage and the highest productivity are found in southernmost Sweden, where specialization in grain and pork production predominates, and in the plains of central Sweden. In Norrland, the production of fodder crops, meat and milk predominates. Farming takes place as far north as the border with Finland, where an intensive summer season and fertile river sediments provide good conditions for growing vegetables.

Nearly all Swedish farms are operated by individual families and are relatively small, but in the most important agricultural districts, larger units also exist. Despite a sharp reduction in the number of farms and crop acreage, production has increased, and with the exception of a few products, Sweden is self-sufficient in agriculture. However, Sweden’s membership in the European Union since 1995 has led to increased two-way trade with other EU countries in agricultural products and foodstuffs.

Of Sweden’s forest land, 10% (mostly in the north) is owned by Swedish state companies, while private companies own 40% (mainly in north central Sweden) and individual owners, mainly farmers, own 50%.

Fishing is a small sector of the national economy nowadays. Because fishing zones have been redrawn by international agreements, Sweden has lost some of its traditional fishing areas in the North Sea and the emphasis has shifted to the Baltic Sea.

Mining has diminished in relative importance, but in northern Sweden the iron ore fields of Kiruna are at the center of a railroad line from the Baltic steel mill center of Luleå and the ice-free Atlantic export harbor of Narvik, Norway.

Sweden’s rich natural resources – its forests, ore deposits and hydroelectric power – constitute the historical basis of its industrial economy, but the emphasis has shifted toward increasingly advanced products, often still based on such indigenous raw materials as timber and metals.

The timber and wood product industry is, of course, located close to its sources of raw material. The pulp and paper industry is often situated at the mouths of rivers running through forest regions — including a number along the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia and of Vänern, Sweden’s largest lake. Production is concentrated at large, efficient mills, nowadays also including units located in southern Sweden.

Sweden’s metal industry still follows a pattern from the days when water power and timberland (for charcoal fuel) determined the location of iron mills. Sweden’s metal industry is thus still concentrated in Bergslagen, where some smaller units face increasing competition from larger production sites abroad. The iron and steel mills in coastal Oxelösund and Luleå were built in the 20th century. Otherwise, metal-based industries are dispersed throughout southern and central Sweden and along the Norrland coast.

The automotive and aerospace industry has its main plants in south central Sweden (Göteborg, Trollhättan, Linköping, Södertälje). The electronics industry is concentrated in Stockholm and Västerås.

The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are important, especially in the university cities of east central Sweden and in Skåne, where the new bridge/tunnel across the Öresund has encouraged even closer links with similar companies in Denmark.

Distributive trade, transportation, administration and services comprise a larger percentage of the national economy than industry in terms of employees, but account for a small but increasing proportion of exports. This sector is concentrated mainly in major cities, especially Stockholm.

Administrative structure

Sweden is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary form of government based on a one-chamber legislature. A majority of the Swedish Riksdag (Parliament) approves the selection of a Prime Minister who forms a Cabinet (or Government). Members of this Cabinet head some ten ministries, which formulate policy in their respective fields and supervise a larger number of agencies, which enforce government regulations and the laws enacted by Parliament.

To facilitate the administration of national government policies on the regional level, Sweden is divided into 21 counties, each headed by a Governor who is a Cabinet appointee. The county is often contiguous with the district served by the regionally elected county council, which is responsible for medical care, regional traffic and transit planning and other matters too large in scope for individual municipalities. A third type of region is the historical province, which has no political significance but is important for people’s sense of regional identity.

Local government in Sweden is exercised by 290 municipalities, which cover the entire country. Until 1952 there were more than 2,600 local governments, ranging from rural districts to the capital. These were merged into larger units in two stages in order to create viable units consisting of a municipal center and a surrounding territory. Their responsibilities include zoning and city planning, much of the educational system, social welfare, childcare, fire protection, recreational and cultural amenities.

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