Territory in northern Europe, ruled since 1905 by the Konungariket Sverige
Sweden (Swedish: Sverige), officially the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: Konungariket Sverige), is a Scandinavian country in northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north and Finland to the east, and is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund, a strait at the Swedish-Danish border. At 450,295 square kilometers, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area. Sweden has a total population of 10.2 million of which 2.4 million has a foreign background. It has a low population density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometer. The highest concentration is in the southern half of the country.
Geographical type: Territory
Latitude: 63° N — Longitude: 16° E
Area: 450,295 km²
ISO 3166-2 code: SE
Deathplace of
Knut Wicksell, in Stocksund, on 3 May 1926
Measures of Freedom
Economic Freedom Summary Index, Economic Freedom of the World, 16 Oct 2024
2022 overall score: 7.61, rank: 25
2022 overall score: 7.61, rank: 25
Human Freedom Index [PDF], The Human Freedom Index 2023: A Global Measurement of Personal, Civil, and Economic Freedom
2021: 8.75, Rank: 5, Personal freedom: 9.43, Economic freedom: 7.81
2021: 8.75, Rank: 5, Personal freedom: 9.43, Economic freedom: 7.81
Sweden | Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2024
2016: Status: Free, Aggregate Score: 100, Political Rights: 1, Civil Liberties: 1
2016: Status: Free, Aggregate Score: 100, Political Rights: 1, Civil Liberties: 1
More than 160,000 people—the vast majority fleeing violence in Syria and Iraq—applied for asylum in Sweden in 2015, placing severe pressure on the country's ability to process applications and accommodate new arrivals. Meanwhile, the 2014 agreement between the social-democratic government and center-right opposition on budget proposals, designed to curb the controversial right-wing Sweden Democrats party, was broken in October, expanding the Sweden Democrats' capacity to influence the response to the refugee crisis and other national policies.
Articles
How the Welfare State Corrupted Sweden, by Per Bylund, Mises Daily, 31 May 2006
Contrasts the morality and attitudes of the generation of Bylund's grandmother to that of the first and second generations "raised with and by the welfare state"
Contrasts the morality and attitudes of the generation of Bylund's grandmother to that of the first and second generations "raised with and by the welfare state"
Old people in Sweden say that to be Swedish means to supply for your own, to take care of your self, and never be a burden on anyone else's shoulders ... My grandmother, born in 1920, was of the last generation to have that special personal pride ... The people of her generation experienced and endured one or two world wars ... and were raised by poor Swedish farmers and industrial workers. They witnessed and were the driving force behind the Swedish "wonder." ... [Now,] Swedes generally welcome proposals to hand over more power to politicians and they even tend to ask for higher taxes.
The Sweden Myth, by Stefan Karlsson, Mises Daily, 7 Aug 2006
... far-reaching free market reforms in the 1860s allowed Sweden to benefit from the spreading Industrial Revolution. ... during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Sweden saw its economy rapidly industrializing, driven by the many Swedish inventors and entrepreneurs. ... In addition, there were countless non-inventing entrepreneurs during that period ...
Interviews
Wendy McElroy on Sex, Rape and Libertarian Feminism, by Wendy McElroy, Anthony Wile (interviewer), The Daily Bell, 11 Mar 2012Topics discussed include McElroy's early life, two of her notable books, individualist anarchism, voluntarism, conspiracy theories, religions, banks and money, feminism, capitalism, Austrian economics, Julian Assange and the future
Wendy McElroy: ... Sweden's definition of legal rape includes the idea of 'unlawful coercion', which involves exerting emotional pressure on someone to have sex ... A man in Assange's position ... would be particularly vulnerable to this ..., which carries a possible four-year sentence, because it could be argued that his status allowed him to exert an inordinate level of influence ... I disagree with the notion that falling for a "good line" ... is the same thing as being raped ... Sweden's law trivializes the brutal crime of rape and leaves nonviolent men open to unjust imprisonment.
Related Topics: Individualist anarchism, Samuel Edward Konkin III, Money, Ayn Rand, Murray N. Rothbard, Freedom of Speech, Technology, Voluntaryism
The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sweden" as of 1 Oct 2018, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.