Sweden

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kingdom of Sweden

Flag Coat of arms
Motto: (Royal) "För Sverige i tiden" [a]
"For Sweden – With the Times" 
Anthem: Du gamla, Du fria[b]
Thou ancient, thou free
Royal anthem: Kungssången
The Song of the King

Capital
(and largest city) Stockholm
18°4′E / 59.35°N 18.067°E / 59.35; 18.067
Official language(s) Swedish[c]
Ethnic groups  [d] 82.1% Swedes[1]
5.1% Finns[2] 12.8% other (2008)[3][4]
Demonym Swedish or Swedes
Government Parliamentary democracy and Constitutional monarchy
 -  Monarch King Carl XVI Gustaf
 -  Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt (M)
 -  Speaker of
the Riksdag Per Westerberg (M)
Consolidation
 -  Personal union w. Denmark and Norway June 17, 1397 
 -  de facto independent kingdom June 6, 1523 
 -  end of Scandinavian union ratified 1524 
 -  Swedish-Norwegian Union begins November 4, 1814 
 -  Swedish-Norwegian Union ends August 13, 1905 
EU accession 1 January 1995
Area
 -  Total 449,964 km² (57th)
173,745 sq mi 
 -  Water (%) 8.7
Population
 -  2009 census 9,340,682[5] 
 -  Density 20.6/km² (192nd)
53.3/sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2008 estimate
 -  Total $342.682 billion[6] (32nd)
 -  Per capita $37,333[6] (17th)
GDP (nominal) 2008 estimate
 -  Total $478.961 billion[6] (22nd)
 -  Per capita $52,180[6] (9th)
Gini (2005) 23 (low) 
HDI (2007) ▲ 0.963[7] (very high) (7th)
Currency Swedish krona (SEK)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 -  Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Date formats yyyy-mm-dd,
d/m yyyy,
dd-mm-yyyy,
dd-mm-yy
Drives on the right[e]
Internet TLD .se[f]
Calling code 46
a. ^ För Sverige - I tiden has been adopted by Carl XVI Gustaf as his personal motto.

b. ^ Du gamla, Du fria has never been officially adopted as national anthem, but is so by convention.

c. ^ Since July 1, 2009[8][9] Five other languages are officially recognized as minority languages.[10] They are:
Finnish, Meänkieli, Romani, Sami, and Yiddish.

d. ^ As of 2008, 18% of the population had foreign origins (13% if excluding Finns and 9% if also excluding other Scandinavians), with 14% foreign-born and another 4% born in Sweden of two foreign-born parents.[11]
See demographics of Sweden.

e. ^ Since 3 September 1967.

f. ^ The .eu domain is also used, as it is shared with other European Union member states. The .nu domain is another commonly used top-level domain ("nu" means "now" in Swedish).

Sweden (pronounced /ˈswiːdən/ (help·info) SWEE-dən, Swedish: Sverige), officially the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: Konungariket Sverige (help·info)), is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and has also water borders with Denmark, Germany and Poland to the south and Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia to the east.

At 450,295 km², Sweden is the third largest country in the European Union in terms of area, with a total population of about 9.2 million. Sweden has a low population density of 21 inhabitants per square kilometre (54 /sq mi) but a considerably higher density in the southern half of the country. About 85% of the population live in urban areas, and it is expected that these numbers will gradually rise as a part of the ongoing urbanization.[12] Sweden's capital is Stockholm, which is also the largest city in the country (population of 1.3 million in the urban area and with 2 million in the metropolitan area).

Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages. In the 17th century the country expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire. Most of the conquered territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were lost during the 18th and 19th centuries. The eastern half of Sweden, present-day Finland, was lost to Russia in 1809. The last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Sweden by military means forced Norway into a personal union which lasted until 1905. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, adopting a non-aligned foreign policy in peacetime and neutrality in wartime.[13]

Today, Sweden is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government and a highly developed economy. It ranks first in the world in The Economist's Democracy Index and seventh in the United Nations' Human Development Index. Sweden has been a member of the European Union since 1 January 1995 and is a member of the OECD.

Etymology

The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Sweoðeod, which meant "people of the Swedes" (Old Norse Svíþjóð, Latin Suetidi). This word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas (Old Norse Sviar, Latin Suiones). The Swedish name Sverige (a conjunction of the words Svea and Rike - rige still spelt with the letter g in modern Danish) literally means "Kingdom of the Swedes", excluding the Geats in Götaland.

Variations of the name Sweden are used in most languages, with the exception of Danish and Norwegian using Sverige, Icelandic Svíþjóð, and the more notable exception of some Finno-Ugric languages where Ruotsi (Finnish) and Rootsi (Estonian) are used, names commonly considered etymologically related to the English name for Russia, referring to the people, Rus', originally from the coastal areas of Roslagen, Uppland.

The etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning "one's own",[14] referring to one's own Germanic tribe.