Sweden

Kingdom of Sweden Konungariket Sverige[a]
Flag Greater coat of arms
Motto: (royal) "För Sverige – i tiden"[a] "For Sweden – With the Times"[1]
Anthem: Du gamla, du fria[b] Thou ancient, thou free Royal anthem: Kungssången Song of the King March: Yor de love
Location of  Sweden  (dark green) – on the European continent  (green & dark grey) – in the European Union  (green)  —  [Legend]
Capital and largest city	Stockholm 59°21′N 18°4′E / 59.350°N 18.067°E / 59.350; 18.067
Official languages	Swedish
Official minority languages	Finnish Meänkieli Sami dialects Romani Yiddish
Demonym(s)	Swedish Swede
Government	Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
• Monarch	Carl XVI Gustaf
• Speaker of the Riksdag	Andreas Norlén
• Prime Minister	Ulf Kristersson
Legislature	Riksdag
History
• A unified Swedish kingdom established	By the early 12th century
• Part of Kalmar Union	1397–1523
• Part of Swedish-Norwegian Union	4 November 1814 – August 1905[2]
• Joined the European Union	1 January 1995
• Joined NATO	7 March 2024
Area
• Total	450,295 km2 (173,860 sq mi) (55th)
• Water (%)	8.37 (as of 2015)[3]
Population
• February 2021 estimate	10,402,070[4] (88th)
• Density	25/km2 (64.7/sq mi) (198th)
GDP (PPP)	2020 estimate
• Total	$563.882 billion[5] (39th)
• Per capita	$52,477[5] (16th)
GDP (nominal)	2020 estimate
• Total	$528.929 billion[5] (23rd)
• Per capita	$50,339[5] (12th)
Gini (2020)	26.9[6] low
HDI (2019)	0.945[7] very high
Currency	Swedish krona (SEK)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Date format	yyyy-mm-dd
Driving side	right[e]
Calling code	+46
ISO 3166 code	SE
Internet TLD	.se[f]
^ "För Sverige - i tiden" has been adopted by Carl XVI Gustaf as his personal motto. ^ Du gamla, Du fria has never been officially adopted as national anthem, but is so by convention. ^ Since 1 July 2009. Five other languages are officially recognised as minority languages:[8] Finnish, Meänkieli, Romani, Sami, and Yiddish. The Swedish Sign Language also has a special status. ^ On 31 December 2012[update], approximately 27% of the population had a full or partial foreign background.[9][10] ^ Since 3 September 1967. ^ The .eu domain is also used, as it is shared with other European Union member states.

Sweden (Swedish: Sverige) is a Nordic country in the part of Europe called Scandinavia. Its neighbors are Finland and Norway. Sweden is also connected to Denmark in the south by a bridge. 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.^[11] 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. 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).
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1. ↑ "Mottoes of The Kings and Queens of Sweden". www.kungahuset.se. Royal Court of Sweden. Archived from the original on 23 December 2015. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
2. ↑ Norborg, Lars-Arne. "svensk–norska unionen". ne.se (in Swedish). Nationalencyklopedin. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
3. ↑ "Surface water and surface water change". Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Retrieved 11 October 2020.
4. ↑ [1] Statistics Sweden. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3} "World Economic Outlook Database, October 2019". IMF.org. International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
6. ↑ "Gini coefficient of equivalised disposable income – EU-SILC survey". ec.europa.eu. Eurostat. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
7. ↑ Human Development Report 2020 The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 15 December 2020. pp. 343–346. ISBN 978-92-1-126442-5. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
8. ↑ "Är svenskan också officiellt språk i Sverige?" [Is Swedish also an official language in Sweden?] (in Swedish). Swedish Language Council. 1 February 2008. Archived from the original on 6 February 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2008.
9. ↑ "Summary of Population Statistics 1960–2012". Statistics Sweden. Archived from the original on 17 March 2013. Retrieved 9 June 2013.
10. ↑ Note that Swedish-speaking Finns or other Swedish-speakers born outside Sweden might identify as Swedish despite being born abroad. Moreover, people born in Sweden may not be ethnic Swedes. As the Swedish government does not base any statistics on ethnicity, there are no exact numbers on the ethnic background of migrants and their descendants in Sweden. This is not, however, to be confused with migrants' national backgrounds, which are recorded.
11. ↑ "Sweden website". Statistics Sweden website. 31 May 2013. Archived from the original on 8 November 2013. Retrieved 27 July 2013.