Treriksröset is the northernmost place in . A monument marks where Sweden, SWEDEN and Finland meet. Finland

Facts and figures The European Space Agency launches rockets and research balloons from the Esrange Capital: Kebnekaise Space Center near Kiruna. 2,103 m Area: At 450,294 square kilometers, Sweden is the third-largest country in Western Europe.

It is roughly the same size as California Kebnekaise is the Kiruna Population: Around 9.5 million people, about 0.14% of the world’s population. Sweden isn’t very densely highest mountain in Sweden. populated. It has only about 23 people per square kilometer, compared with the European Union average of more than 100 Every winter a hotel is built entirely from ice in Jukkasjärvi. Life expectancy: Women live on average for 83 years, and men 79 years Even the beds are made of ice. Residents born outside Sweden: About 15% of the population It all melts in the spring. Religion: The Church of Sweden is Evangelical Lutheran. There are also many other religions and denominations Kiirunavaara mine is one of the largest iron mines in the world. Language: Swedish is the main language, but there are five minority languages: Sami (Lapp), Finnish, People have been mining iron ore here since the early 1900s. Gällivare Meänkieli (Tornedalen Finnish), Yiddish and Romani Chib Government: Sweden is a constitutional monarchy with parliamentary democracy. This means there is a monarch but political power lies with the elected Parliament and the government it appoints When temperatures fall to Head of state: His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf. The heir to the throne is Crown Princess Victoria minus 30°C (minus 22°F), it’s good to have extra-thick, extra- National Day: June 6 warm Lovikka mittens. The first Wolverines are carnivorous pair was knitted in 1892. Flag: Blue with a yellow cross members of the weasel family that live in the northern Jokkmokk National anthem: Du Gamla, Du Fria. You can listen to the national anthem on sweden.se mountains. They are famous for being fierce. Education: Everyone does nine years of compulsory schooling, but most pupils then go on Arctic Circle to three more years at a senior high school About 15% of Sweden lies Longest north-south distance: 1,574 kilometers inside the Arctic Circle. Forests: 53% Exposed rock and mountains: 12%

Lakes and rivers: 9% There are about 20,000 Haparanda In the winter, many car com- Sami people in Sweden. They Marshland: 9% panies come to Arvidsjaur to have lived in the polar region test drive their new models in for thousands of years. Agricultural land: 8% extreme weather conditions. Grasslands: 7% Luleå Urban and industrial land: 3% Arvidsjaur Highest mountain: Kebnekaise (2,103 meters) Biggest lake: Vänern (5,650 square kilometers)

International telephone code: +46 Sami people herd reindeer on a large scale in the northern Internet domain: .se mountains. The meat is sold in Cloudberries are yellow-orange Swedish supermarkets. Time zone: GMT +1 berries found mainly in the north. Cloudberry jam is delicious with Currency: Swedish krona ice cream. Important exports: Machinery and transport equipment, wood and paper products, chemicals and plastic products, electronics Piteå’s beach is one of the best. and telecommunications equipment, minerals and vehicles. In the summer, the sun hardly Sweden is also among the top exporters of music, fashion Fishing is popular, and not just ever sets and people spend long in summer. When the rivers and days enjoying the sea and sand. and computer games lakes freeze, anglers drill holes and go ice fishing. Skellefteå

Several hundred wolves live in the wild. They usually eat rein- deer and moose but sometimes attack farm animals. Umeå has one of the country’s largest parks for skateboarding, in-line skating and BMX. About 2,500 brown bears live in Blueberries grow across the Sweden. They can be dangerous country. Swedes enjoy picking Winter sports are popular in but attacks on humans are blueberries to make pies, syrup, the north and there are many rare. There are no polar bears jam and even soup. Umeå resorts. One of the largest is in in Sweden. Åre, near Östersund.

Popkollo is a music camp that encourages girls aged 12-18 to develop skills in playing and making music. Örnsköldsvik

Skogsmulle is a fictional character The High Coast Bridge Östersund and also the name of a school spans the Ångerman River. that teaches children how to It’s the longest suspension look after nature. Finland bridge in Sweden.

The moose is Sweden’s largest animal. This king of the forest can grow to over 2 meters (6 feet 7 inches) tall – not Härnösand including its antlers.

Sundsvall In Sweden the law gives Where in the world? everyone access to nature and allows camping anywhere with permission of the landowner.

Sweden is one of the world’s largest exporters of wood and paper. Trees cover much of the country and forestry is an White-tailed eagles live along important industry. the coast. They are big birds Hudiksvall with a wingspan that can reach almost 2.5 meters (8 feet).

