Sweden

About Sweden       



 

Welcome to Sweden!




Sweden has 9 million inhabitants.
 
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city in Sweden. 

 
It is a constitutional monarchy with the king Carl XVI Gustaf  and a parliamentary democracy. "The Riksdag" has 349 members all in one chamber and there are elections every 4th year.

Population and area



Sweden is about 1,572 kilometres from north to south, while the distance from east to west at the widest point is 499 kilometres. The distance between Sweden's northernmost and southernmost points is approximately the same as the distance between Malmö and Rome! The area is approximately 450,000 square kilometres. This makes Sweden one of the most sparsely populated countries in Europe. A majority of the inhabitants live in the southern part of the country.
 
People are increasingly moving from the rural areas to the urban areas. Economic and demographic conditions thus vary widely in different parts of Sweden. This has an impact on the structure of the Swedish welfare system.
 
The population of a typical Swedish municipality is around 15,000. The county councils have an average population of 424,000. The largest is Stockholm county council, with 1,890,000 inhabitants, whereas the smallest county council, Gotland, has 57,000 inhabitants.
Source: Annual County Council Statistics, 2005, Statistics Sweden (SCB).

 

The three biggest towns are_




Stockholm- The capital and also the largest city in Sweden. Located at the point where Lake Mälaren flows into the Baltic Sea. Population 771,000 (2005)
 
Göteborg/Gothenburg- is the second largest city. Located in the west at the point where the Göta älv river flows into the North Sea. Population 485,000 (2005).
 
Malmö- The third largest city in Sweden. Located on the shores of the Sound opposite Copenhagen. Population: 271,000 (2005).
 

The clima and the nordic light




There are major climate differences between the north and the south. Kiruna in the north has an average temperature in January of -16°C, Malmö in the south has an average temperature of -0.2°C.

The sun hardly ever rises above the horizon in Kiruna during the winter, the south has around seven hours of sunshine per day in January. On the other hand, Kiruna enjoys the midnight sun during the summer - from the end of May to the middle of July, as during this period, the sun never sets in Kiruna.
 

How Sweden is divided

Provinces
You can divide Sweden in many ways. Sweden have 25 provinces, landskap in Swedish. The most southern province is Scania, Skåne, and the most northern is Lapland, Lappland.
Several of them were subdivisions of Sweden until 1634, when they were replaced by the counties of Sweden , called län. Some provinces were conquered later on from Denmark–Norway. Others like the provinces of Finland were lost. Laplandis the only province acquired through colonization. The provinces of Sweden serve no administrative function. Instead, that function is served by the Counties of Sweden. In some cases, the administrative counties correspond almost exactly to the provinces, but in eg. Småland there are three: County of Jönköping, of Kalmar and of Kronoberg. Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_of_Sweden
Counties
Sweden is divided into 21 counties, called län. The counties were established in 1634 on Count Axel Oxenstierna's initiative, superseding the historical provinces of Sweden (Swedish:landskap) to introduce a modern administration. At that time, hey were what the translation of län into English literally means; fiefdoms. The county borders often trail the provincial borders, but the Crown often chose to make slight relocations to suit their purposes.

Every county is then divided into municipalities
Municipalities
The municipalities of Sweden  called kommun are its lower-level local government entities. The 290 municipalities are organized into the 21 counties , which are upper-level local government entities. The municipal governments are responsible for a large proportion of local services, including schools, emergency services and physical planning.
 
Parishes
The municipalities are also divided into about 2 500 parishes, called församlingar . These have traditionally been a subdivision of the Church of Sweden, but still have importance as districts for census and elections.  When you into genealogy this is the place you are searching for your relatives. Fisrt you search for the county then for the Parish
Historically
 Sweden was historically divided into the four lands:
    Götaland (Sweden) , Svealand (Sweden) , Österland (Finland) , Norrland (Sweden and Finland)
Götaland and Svealand consisted before c. 1000 AD of petty kingdoms. The main tribe of Götaland was the Geats; the main tribe of Svealand was the Suiones (or the "historical Swedes"). Norrland was the denomination for all the unexplored northern parts. Österland (the name had early come out of use) in Finland, was an integral part of Sweden, but was in 1809 annexed by Russia as the Grand Duchy of Finland, to become in 1917 the independent country of Finland. The borders of these regions have changed several times throughout history and Norrland, Svealand and Götaland are only parts of Sweden, a collective of provinces.

 


   








 

 

 

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Finding out about your heritage is incredible fun and interesting ! Imagine being able to tell your children and grandchildren about your family's origin! Maybe you´re about doing a trip to Sweden anv want some help making a rout in the steps of your ancestors

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