Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east, and shares a maritime border with Denmark to the south. At and with a population of 10.6 million, Sweden is the largest and most populous Nordic country, and is the fifth-largest country in Europe. Its capital and largest city is Stockholm. The population density is , and 88% of Swedes reside in urban areas, mostly in the southern and central portions of the country. Sweden's urban areas together cover 1.5% of its land area. Sweden has a diverse climate owing to the length of the country, which ranges from 55°N to 69°N.
Sweden has been inhabited since prehistoric times around 12,000 BC. The inhabitants emerged as the Geats () and Swedes (), who formed part of the sea-faring peoples known as the Norsemen. A unified Swedish state was established during the late 10th century. In 1397, Sweden joined Norway and Denmark to form the Scandinavian Kalmar Union, 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. During this era Sweden controlled much of the Baltic Sea. Most of the conquered territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were lost during the 18th and 19th centuries. The eastern half of Sweden, present-day Finland, was lost to Imperial Russia in 1809. The last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Sweden by military means forced Norway into a personal union, a union which lasted until 1905.
Sweden is a highly developed country ranked fifth in the Human Development Index. It is a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy, with legislative power vested in the 349-member unicameral . It is a unitary state, divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides universal health care and tertiary education for its citizens. It has the world's 14th highest GDP per capita and ranks very highly in quality of life, health, education, protection of civil liberties, economic competitiveness, income equality, gender equality and prosperity. Sweden joined the European Union in 1995, and in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, NATO in 2024. It is also a member of the United Nations, the Schengen Area, the Council of Europe, the Nordic Council, the World Trade Organization and 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 , meaning 'one's own', referring to one's own tribe from the tribal period.Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch by Julius Pokorny (English translation), p. 1493 The native Swedish name, (a compound of the words and , first recorded in the cognate in Beowulf), 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 ("land of [the] Swedes"), with as the singular form.Lemma: SWEDEN , Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal In Old English the country was known as or , and in Early Modern English as . Some Finnic languages, such as Finnish and Estonian, use the terms and ; these variations refer to the Rus' people who inhabited the coastal areas of Roslagen in Uppland and who gave their name to Russia.
History
Prehistory
Sweden's prehistory begins in the Allerød oscillation, a warm period around 12,000 BC, with Late 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.
Sweden and its people were first described by the Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus in his Germania (98 AD). In Germania 44 and 45 he mentions the Swedes (Suiones) as a powerful tribe with ships that had a prow at each end (longships). Which kings () ruled these Suiones is unknown, but Norse mythology presents a long line of legendary and semi-legendary kings going back to the last centuries BC. The runic script was in use among the south Scandinavian elite by at least the second century AD, but all that has survived from the Roman Period is curt inscriptions demonstrating that the people of south Scandinavia spoke Proto-Norse at the time, a language ancestral to Swedish and other North Germanic languages.
In the sixth century, the Byzantine historian Jordanes names two tribes living in Scandza, both of which are now considered to be synonymous with the Swedes: the and . The were known to the Roman world as suppliers of black fox skins and, according to Jordanes, had very fine horses, similar to those of the Thyringi of ("").
Viking Age
The Swedish Viking Age lasted roughly from the eighth century to the 11th century. It is believed that Swedish Vikings and Gutar mainly travelled east and south, going to Finland, Estonia, the Baltic countries, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, the Black Sea and even as far as Baghdad. Their routes passed through the Dnieper south to Constantinople, on which they carried out numerous raids. The Byzantine emperor Theophilos noticed their great skills in war and invited them to serve as his personal bodyguard, known as the Varangian Guard. The Swedish Vikings, called Rus, are believed to be the founders of Kievan Rus'. The Vikings were described by many outside sources, such as the Arab traveller Ibn Fadlan.A History of the Vikings. Oxford University Press, 2001. . Page 164. 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.
