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Sweden

Population: 9 723 809

GDP: 559 100 000 000.00 $

Companies & Organizations: 53

Description

 

A military power during the 17th century, Sweden has not participated in any war for two centuries. An armed neutrality was preserved in both world wars. Sweden's long-successful economic formula of a capitalist system intermixed with substantial welfare elements was challenged in the 1990s by high unemployment and in 2000-02 and 2009 by the global economic downturns, but fiscal discipline over the past several years has allowed the country to weather economic vagaries. Sweden joined the EU in 1995, but the public rejected the introduction of the euro in a 2003 referendum.

Population

 

Population: 9,723,809 (2014).

 

Nationality: noun: Swede(s), adjective: Swedish.

 

Ethnic groups: indigenous population: Swedes with Finnish and Sami minorities; foreign-born or first-generation immigrants: Finns, Yugoslavs, Danes, Norwegians, Greeks, Turks.

 

Languages: Swedish (official), small Sami- and Finnish-speaking minorities.

 

Religions: Lutheran 87%, other (includes Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist, Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist) 13%.

GDP

 

GDP: $ 559 100 000 000.00 (2014).

Military Organization

 

Swedish Armed Forces (Forsvarsmakten): Army (Armen), Royal Swedish Navy (Marinen), Swedish Air Force (Svenska Flygvapnet).

Conflicts and Disputes

 

Refugees (country of origin): 24,006 (Iraq); 20,613 (Somalia); 17,984 (Syria); 10,499 (Afghanistan); 8,954 (Eritrea) (2014).

 

Stateless persons: 20,450 (2013); note - the majority of stateless people come from the Middle East and Somalia.

Geographical Information and Map

 

Capital: Stockholm

 

Location: Northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia, Kattegat, and Skagerrak, between Finland and Norway. Strategic location along Danish Straits linking Baltic and North Seas.

 

Geographic coordinates:

62 00 N, 15 00 E.

 

Area:

total: 450,295 sq km

land: 410,335 sq km

water: 39,960 sq km

 

Land boundaries:

total: 2,211 km

border countries: Finland 545 km, Norway 1,666 km.

 

Coastline: 3,218 km.

 

Natural resources: iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, gold, silver, tungsten, uranium, arsenic, feldspar, timber, hydropower.