Sweden

Coordinates: 63°N 16°E / 63°N 16°E / 63; 16
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Kingdom of Sweden
Konungariket Sverige (Swedish)
Anthem: 
Royal anthem: 
EU-Sweden.svg
Location of Sweden (dark green)

– in Europe (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 languagesSwedish[b]
National minority languages
Religion
(2020)[9]
[10]
  • 36.0%
    Swedish
  • Swede
GovernmentUnitary parliamentary
constitutional monarchy
• Monarch
Carl XVI Gustaf
Andreas Norlén
Ulf Kristersson
LegislatureRiksdag
History
• A unified Swedish kingdom established
By the early 12th century
• Part of the Kalmar Union
17 June 1397 – 6 June 1523
• Part of the Swedish-Norwegian Union
4 November 1814 – 26 October 1905[11]
1 January 1995
Area
• Total
447,425 km2 (172,752 sq mi) (55th)
• Water (%)
8.97 (2022)[12]
Population
• 31 May 2022 estimate
Neutral increase 10,481,937[13] (87th)
• Density
25/km2 (64.7/sq mi) (198th)
GDP (PPP)2023 estimate
• Total
Increase $712 billion[14] (40th)
• Per capita
Increase $65,842[14] (18th)
GDP (nominal)2023 estimate
• Total
Increase $599 billion[14] (25th)
• Per capita
Decrease $55,395[14] (14th)
Gini (2021)Positive decrease 26.8[15]
low
HDI (2021)Increase 0.947[16]
very high · 7th
CurrencySwedish krona (SEK)
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)
UTC+2 (CEST)
Date formatyyyy-mm-dd
Driving sideright[d]
Calling code+46
ISO 3166 codeSE
Internet TLD.se[e]
Website
sweden.se
  1. ^ Persons who have foreign backgrounds are defined as persons who are foreign born, or born in Sweden with foreign born parents.[17] 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.

Sweden,

Öresund. At 447,425 square kilometres (172,752 sq mi), Sweden is the largest Nordic country, the third-largest country in the European Union, and the fifth-largest country in Europe. The capital and largest city is Stockholm. Sweden has a total population of 10.5 million,[13] and a low population density of 25.5 inhabitants per square kilometre (66/sq mi), with around 87% of Swedes
residing in urban areas, which cover 1.5% of the entire land area, in the central and southern half of the country.

Nature in Sweden is dominated by forests and many lakes, including

Scandes range through the landscape, primarily emptying into the northern tributaries of the Baltic Sea. It has an extensive coastline and most of the population lives near a major body of water. With the country ranging from 55°N to 69°N, the climate of Sweden is diverse due to the length of the country. The usual conditions are mild for the latitudes with a maritime south, continental centre and subarctic north. Snow cover is variable in the densely populated south, but reliable in higher latitudes. Furthermore, the rain shadow
of the Scandes results in quite dry winters and sunny summers in much of the country.

prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats (Swedish: Götar) and Swedes (Svear) and constituting the sea peoples known as the Norsemen. An independent Swedish state emerged during the early 12th century. After the Black Death in the middle of the 14th century killed about a third of the Scandinavian population,[19][20] the dominance of the Hanseatic League in Northern Europe threatened Scandinavia economically and politically. This led to the formation of the Scandinavian Kalmar Union in 1397,[21] which Sweden left in 1523. When Sweden became involved in the Thirty Years' War on the Protestant side, an expansion of its territories began, forming the Swedish Empire, which remained one of the great powers
of Europe until the early 18th century.

Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, ending with the annexation of present-day Finland by Russia in 1809. The last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814 when Norway was militarily forced into a personal union, which peacefully dissolved in 1905. In 2014, Sweden celebrated 200 years of peace, a longer span of peacetime than even Switzerland.[22] Sweden maintained an official policy of neutrality during wartime and non-participation in military alliances during peacetime, although Sweden secretly relied on U.S. nuclear submarines during the Cold War.[23] Sweden has since 2008 joined EU battlegroups, provided intelligence to NATO[24] and since 2009 openly moved towards cooperation with NATO. In 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sweden announced its intent to join NATO.

