About Sweden
The official name of Sweden is the Kingdom of Sweden and it’s located in Northern Europe.
Sweden is a Scandinavian nation with thousands of coastal islands and inland lakes, along with vast boreal forests and glaciated mountains. It is bordered by Norway to the west, Finland to the east and is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge-tunnel across the Oresund.
Stockholm is the capital of Sweden and its largest city. Other important cities in Sweden are Gothenburg, Malmö and Uppsala. Its principal cities, eastern capital Stockholm and south-western Gothenburg and Malmö, are all coastal. Stockholm is built on 14 islands. It has more than 50 bridges, as well as the medieval old town, Gamla Stan, royal palaces and museums such as open-air Skansen.
The country has a total land area 450,295 square kilometers (173,860 sq mi), with a population of 10.1 million inhabitants. It is the third-largest country in the European Union by land area.
The official currency of Sweden is Swedish krona. The main official language of Sweden is Swedish, but the country also has 5 other official languages Finnish, Sami, Meänkieli, Yiddish and Romani.
Sweden has low unemployment rate, a low birth rate, a highly developed welfare system and one of the world’s longest life expectancies all contributes to modern Sweden having one of the highest standards of living in the world.
50% of Sweden is covered by forests and there are also around 100,000 lakes and over 24,000 islands throughout the country. Sweden’s right to public access laws allows these areas to be fully accessible by the public. The Swedish Vikings of the 8th-10th centuries were a fearsome group, highly skilled at warfare they invaded and settled throughout Northern and Eastern Europe. During the 17th century Sweden again emerged as a great power in Europe with the Swedish Empire gaining territories in Eastern Europe.
As you’d expect from a nation with an economy driven by science and technology, Sweden offers a good selection of universities. It has eight entries in the QS World University Rankings® 2018, all of which are in the top 350.