Sweden

Sweden is a country in the north of Europe.

It is long from top to bottom. It has big forests and lots of lakes. Many little islands sit along its coast. The capital city is Stockholm.

Sweden is in northern Europe, on the Scandinavian Peninsula, which it shares with Norway. It is long and fairly narrow: about 1,600 kilometers from north to south and 500 kilometers from east to west. Norway lies to the west, Finland to the northeast, and in the south a narrow strait called the Sound separates Sweden from Denmark.

The land slopes gently from high mountains in the west down to the Baltic Sea in the east. Lakes dot the countryside, and thousands of islands lie along the rocky coast. About 10.6 million people live in Sweden, and its capital is Stockholm.

Sweden extends some 1,600 km north to south and 500 km east to west and covers about 447,425 square kilometers. Geologically it is one of the oldest and most stable parts of Earth's crust, its surface reshaped by the retreating glaciers of the Pleistocene. Thousands of islands form archipelagoes along more than 2,100 km of jagged coastline. Britannica notes that its climate is mild for its latitude because of southwesterly winds and the warm North Atlantic Current.

Statistics Sweden recorded 10,621,103 residents in August 2026, after the population grew by about 5,000 in the first half of the year. Britannica describes 1,000 years of continuous history as a sovereign state; today it is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy dating from 1917, and Stockholm has been the permanent capital since 1523.

Stockholm is the capital of Sweden.

It is built on islands, where a lake meets the sea. Gothenburg is a big city on the west coast. On the island of Gotland is an old town with a long stone wall.

Stockholm is built on many islands and the mainland, where Lake Mälaren meets an arm of the Baltic Sea. Nearby, on an island in the same lake, stands Drottningholm, a royal home with gardens and a theater built in 1766.

Gothenburg is a big city on the west coast, and Sweden's skärgård, a coast of hundreds of small rounded islands, is found around both cities. On the island of Gotland, the town of Visby still has walls from the 1200s. It was a busy trading town in the Middle Ages. Birka, on another island in Lake Mälaren, was a Viking trading town.

Stockholm lies on numerous islands and the mainland where Lake Mälaren meets the Baltic; most Swedes live in the Stockholm–Gothenburg–Malmö triangle and along the coast north of Stockholm. UNESCO lists the Royal Domain of Drottningholm (1991), on a Mälaren island in a Stockholm suburb, as the finest 18th-century north European royal residence inspired by Versailles, with a perfectly preserved theater built in 1766.

Visby on Gotland, inscribed in 1995, was the main center of the Hanseatic League in the Baltic from the 12th to the 14th century; its 13th-century ramparts and more than 200 warehouses and merchants' houses make it, in UNESCO's words, the best-preserved fortified commercial city in northern Europe. Birka, on Björkö in Lake Mälaren, was occupied in the 9th and 10th centuries and illustrates the trading networks of Viking-Age Europe. Since 1 July 2000 the 15.9 km Øresund Link of bridge, tunnel and artificial island has joined Sweden and Denmark.

Sweden has huge forests of pine and birch trees.

It has lots of lakes. In the far north, the sun shines all night in summer. In winter, it stays dark nearly all day.

Most of Sweden is covered in forests of fir, pine and birch, full of blueberries, lingonberries and mushrooms. Its largest lake, Vänern, covers 5,650 square kilometers. In the far north, mountains rise near Norway. The highest point in Sweden is the rocky north peak of Kebnekaise, about 2,097 meters high.

About 15 percent of Sweden lies north of the Arctic Circle. From late May until mid-July the sun shines around the clock there. In mid-December, Stockholm gets only about five and a half hours of daylight. The northern interior can have snow for up to eight months a year, and sea ice covers the Gulf of Bothnia from November to May.