Sweden is a highly developed country ranked seventh in the

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD).

Etymology

The name for Sweden is generally agreed to derive from the Proto-Indo-European root *s(w)e, meaning "one's own", referring to one's own tribe from the tribal period.[28][29][30] The native Swedish name, Sverige (a compound of the words Svea and rike, with lenition of the consonant [k], first recorded in the cognate Swēorice in Beowulf),[31] translates as "realm of the Swedes", which excluded the Geats in Götaland.

The contemporary English variation was derived in the 17th-century from Middle Dutch and Middle Low German. As early as 1287, references are found in Middle Dutch referring to a lande van sweden ("land of [the] Swedes"), with swede as the singular form.[32] In Old English the country was known as Swéoland or Swíoríce, and in Early Modern English as Swedeland.[33] Some Finnic languages, such as Finnish and Estonian, use the terms Ruotsi and Rootsi; these variations refer to the Rus' people who inhabited the coastal areas of Roslagen in Uppland and who gave their name to Russia.[34]

History

Prehistory

Sweden's prehistory begins in the

Palaeolithic reindeer-hunting camps of the Bromme culture at the edge of the ice in what is now the country's southernmost province, Scania. This period was characterised by small clans of hunter-gatherers who relied on flint technology.[36]

Sweden and its people were first described by

Proto-Norse at the time, a language ancestral to Swedish and other North Germanic languages.[39]

In the sixth century,

Thyringi
of Germania (alia vero gens ibi moratur Suehans, quae velud Thyringi equis utuntur eximiis).

Vikings

Viking
expeditions (blue lines)

The Swedish

Ibn Fadlan
described these Vikings saying:

I have seen the Rus as they came on their merchant journeys and encamped by the Itil. I have never seen more perfect physical specimens, tall as date palms, blond and ruddy; they wear neither tunics nor caftans, but the men wear a garment which covers one side of the body and leaves a hand free. Each man has an axe, a sword, and a knife, and keeps each by him at all times. The swords are broad and grooved, of Frankish sort.[42]

The actions of these Swedish Vikings are commemorated on many runestones in Sweden, such as the Greece runestones and the Varangian runestones. There was also considerable participation in expeditions westwards, which are commemorated on stones such as the England runestones. The last major Swedish Viking expedition appears to have been the ill-fated expedition of Ingvar the Far-Travelled to Serkland, the region south-east of the Caspian Sea. Its members are commemorated on the Ingvar runestones, none of which mentions any survivor. What happened to the crew is unknown, but it is believed that they died of sickness.

Kingdom of Sweden

It is not known when and how the kingdom of Sweden was born, but the

Swedish-Geatish wars in the sixth century. Götaland in this sense mainly includes the provinces of Östergötland (East Gothia) and Västergötland (West Gothia). The island of Gotland was disputed by other than Swedes, at this time (Danish, Hanseatic, and Gotland-domestic). Småland was at that time of little interest to anyone due to the deep pine forests, and only the city of Kalmar with its castle was of importance. The south-west parts of the Scandinavian peninsula consisted of three Danish provinces (Scania, Blekinge and Halland). North of Halland, Denmark had a direct border to Norway and its province Bohuslän. But there were Swedish settlements along the southern coastline of Norrland
.

During the early stages of the Scandinavian Viking Age, Ystad in the Danish province Scania and Paviken on Gotland were flourishing centres of trade, but they were not parts of the early Swedish Kingdom. Remains of what is believed to have been a large market dating from 600 to 700 CE have been found in Ystad.[43] In Paviken, an important centre of trade in the Baltic region during the ninth and tenth century, remains have been found of a large Viking Age harbour with shipbuilding yards and handicraft industries. Between 800 and 1000, trade brought an abundance of silver to Gotland, and according to some scholars, the Gotlanders of this era hoarded more silver than the rest of the population of Scandinavia combined.[43]

Eric Chronicles Swedish kings made a first, second and third crusade to pagan Finland against Finns, Tavastians, and Karelians and started conflicts with the Rus' who no longer had any connection with Sweden.[44] The Swedish colonisation of the coastal areas of Finland also started during the 12th and 13th century.[45][46] In the 14th century, the colonisation began to be more organised, and by the end of the century, several of the coastal areas of Finland were inhabited mostly by Swedes.[47]

All territories ever owned by Sweden, including a factory in Parangipettai which survived for about a month and Guadeloupe
, which was formally ceded to but never actually controlled by Sweden.

