Country · Europe
Sweden
Kingdom of Sweden
Sweden is a country in Northern Europe. Its capital city is Stockholm. About 10.2 million people live there, in an area of 450 295 square kilometres.
Picture credit: Petgossch (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Tord Dellsen (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Mattias Åström (CC BY 2.0) · Liridon (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Julian Herzog (CC BY 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Sweden?
Sweden lies in Northern Europe, on the continent of Europe.
It sits in the northern half of the world, roughly 6 902 km from the equator.
Its coastline is about 3 218 km long.
It shares a border with 2 countries: Finland and Norway.
How big is Sweden?
Sweden covers 450 295 square kilometres.
That is about 11 times the size of Switzerland.
Among the world's countries that makes it the 55th largest.
Spread out evenly, that is roughly 22.6 people per square kilometre.
Who lives in Sweden?
About 10.2 million people live in Sweden.
That is the 88th biggest population in the world.
People here speak Swedish.
They pay with the Swedish krona (kr).
On average, people born here can expect to live about 80 years.
The land of Sweden
The land in Sweden sits on average 320 metres above sea level.
Its coast runs for about 3 218 km. Walking it end to end, at twenty kilometres a day, would take roughly 161 days.
It lies between the tropics and the poles, which is the single biggest reason its weather is the way it is.
What makes Sweden different?
A dish the country is known for: Köttbullar, Kräftskiva and Surströmming.
Websites from here often end in .se.
Sweden and the rest of the world
Out of every thousand people alive on Earth, about 1 live in Sweden.
It takes up about 0.34 % of all the land that countries stand on.
Within Europe it is the 5th largest of 45 countries, and the 15th most populated.
That is emptier than the world average of roughly 60 people per square kilometre.
Sweden and its neighbours
Sweden is about 1.3 times the size of Finland, its largest neighbour.
More people live in Sweden than in Finland — 10.2 million against 5.5 million.
Nature and animals
Of the animals on this site, 9 live wild in Sweden: Brown bear, Arctic fox, Eurasian otter, Eurasian beaver, Red squirrel and European hedgehog and more.
Brown bear
Arctic fox
Eurasian otter
Eurasian beaver
Red squirrel
European hedgehog
Moose
Reindeer
Eurasian lynx
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons under free licences — every credit is on the page itself and in the picture credits.
Questions children ask
What is the capital of Sweden?
The capital of Sweden is Stockholm. It is the city where the country's government works from.
How many people live in Sweden?
About 10.2 million people live in Sweden, which makes it the 88th most populated country in the world. (Source: World Bank, 2018.)
Which countries border Sweden?
Sweden borders Finland and Norway — 2 neighbours in total.
How big is Sweden?
Sweden covers 450 295 square kilometres, making it the 55th largest country in the world. That is about 11 times the size of Switzerland.
Which continent is Sweden in?
Sweden is in Europe, in the part called Northern Europe.
Where these numbers come from
Borders and outlines: Natural Earth. Names, capitals, areas, languages and currencies: ISO 3166 data (world-countries). Population: World Bank, 2018. Every derived figure on this page (ranks, density, distance from the equator) is calculated from those values.
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