Norrland, the northern three-fifths of Sweden, is a region of rounded hills and mountains, large lakes and long river valleys; the Kölen (Scandinavian) Mountains along the Norwegian border hold numerous glaciers. Kebnekaise, north of the Arctic Circle, holds the highest point: its ice-free north peak, 2,096.8 m. Stockholm University's Tarfala Research Station measures the ice-capped south peak each year, and it has been the lower of the two every year since 2019 (2,088.4 m in September 2025). The largest lakes, Vänern (5,650 km²), Vättern (1,911 km²) and Mälaren (1,139 km²), lie in Svealand.

The land is still rising after the ice sheets melted: UNESCO notes that at the High Coast the land has risen about 285 m since the ice retreated 9,600 years ago, the highest known rebound. North of the Arctic Circle the sun does not set from about late May to mid-July, while in mid-December Lappland has nearly 20 hours of darkness and 4 of twilight. Winter temperatures in the northern interior can fall to −30 to −40 °C. Sweden opened Europe's first national park, Sarek, in 1909.

Moose walk through Sweden's forests.

Bears and lynx live in the north. Big herds of reindeer graze in the mountains. In summer, cranes and wild geese fly in.

Large numbers of moose, roe deer, foxes and hares live all over Sweden. Moose are numerous, and they can be a hazard on the roads. In the northern forests live brown bears and lynx, and wolves are coming back after almost disappearing in the 1900s.

In the north, large herds of reindeer graze in the mountains and forests. They are domesticated, owned and herded by Sami. Each summer, cranes, wild geese and many other birds arrive from southern Europe and Africa. Salmon and pike swim in lakes, rivers and the Baltic Sea.

Britannica lists bears and lynx in the northern forests and notes that wolves, almost extinct in the 20th century, are making a comeback; moose, roe deer, foxes and hares are numerous throughout the country, and the moose is both a hunting prize and a traffic hazard. Hunting and fishing are closely regulated and many species are fully protected. Large herds of domesticated reindeer, owned by Sami, graze the northern mountains and forests.

Winter birdlife is dominated by a few species, but summer brings large numbers of migratory birds from southern Europe and Africa, such as cranes and wild geese. Cod and mackerel live in the salty Atlantic waters to the west, while salmon and pike live in the far less salty Baltic and in lakes and rivers. Pollution has taken its toll on aquatic life, notably the Baltic seal, and about a fifth of Sweden's lakes have been damaged by acidification.

About 10 million people live in Sweden.

Most people speak Swedish. Children start school when they are 7. School lunch is free. At midsummer, people dance around a pole covered in flowers.

About 10.6 million people live in Sweden, most of them in towns and cities in the south. Swedish is the first language of about nine in ten people. Sami, Finnish, Meänkieli, Romani, Yiddish and sign language are official minority languages, and about 200 languages are spoken in all.

Children go to school from age 7 to 16, and school lunches, books and transport are free. Anyone may hike through forests and fields and pick berries and mushrooms. At Midsummer, around June 21, people dance around a pole decorated with flowers and leaves. A smörgåsbord, a buffet of appetizers, is a national favorite.

Nearly nine-tenths of Swedes live in urban centers, while Norrland has about three inhabitants per square kilometer. Swedish, a North Germanic language closely related to Danish and Norwegian, is the mother tongue of about nine-tenths of the population; Sami, Finnish, Meänkieli, Romani, Yiddish and sign language are recognized national minority languages. Britannica names two Indigenous minorities: the Finnish-speaking people of the northeast and the Sami, who developed reindeer herding and still operate it. By 2016 one in six residents had been born abroad. Between three-fifths and two-thirds of people belong to the Church of Sweden, the state church until 2000, and Islam is the second-largest religion.

School is compulsory from 7 to 16 and free, including lunches; Uppsala University dates from 1477. Food traditions reflect the need to store food for winter: pickled herring, lingonberries, crispbread and fermented dairy products. Midsummer Eve falls near the year's longest day, and the candlelit Lucia celebration on 13 December at almost the darkest time.