Except for the provinces of Scania, Blekinge and Halland in the south-west of the Scandinavian peninsula, which were parts of the Kingdom of Denmark during this time, feudalism never developed in Sweden as it did in the rest of Europe.[48] As a result, the peasantry remained largely a class of free farmers throughout most of Swedish history. Slavery (also called thralldom) was not common in Sweden,[49] and what slavery there was tended to be driven out of existence by the spread of Christianity, by the difficulty of obtaining slaves from lands east of the Baltic Sea, and by the development of cities before the 16th century.[50] Indeed, both slavery and serfdom were abolished altogether by a decree of King Magnus IV in 1335. Former slaves tended to be absorbed into the peasantry, and some became labourers in the towns. Still, Sweden remained a poor and economically backward country in which barter was the primary means of exchange. For instance, the farmers of the province of Dalsland would transport their butter to the mining districts of Sweden and exchange it there for iron, which they would then take to the coast and trade for fish, which they consumed, while the iron would be shipped abroad.[51]

In the middle of the 14th century, Sweden was struck by the Black Death.[52] The population of Sweden and most of Europe was decimated. The population (at same territory) did not reach the numbers of the year 1348 again until the beginning of the 19th century. One third of the population died during the period of 1349–1351. During this period, the Swedish cities began to acquire greater rights and were strongly influenced by German merchants of the Hanseatic League, active especially at Visby. In 1319, Sweden and Norway were united under King Magnus Eriksson, and in 1397 Queen Margaret I of Denmark affected the personal union of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark through the Kalmar Union. However, Margaret's successors, whose rule was also centred in Denmark, were unable to control the Swedish nobility.

Many times the Swedish crown was inherited by child kings over the course of the kingdom's existence; consequently, real power was held for long periods by regents (notably those of the

Protestant Reformation
.

The Hanseatic League had been officially formed at

textiles, while the remaining third was salt. The main exports from Sweden were iron and copper.[56]

However, the Swedes began to resent the monopoly trading position of the Hansa (mostly consisting of German citizens), and to resent the income they felt they lost to the Hansa. Consequently, when Gustav Vasa or Gustav I broke the monopoly power of the Hanseatic League he was regarded as a hero by the Swedish people.[57] History now views Gustav I as the father of the modern Swedish nation. The foundations laid by Gustav would take time to develop. Furthermore, when Sweden did develop, freed itself from the Hanseatic League, and entered its golden era, the fact that the peasantry had traditionally been free meant that more of the economic benefits flowed back to them rather than going to a feudal landowning class.[58]

The end of the 16th century was marked by a final phase of rivalry between the remaining Catholics and the new Protestant communities. In 1592, Gustav Vasa's Catholic grandson and

deposition in 1599, Sigismund attempted to reclaim the throne at every expense and hostilities between Poland and Sweden continued for the next one hundred years.[61]

Swedish Empire

During the 17th century, Sweden emerged as a European

Gustavus Adolphus, seizing territories from Russia and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in multiple conflicts, including the Thirty Years' War.[62]

During the Thirty Years' War, Sweden conquered approximately half of the Holy Roman states and defeated the Imperial army at the

Denmark-Norway fought the Torstenson War. The result of that conflict and the conclusion of the Thirty Years' War helped establish postwar Sweden as a major force in Europe.[63]

In the middle of the 17th century, Sweden was the third-largest country in Europe by land area, surpassed by only Russia and Spain. Sweden reached its largest territorial extent under the rule of

Charles X after the treaty of Roskilde in 1658, following Charles X's risky but successful crossing of the Danish Belts.[64][65] The foundation of Sweden's success during this period is credited to Gustav I's major changes to the Swedish economy in the 16th century, and his introduction of Protestantism.[66] In the 17th century, Sweden was engaged in many wars, for example with Poland–Lithuania, with both sides competing for territories of today's Baltic states, with Sweden suffering a notable defeat at the Battle of Kircholm.[67] One-third of the Finnish population died in the devastating Great Famine of 1695–1697 that struck the country.[68] Famine also hit Sweden, killing roughly 10% of Sweden's population.[69]