During the early stages of the Viking Age, a centre of trade in Northern Europe developed at Birka on the island of Björkö, not far from where Stockholm was later constructed, in mid-latitude Sweden. Birka was founded around 750 AD as a trading port by a king or merchants trying to control trade. Birka was the Baltic link in the Dnieper trade route through Ladoga (Aldeigja) and Novgorod (Holmsgard) to the Byzantine Empire and the Abbasid Caliphate.2006 Encyclopædia Britannica. Article "Birca". It was abandoned around 975, at about the same time Sigtuna was founded as a town some 35 km to the northeast. It has been estimated that the population in Viking Age Birka was between 500 and 1000 people. Archaeological finds indicate that Birka still was wealthy in the 9th and 10th centuries. Thousands of graves, coins, jewellery and other luxury items have been found there.Andersson (1975), p. 34
Kingdom of Sweden
The exact age of the kingdom of Sweden is unknown. Determining its age depends mostly on whether Sweden is considered a nation when the (Swedes) ruled Svealand or when the and the (Geats) of Götaland were united under a single ruler. Svealand was described by Tacitus in 98 AD as being under a single ruler, though it is unknown how long this had been the case. The epic poem Beowulf describes semi-legendary Swedish-Geatish wars in the sixth century.
However, historians typically start the line of Swedish monarchs from when Svealand and Götaland were ruled under the same king, namely Erik the Victorious and his son Olof Skötkonung in the tenth century. These events are often described as the consolidation of Sweden, although substantial areas were conquered and incorporated later. In this context, "Götaland" primarily refers to the provinces of Östergötland and Västergötland. Småland was of little interest at the time due to its deep pine forests, with only the city of Kalmar and its castle holding any significant importance. There were also Swedish settlements along the southern coastline of Norrland, one of the four lands of Sweden.
Saint Ansgar is traditionally credited with introducing Christianity to Sweden in 829, but the new religion did not begin to fully replace paganism until the 12th century. During that century, Sweden was undergoing dynastic struggles between the Erik and Sverker clans. The conflict ended when a third clan married into the Erik clan, founding the Bjälbo dynasty, which gradually consolidated Sweden into a stronger state. According to the Legend of Saint Erik and the Erik's Chronicle, Swedish kings conducted a series of Crusades to pagan Finland and started conflicts with the Rus', who by then had no further connections with Sweden. As a result of the Crusades, mostly with the Second Swedish Crusade led by Birger Jarl Finland gradually became part of the kingdom of Sweden and the sphere of influence of the Catholic Church. The Swedes built fortresses in Tavastland and Åbo, while a Swedish royal council was instituted, an administrative structure and fiscal apparatus was created, and law codes were codified during the reigns of Magnus Ladulås (1275–1290) and Magnus Eriksson (1319–1364). As a result, the Finnish lands were firmly integrated into the Swedish realm.Kirby, p.9
Except for the provinces of Scania, Blekinge, and Halland in the southwest of the Scandinavian peninsula, which were part of the Kingdom of Denmark during this period, feudalism never developed in Sweden as it did in much of Europe. As a result, the peasantry remained largely a class of free farmers throughout most of Swedish history. Slavery, also known as thralldom, was not common in Sweden, and the institution gradually diminished due to the spread of Christianity, the difficulty of obtaining slaves from lands east of the Baltic Sea, and by the development of cities before the 16th century.Scott, p. 55. Indeed, both slavery and serfdom were abolished altogether by a decree of King Magnus Eriksson in 1335. Sweden remained a poor and economically underdeveloped country, where barter was the primary means of exchange.Scott, pp. 55–56.
In 1319, Sweden and Norway were united in a personal union under King Magnus Eriksson, the grandson of King Magnus Ladulås of Sweden and of King Haakon V of Norway. Magnus Eriksson also ruled Scania from 1332 to 1360. In the mid-14th century, Sweden was struck by the Black Death.Scott, pp. 56–57. The population of Sweden and most of Europe was decimated. The population did not reach its pre-1348 levels until the beginning of the 19th century, with one third of the population dying between 1349 and 1351. During this period, the cities began to acquire greater rights and were heavily influenced by German merchants of the Hanseatic League, active especially at Visby. In 1397, Queen Margaret I of Denmark (the former daughter-in-law of Magnus Eriksson) established the personal union of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark through the Kalmar Union. However, Margaret's successors, whose rule was centred in Denmark, were unable to control the Swedish nobility.