Norway Carved from wood and painted bright red, the Dalecarlian horse Sweden is a country in the north of Europe. Its capital is Stockholm. Sweden (or Dala horse) is one of the and its neighboring countries, and Norway, make up an area that is called Scandinavia. symbols of Sweden. Mora

Copper was mined at the Great Copper Mountain for about 1,000 years, until 1992. Ferries link Sweden to countries Now visitors can explore it. including Finland, , Gävle Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Crispbread is a traditional Germany and Denmark. Swedish food. The dough is rolled flat, often into a circle, and then baked and dried. Falun

Uppsala’s cathedral was completed in 1435 and its university opened in 1477. Eight Nobel Prize winners have taught or studied here. Many Swedish homes are painted in a color known as One of Sweden’s first Falu red because the pigment towns was Birka on a All kinds of mushrooms grow The warship Vasa sank on its is a byproduct of copper mining small island in Lake in Sweden and people enjoy maiden journey in 1628. It mushroom picking. Chanterelles in Falun. Mälaren. Vikings lived here in the 9th and 10th was raised in 1961 and can are particularly delicious. now be seen in Stockholm. centuries. Uppsala Västerås

Stockholm People go rafting on some of Karlstad the bigger rivers. In the past, this MÄLAREN was the easiest way to transport The Royal Palace in Stockholm is timber to the coasts. Eskilstuna the monarch’s official residence. It has more than 600 rooms. Örebro Learn to speak Kolmården is one of Europe’s largest zoos. It has endangered some Swedish Siberian tigers, and you can VÄNERN take a cable car ride through Strömstad the safari park. Useful words and phrases

G Hello – Hej Mariestad Ö TA KANA L Goodbye – Hej då Norrköping Nyköping People have been enjoying amusement park rides and Yes – Ja GÖ concerts at Gröna Lund in TA K ANAL Stockholm since the 1880s. Uddevalla No – Nej The Göta Kanal is a canal that VÄTTERN Thank you – Tack Sweden has a large fishing stretches right across Sweden. It industry. The most important L took 22 years to build and was Linköping How are you? – Hur mår du? A opened in 1832. catches are sprat, cod, mackerel, N shrimp and herring. A K Good – Bra

A T Polkagrisar are candy Ö What’s your name? – Vad heter du? G sticks first made 150 years Sweden has lots of water parks. ago. Now they come in all sorts The biggest of them all is Skara of flavors, even Coca-Cola. My name is … – Jag heter … Sommarland, which has many different rides and slides. Göteborg Gotland has many buildings Did you know that… from the Middle Ages. Every Visby Borås Jönköping year it celebrates Medieval The Swedish alphabet doesn’t end with Z. It has three extra Week with tournaments and letters that come at the end of the alphabet: Å, Ä and Ö. Liseberg is a big amusement jousting. park in Göteborg. Its many attractions include Europe’s highest free-fall ride. Raukar are strangely shaped limestone pillars formed by

erosion. The most famous ones GOTLAND What’s the weather are on Gotland. Since 1975, thousands of A group of schoolmates started Astrid Lindgren’s World is a theme teenagers from many countries DreamHack in the 1990s. It grew park in Vimmerby, where the have played in the Gothia Cup, author of Pippi Longstocking like in Sweden? to become the world’s biggest the world’s largest youth soccer computer festival. was born. tournament, in Göteborg. Even though Sweden 18°C (64°F) and just below freezing in the winter. extends into the Arctic Sweden is a long country – over 1,500 km (almost Circle, it enjoys warm 1,000 miles) from top to bottom – and the weather summers. The Gulf Stream, differs greatly from one end to the other. Spring flowers Göteborg is the second-biggest Halmstad Växjö Kalmar an ocean current in the Atlantic, can be blooming in the south while thick snow still city in Sweden but its port is the carries warm water and milder weather all the blankets the north. In the winter, the sun never rises largest in all of Scandinavia.

ÖLAND way from Florida to northern Europe. The mountains to in the far north and it is dark for 24 hours a day. In the Koenigsegg makes high- the west also shelter the country. In the capital, Stock- summer, it’s the opposite and the sun never sets. You performance sports cars in Many young Swedes enjoy holm, the average temperature in summer is around can read more about that below. Ängelholm. Their record speed horseback riding. There are over Tylösand outside Halmstad is over 387 kmh (240 mph). 250,000 horses and more than has more than 7 kilometers (4 500,000 riders. miles) of beaches and is one Average temperatures Daylight of Sweden’s best places to January July January July windsurf. Kiruna -16.0°C / 3.2°F +12.8°C / 55.0°F 0 hours 24 hours Karlskrona The royal family has a summer palace on Öland. Crown Princess Stockholm -2.8°C / 27.0°F +17.2°C / 63.0°F 6 hours 18 hours Helsingborg Victoria celebrates her birthday here on July 14. Malmö -0.2°C / 31.6°F +16.8°C / 62.2°F 7 hours 17 hours