The Swedes conducted a series of invasions into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, known as the Deluge.[70] After more than half a century of almost constant warfare, the Swedish economy had deteriorated. It became the lifetime task of Charles X's son, Charles XI, to rebuild the economy and refit the army.[71] His legacy to his son, the coming ruler of Sweden, Charles XII, was one of the finest arsenals in the world, a large standing army and a great fleet.[72] Russia, the most serious threat to Sweden at this time, had a larger army but lagged far behind in both equipment and training.[73]

After the Battle of Narva in 1700, one of the first battles of the Great Northern War, the Russian army was so severely devastated that Sweden had an open chance to invade Russia.[74] However, Charles XII did not pursue the Russian army, instead turning against Poland and defeating the Polish king, Augustus II the Strong, and his Saxon allies at the Battle of Kliszów in 1702.[75] This gave Russia time to rebuild and modernise its army.

The Battle of Poltava in 1709. In the following years, Russia and her allies occupied all Swedish dominions
on the Baltic coast and even Finland.

After the success of invading Poland, Charles XII decided to make an attempt at

two campaigns against Norway on 1716 and 1718, respectively. During the second attempt, he was shot to death during the siege of Fredriksten fortress.[80]
The Swedes were not militarily defeated at Fredriksten, but the whole structure and organisation of the campaign fell apart with the king's death, and the army withdrew.

Forced to cede large areas of land in the Treaty of Nystad in 1721, Sweden also lost its place as an empire and as the dominant state on the Baltic Sea.[81] With Sweden's lost influence, Russia emerged as an empire and became one of Europe's dominant nations. As the war finally ended in 1721, Sweden had lost an estimated 200,000 men, 150,000 of those from the area of present-day Sweden and 50,000 from the Finnish part of Sweden.[82]

In the 18th century, Sweden did not have enough resources to maintain its territories outside Scandinavia, and most of them were lost, culminating with the loss in 1809 of eastern Sweden to Russia, which became the highly autonomous Grand Principality of Finland in Imperial Russia.[83]

In interest of re-establishing Swedish dominance in the Baltic Sea, Sweden allied itself against its traditional ally and benefactor, France, in the

Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, was chosen as heir presumptive to the decrepit Charles XIII; in 1818, he established the House of Bernadotte, taking the regnal name of Charles XIV. Sweden's role in the Battle of Leipzig gave it the authority to force Denmark–Norway, an ally of France, to cede Norway to the King of Sweden on 14 January 1814 in exchange for the northern German provinces, at the Treaty of Kiel.[84] The Norwegian attempts to keep their status as a sovereign state were rejected by the Swedish king, Charles XIII. He launched a military campaign against Norway on 27 July 1814, ending in the Convention of Moss, which forced Norway into a personal union with Sweden under the Swedish crown, which lasted until 1905.[85] The 1814 campaign was the last time Sweden was at war.[86]

Modern history

Illustration of starvation in northern Sweden, Famine of 1867–1869

The Swedish East India Company, Ostindiska Kompaniet, began in 1731. The obvious choice of home port was Gothenburg at Sweden's west coast, the mouth of Göta älv river is very wide and has the county's largest and best harbour for high-seas journeys. The trade continued into the 19th century, and caused the little town to become Sweden's second city.[87] There was a significant population increase during the 18th and 19th centuries, which the writer Esaias Tegnér in 1833 attributed to "the peace, the smallpox vaccine, and the potatoes".[88] Between 1750 and 1850, the population in Sweden doubled. According to some scholars, mass emigration to America became the only way to prevent famine and rebellion; over 1% of the population emigrated annually during the 1880s.[89] Nevertheless, Sweden remained poor, retaining a nearly entirely agricultural economy even as Denmark and Western European countries began to industrialise.[89][90]

Swedish emigrants boarding ship in Gothenburg
in 1905

Many looked towards America for a better life during this time. It is thought that between 1850 and 1910 more than one million Swedes moved to the United States.

immigrants moved to the midwestern United States, with a large population in Minnesota
, with a few others moving to other parts of the United States and Canada.

