Facts and Figures:
Sweden is the fourth largest country in Europe.
It is 500 km wide, 1,600 km long North to South and has a surface area of 450,000 square kilometers.
Its population is just under 9 million. Most people live in the Southern part of the country, leaving large parts of the North entirely uninhabited. (mostly due to climate and lack of arable land).
The Capital of Sweden is Stockholm (1.5 million people in Stockholm and greater Stockholm). The next largest city is Göteborg, followed by Malmö, Uppsala and Linköping.
Both countryside and climate vary greatly along the country, but not so different along the coastal areas. Cultivated land accounts for less than one tenth of the total area - and this is primarily in the South.
Sweden's interior land is covered by vast forests and mountains ("fjällen" or fells) which lie along the Norwegian border. There is a huge amount of snowfall in winter, with the most severe weather in the North.
Sweden's coastline is very long and contains many coastal island. For example, Stockholm's archipelago contains some 25,000 islands - of which Öland and Gotland are two of the biggest.
100 years ago, Sweden's main export products were iron and timber. These today, still contribute a portion of the export goods but have been superceded by industrial goods such as cars, machinery, mobile telephones and pharmaceuticals.
Many of Sweden's top industrial Companies are now owned by major international Businesses.
Immigrants in Sweden number around 1 in 5 of the population.
The largest number of them come from Finland, but closely following this are immigrants from other Scandinavian Countries, Bosnia, Turkey, Irak,Iran, Somalia, and other smaller European nations.
bravenet.com