Sunlight Denmark Lund 24 hrs At Ideon Science Park, inventors Arctic The midnight sun Sweden Did you know that... develop all sorts of new Circle technology, from cell Each summer the area of Sweden inside In the Celsius temperature scale water phone technology to Malmö has Sweden’s highest medical equipment. the Arctic Circle has a couple of months of freezes at 0°C and boils at 100°C. The building – the Turning Torso – and the Öresund Bridge to constant daylight. The sun dips a little each scale is named after a Swedish astronomer, Denmark. Malmö evening but never fully sets so it never gets Anders Celsius (1701–1744). He origi- dark. This is called the midnight sun. nally called it the Centigrade scale. June 21 Illustration of Globe: Rikard Hilding. All other illustrations: Peter Lakowitz. Peter All other illustrations: Rikard Hilding. Illustration of Globe: Meet Sanna, aged 9½ Sanna is one of 2 million people in Sweden under the age of 18. Sweden is seen as a foreign parent – like Sanna, whose father is English – or maybe they were born good place to grow up. The law makes sure children are well-protected and defends abroad. Many of these children have ties with Iraq or the countries of the former their rights. Many organizations work with children’s well-being. In 1979, Sweden Yugoslavia. About 16,000 children in Sweden are adopted from another country. became the first country to make beating or spanking children a crime. Other important laws say that children under 15 must wear a helmet while riding a bike, and everyone Sweden uses some of its tax money to make sure children are looked after properly. must wear a seat belt in a car, even in the back seat. As with most families, both of Sanna’s parents work, but when she was a baby (Did you know that the three-point seat belt her parents received money from the government while they took turns staying was invented in Sweden?) home with her for over a year. If Sanna is sick she can see a doctor free of charge. Visits to the dentist are free until she turns 20. She also gets a proper lunch at Like most children (around 70%), school every day. Sanna lives with both her parents. Almost a third of all children have In Sweden people care about the environment and Sanna helps by recycling cans a stepfather or stepmother. and bottles. The water is clean, so Sanna and her sisters can go swimming in lakes Around one in four children (even in the center of Stockholm if she wants to) and drink the water from the have roots in another coun- faucet. She never buys bottled water. Twice a year, she cleans up the neighborhood try. Perhaps they have a with friends and family, and afterward, they celebrate with a barbecue.

Facts about Sanna Family: Mom, dad and two little sisters Favorite film:Fame Home: An apartment in Nacka, outside Reading at the moment: Five Run Away Stockholm Together by Enid Blyton Hobbies: Dancing and playing the piano Best day of the week: Friday because we have fredagsmys (cozy Friday*) Favorite meal: A hamburger What’s on your wish list: My own set of Favorite holiday destination: Croatia keys, my own room and an iPhone Favorite season: Summer when it’s warm What are you most looking forward and you can go swimming to: Being 17 and graduating Favorite performers: Katy Perry and Hidden talent: I can stand on my head Lady Gaga *On cozy Fridays, many families watch TV together, eat nuts or potato chips, and drink soda.

Join Sanna for a day at school School is free in Sweden. Most children go to preschool class (kindergarten) at the age of six, start school pupils study English. Because Sanna’s father is English, she gets special lessons to encourage her second at seven and finish around the age of 15. After that, you can choose to stay on for senior high school, language. From around sixth grade, children are taught a third language, usually Spanish, French or which most pupils do. German. The school year is divided into two semesters, spring and fall. Children get one-week breaks in the fall, Before and after school, there are supervised activities for children while their parents work. You spring and at Easter, about two weeks at Christmas and a 10-week-long summer vacation. There are also can go swimming, play sports, bake, work on the computer, watch a film – or even make a film. It all a few more days off, scattered throughout the year. depends on what the teachers or carers organize. In Sweden, pupils call their teachers by their first As well as classroom lessons, sports and outdoor activities are important. From about second grade, names.

Sanna’s day begins at 6.30 when she gets up, Sanna cycles to school, which starts at 8.20. Sanna’s school day is divided into 40-minute At break time, everyone goes out to play, even gets dressed and has breakfast. She usually In Sweden, children under 15 have to wear lessons, with 10- or 20-minute breaks in be- in bad weather. In the schoolyard there are has yogurt and cereal, a cheese sandwich and bike helmets. Some of Sanna’s friends walk tween. Sanna’s favorite subjects are computer basketball hoops, a soccer field, and a shed a glass of juice. to school or take the bus. studies, drama and Swedish. with balls, skipping ropes and other fun things.