Despite the slow rate of industrialisation into the 19th century, many important changes were taking place in the agrarian economy due to constant innovations and a rapid population growth.[93] These innovations included government-sponsored programmes of enclosure, aggressive exploitation of agricultural lands, and the introduction of new crops such as the potato.[93] Because the Swedish peasantry had never been enserfed as elsewhere in Europe,[94][citation needed] the Swedish farming culture began to take on a critical role in Swedish politics, which has continued through modern times with modern Agrarian party (now called the Centre Party).[95] Between 1870 and 1914, Sweden began developing the industrialised economy that exists today.[96]

Strong grassroots movements sprang up in Sweden during the latter half of the 19th century (trade unions,

parliamentarism, and the country was democratised
.

World War I and World War II

Sweden was officially neutral during World War I. However, under pressure from the German Empire, they did take steps which were detrimental to the Allied powers. Most notably, mining the Øresund channel, thus closing it to Allied shipping, and allowing the Germans to use Swedish facilities and the Swedish cipher to transmit secret messages to their overseas embassies.[97] Sweden also allowed volunteers to fight for the White Guards alongside the Germans against the Red Guards and Russians in the Finnish Civil War, and briefly occupied Åland in cooperation with the German Empire.

As in the First World War, Sweden remained officially neutral during World War II, although its neutrality during World War II has been disputed.[98][99] Sweden was under German influence for much of the war, as ties to the rest of the world were cut off through blockades.[98] The Swedish government felt that it was in no position to openly contest Germany,[100] and therefore made some concessions.[101] Sweden also supplied steel and machined parts to Germany throughout the war. The Swedish government unofficially supported Finland in the Winter War and the Continuation War by allowing volunteers and materiel to be shipped to Finland. However, Sweden supported Norwegian resistance against Germany, and in 1943 helped rescue Danish Jews from deportation to Nazi concentration camps.

During the last year of the war, Sweden began to play a role in humanitarian efforts, and many refugees, among them several thousand Jews from Nazi-occupied Europe, were rescued thanks to the Swedish rescue missions to internment camps and partly because Sweden served as a haven for refugees, primarily from the Nordic countries and the Baltic states.[100] The Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg and his colleagues ensured the safety of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews.[102] Nevertheless, both Swedes and others have argued that Sweden could have done more to oppose the Nazis' war efforts, even if it meant increasing the risk of occupation.[100]

Post-war era

Tage Erlander (left), Prime Minister under the ruling Swedish Social Democratic Party
from 1946 to 1969

Sweden was officially a neutral country and remained outside NATO and Warsaw Pact membership during the Cold War, but privately Sweden's leadership had strong ties with the United States and other western governments. Following the war, Sweden took advantage of an intact industrial base, social stability and its natural resources to expand its industry to supply the rebuilding of Europe.[103] Sweden received aid under the Marshall Plan and participated in the OECD. During most of the post-war era, the country was governed by the Swedish Social Democratic Party largely in co-operation with trade unions and industry. The government actively pursued an internationally competitive manufacturing sector of primarily large corporations.[104]

Sweden was one of the founding states of the

European Free Trade Area (EFTA). During the 1960s the EFTA countries were often referred to as the Outer Seven, as opposed to the Inner Six of the then-European Economic Community (EEC).[105]

Sweden, like many industrialised countries, entered a period of economic decline and upheaval following the oil embargoes of 1973–74 and 1978–79.[106] In the 1980s several key Swedish industries were significantly restructured. Shipbuilding was discontinued, wood pulp was integrated into modernised paper production, the steel industry was concentrated and specialised, and mechanical engineering was robotised.[107]

Between 1970 and 1990, the overall tax burden rose by over 10%, and the growth was low compared with other countries in Western Europe. Eventually, the government began to spend over half of the country's gross domestic product. Swedish GDP per capita ranking declined during this time.[104]

Recent history

Lisbon Treaty
in 2007.

