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Sweden - People

There are 9.7 million people in Sweden, of whom about 2 million are under the age of 18. Eighty-five percent of them live in cities. Sweden is a very multicultural country: 15 per cent of Swedes were born in another country, while about one in five children in Sweden has a family with roots in another country.

Migration inflows to Sweden surged to over 1.5 percent of the population in 2015, with the majority being asylum seekers, and these inflows could remain high. Historical experience is that the employment rates of migrants rise toward the high level of Swedes, but this integration process is lengthy. Unemployment rates among the foreign born, as with the low skilled, are notably higher than the overall unemployment rate.

Diaspora communities in Sweden are quite visible in Swedish social life. Statistics Sweden reports that 1.2 million or about 14% of the Swedish population of 9.2 million is foreign-born. Sweden today is a multicultural and diverse country. Non-Swedish communities have traditionally lived in concentrated areas, both strengthening group identity while at the same time highlighting differences between Swedish and non-Swedish populations. Sweden's population has increased by over 240,000 people in the five years 2005-2009, 77% of whom are immigrants.

Many immigrants such as Iranians have high levels of education at the time of their arrival to Sweden. Sweden also attracts many new labor migrants. The Swedish Migration Board reports that permits for agricultural, gardening, forestry and fishing applications are on the rise. In previous years, Sweden has received a high number of IT specialist workers. This multicultural labor pool represents a rich resource for reaching out to various diaspora communities.

Sweden has a well developed introduction program for refugees although the process of integration into employment is lengthy. Addressing high unemployment of lower skilled workers—by reducing high entry-level wages and easing strict employment protection, together with more effective training and job-matching services—would aid more rapid integration.

The capital of Sweden, Stockholm, is also the country’s largest city, with more than 850,000 inhabitants. Other large cities are Gothenburg, in western Sweden (population 532,000), and Malmö (population 300,000) in the south. Uppsala and Lund are well-known university cities.

Swedish is the official language of Sweden. The vast majority of Swedes also speak English, and generally to a very high level. Many Swedish multinational organisations have English as their corporate language, and a large number of university degree programs and courses are taught in English. Sweden is home to five official national minority languages, and countless other languages are spoken by Sweden’s diverse population. The largest, after Swedish, are Finnish, Serbo-Croatian, Arabic, Kurdish, Spanish, German and Farsi.

The Swedes belong to the Scandinavian branch of the Teutonic family, and entered the country as conquerors probably about the third or fourth century AD. They fell into two divisions: the Goths of the south, and the Sviar or Swedes proper, who emigrated northward to Lake Malar.

One of Sweden’s kings (Gustavus Vasa or Gustavus Adolphus) called the Swedes “a high-tempered people made for great deeds,” and, in fact, Swedish history is full of bold, adventurous characters and striking events. In the present-day Swedes the national character has not changed. The nation is free from the petty, meticulous way of thinking and living which marks most “small nations”.

Sweden is sometimes depicted as a land of misery and gloom and the term Swedish gloom is quite popular. The famous Swedish movie director Ingmar Bergman helped creating the darker image of Sweden. Swedes are quiet and reserved, and probably don't seem that friendly to visitors mistaking this reserved shyness for rudeness.

Many Swedes become depressed during the dark winter months, while the summer has the opposite effect. Sweden is quite far down in the European suicide table, around 15th place. Yet people abroad still tend to describe us as being more suicide-prone than others. The source of the rumour is a speech given by US president Dwight D Eisenhower in 1960, in which he claimed that "sin, nudity, drunkenness and suicide" in Sweden were due to welfare policy excess.

The national character of the Swedes is usually painted under favorable colors. Their honesty is described as proverbial; and the contrast between them and the Russian people, in this respect, was most striking. Highway robbery, though it had been known, is exceedingly rare; and charity boxes, which were often set up on the public roads, were never plundered. The nation had its singularities: there existed something of a reciprocity between the moral and political constitution of Sweden.

Rigidly ceremonious, they made their stiff and measured courtesies the essentials rather than the forms of life; and seemed, in a stranger's eye, a people cold in their nature as the very snows they dwell upon. Their characteristics, a passive courage, not unmixed with indolence; a pride not free from ignorance; a disposition that was not ill-humored, from having no humor at all, from indifference, from apathy.

But a Swede was never in extremes; even these traits were not deeply marked; and the more favourable side of his character included an undaunted spirit of perseverance, and an honest love of freedom, to which the feelings of every one do homage. The cold-blooded obduracy was connected, perhaps, with a sanguinary turn of mind, displayed in those frequent assassinations which stained the pages of Swedish history.

The Top 10 stereotypes about Swedes in the 21st Century are:

1. Honest ('can always trust a Swede')
2. Unemotional ('don't know how they're feeling or if they're even interested')
3. Exotic ('cold, snow, ice, chilly')
4. Sexually liberated ('open-minded and have many partners')
5. Independant ('men and women in work place and they travel everywhere')
6. Slow ('at deciding things, getting things done and in discussions')
7. Naive ('easy to manipulate')
8. Modern ('adopt new technology, drive new cars, follow latest trends')
9. Good-looking and health-conscious (still 'blonde, blue-eyed, tall')
10. Arrogant ('think the Swedish way is the best and only way')

Swedes study and work hard but they also take their rest and relaxation seriously. So the fika – a coffee break that normally consists of coffee or tea, cookies or sweet buns, but can also include soft drinks, fruit and sandwiches – is a social institution and an important part of the national culture. Swedes fika (it’s a verb as well as a noun) with their family or on a first date.

Lagom is an important and often-used word in Sweden. Meaning good enough, or just right, it sums up Swedish cultural and social ideals of equality and fairness.

Openness and equality are also important concepts. Homosexual relations have been legal since 1944, and same sex couples have been able to adopt since 2003 and get married since 2009. The country was the first in the world with freedom of the press (1766), and is at the top of global press freedom rankings.