Swedish schoolchildren get a free lunch every At school, the children often work in groups If Sanna has nothing special to do after school, Before Sanna goes to bed, she watches TV or day. The meals are fish, meat or chicken (or a so they learn to cooperate. Computers are she usually plays with her friends or stays does her homework, usually math, English or vegetarian dish) with rice, pasta or potatoes, and often used in class, and everyone has an email home. She sometimes bakes, and chocolate reading. Her dad and her sister help her and vegetables. Milk and bread are always included. address in the school’s own network. balls are her favorite thing to make. check that everything’s right. Photos: Lena Granfelt Photos:

Chocolate balls Makes about 20

Ingredients: 100 grams of butter at room temperature 100 grams (3 deciliters) of rolled oats 80 grams (1 deciliter) of sugar 2 heaped tablespoons of cocoa 2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar or vanilla extract 2-3 tablespoons of instant coffee (this One year in Sweden enhances the chocolate taste) Coating: Shredded coconut or granulated sugar

How to make: W Mix all the ingredients together in a large IN bowl. It’s easiest – and more fun – to do this T with your hands. When everything is thoroughly E blended, roll pieces of the mixture into balls. R You can decide how big or small you want them. Set the balls aside on a plate when they R JA are done. Pour the coconut or granulated BE NU sugar (or a mixture of the two) into a soup EM A bowl and roll the balls in it to cover them. C R Once they are fully covered, put them back on E Y the plate and put them in the freezer to set. Or, D if you can’t wait, just eat them straight away!

R F E EB B R M U E A Lena Granefelt/Imagebank.sweden.se Photo: V The Christmas season is the main festive period for most R Swedes and one highlight is Lucia on December 13. Children and adults take part in candle-lit Lucia processions at schools and Y O workplaces and in church, singing Christmas songs. Lena Granefelt/Johnér Photo: N January is a dark month with little sunshine, but the snow brightens things up. And if you dress in warm clothing you can be outdoors as much as you like.

Photo: Lola Akinmade Åkerström/Imagebank.sweden.se Early in the year, it’s time for semlor – buns filled with almond paste and cream. Before, people only ate them on Fat Tuesday

Photo: Lena Granefelt /Johnér Photo: but nowadays you can eat them every day of the week. On October 31, Halloween – a new tradition in Sweden – is celebrated with fancy dress and pumpkins. Around this time is All Saints Day and many people light candles on graves and M R in memorial parks. L E A L B R

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Photo: Photo: Henrik Trygg/Johnér In the February-March winter sports vacation, lots of people Photo: T. Andersson/Bildarkivet.se T. Photo: O Lena Koller/Johnér Photo: head to the mountains. Almost 30% of Swedes enjoy downhill

In the fall many people go mushrooming in the Soccer training begins at different times of the skiing, though one in ten prefers snowboarding. woods. The more it has rained, the more you year, depending on where you live. In southern

find. Chanterelles are the most popular, but Sweden, the snow usually disappears in March, there are many poisonous species to watch while in the north it may still be on the ground out for. in June. Photo: Mikael Sjöberg/XP/Scanpix Photo: In Sweden, school rules say that all 11-year-olds must be able to swim 200 meters, 50 of them on their back, and must be able to cope with emergencies in the water.

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M Ströhm/Scanpix Per Photo: R Swedes eat lots of candy during Easter and children go hunting for cardboard eggs N filled with treats. At other times, many parents only allow their children to eat candy P I B on the weekend, when it’s known as lördagsgodis (Saturday candy). Photo: Hasse Bengtsson /Johnér Photo: A R E Traditionally, catching crawfish was forbidden in June and July, so people held big crawfish feasts in August. They still do. The R black crawfish turn red when boiled. P Photo: Susanna Blåvarg /Johnér Susanna Blåvarg Photo: Ola Ericson/Imagebank.sweden.se Photo: The summer vacation is 10 weeks long. Many June 6 is National Day, when the Swedish flag is flown all over the country. It was on this S spend it at summer camps, in country cottages, date that Gustav Vasa was appointed king in 1523. Since 2005, this has been a public holiday. or swimming in the sea or a lake. Others go abroad, often to the Mediterranean.

Hans Geijer /Johnér Photo: April 30 is Walpurgis Night, when people celebrate the arrival A of spring. They gather around huge bonfires, sing songs about spring and barbecue hot dogs. U G Y U Photo: Lena Granefelt /Johnér Photo: A S The new school year begins in mid-August. T Everyone moves up a grade. /Johnér Walström Susanne Photo: M The school year ends in early June. Traditionally, teachers get flowers, the principal makes a speech, and the school choir sings summer songs. David Schreiner/Folio Photo: Midsummer is celebrated in late June, when the sun is out almost around the clock. Traditions vary slightly but most people dance round a maypole and eat pickled herring, potatoes and strawberries.

JUL NE Y JU SUM The Swedish Institute (SI) is a public agency that promotes interest and confidence M in Sweden around the world. SI seeks to establish cooperation and lasting relations ER with other countries through strategic communication and exchange in the fields of culture, education, science and business. www.si.se www.sweden.se Printed by Åtta.45, Solna, Sweden, 2011 ISBN 978-91-520-1003-7