A bursting real estate bubble caused by inadequate controls on lending combined with an international recession and a policy switch from anti-unemployment policies to anti-inflationary policies resulted in a

fiscal crisis in the early 1990s.[108] Sweden's GDP declined by around 5%. In 1992, a run on the currency caused the central bank to briefly increase interest rates to 500%.[109][110]

The response of the government was to cut spending and institute a multitude of reforms to improve Sweden's competitiveness, among them reducing the

Alliance defeated the incumbent Social Democrat government. Following the rapid growth of support for the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, and their entrance to the Riksdag in 2010
, the Alliance became a minority cabinet.

Until recently Sweden remained non-aligned militarily, although it participated in some joint military exercises with NATO and some other countries, in addition to extensive cooperation with other European countries in the area of defence technology and defence industry. However, in 2022, in response to the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sweden moved to formally join the NATO alliance.[111] The same year, Sweden applied for NATO membership and was formally invited to join the alliance at the NATO Summit in Madrid.[111] The secretary general of NATO Jens Stoltenberg spoke of a fast-track membership process of just a few weeks, however NATO member Turkey has repeatedly hindered Sweden from joining the alliance, demanding Swedish action against the PKK and for Sweden to extradite alleged Kurdish "terrorists" to Turkey, the situation straining relations between the two countries. Turkey has maintained links with Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.[112]

Swedish export weapons were also used by the American military in Iraq.[113] Sweden has a long history of participating in international military operations, including Afghanistan, where Swedish troops are under NATO command, and in EU-sponsored peacekeeping operations in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Cyprus. Sweden also participated in enforcing a UN mandated no-fly zone over Libya during the Arab Spring. Sweden held the chair of the European Union from 1 July to 31 December 2009.

In recent decades Sweden has become a more culturally diverse nation due to significant immigration; in 2013, it was estimated that 15% of the population was foreign-born, and an additional 5% of the population were born to two immigrant parents. The influx of immigrants has brought new social challenges. Violent incidents have periodically occurred[114][115] including the 2013 Stockholm riots, which broke out following the police shooting of an elderly Portuguese immigrant.[116] In response to these violent events, the anti-immigration opposition party, the Sweden Democrats, promoted their anti-immigration policies, while the left-wing opposition blamed growing inequality caused by the centre-right government's socioeconomic policies.[117]

In 2014, Stefan Löfven (Social Democrats) won the General Election and became the new Swedish Prime Minister to succeed Fredrik Reinfeldt of the liberal conservative Moderate Party. The Sweden Democrats held the balance of power and voted the government's budget down in the Riksdag, but due to agreements between the government and the Alliance, the government was able to hang onto power.[118] Sweden was heavily affected by the 2015 European migrant crisis, eventually forcing the government to tighten regulations of entry to the country, as Sweden received thousands of asylum seekers and migrants predominantly from Africa and the Middle East per week in autumn, overwhelming existing structures.[119] Some of the asylum restrictions were relaxed again later.[120]

The

form a minority government, led by Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, in January 2019, relying on supply and confidence from the Centre Party, Liberals and the Left Party.[121]

In August 2021, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven announced his resignation and finance minister Magdalena Andersson was elected as the new head of Sweden's ruling Social Democrats in November 2021.[122] On 30 November 2021, Magdalena Andersson became Sweden's first female prime minister. She formed a minority government made up of only her Social Democrats. Her plan for forming a new coalition government with the Green Party was unsuccessful because her budget proposal failed to pass.[123][124]

The September 2022 general election ended in a narrow win to a bloc of right-wing parties, meaning the resignation of Magdalena Andersson's government.[125] On 18 October 2022, Ulf Kristersson of the Moderate Party became the new Prime Minister of Sweden.[126] Kristersson's Moderates formed a centre-right coalition with the Christian Democrats and the Liberals. The new government will be backed by the biggest right-wing party, Sweden Democrats (SD) led by Jimmie Åkesson, meaning tougher immigration policies as a crucial part of a policy deal with the SD.[127]

Geography

Situated in Northern Europe, Sweden lies west of the

1,619 km
long) is the longest uninterrupted border within Europe.

Sweden lies between latitudes 55° and 70° N, and mostly between longitudes 11° and 25° E (part of Stora Drammen island is just west of 11°).

Stockholm archipelago