EUROPE

Sweden

A long, lake-dotted Nordic country where design, meatballs and Nobel Prizes are all serious business. Sweden has some 267,000 islands, more than almost any nation on Earth.

WHAT THE FLAG MEANS ◢

A yellow Scandinavian cross on a blue field, the cross set off-centre toward the hoist. The blue and gold are the colours of the national coat of arms, three gold crowns on blue, and the off-centre cross is the Nordic form shared with Sweden's neighbours.

Sweden FACTS ◢

Capital	Stockholm
Continent	Europe
Population	10,596,620 (2025)
Area	447,425 km²
Population density	24/km²
Currency	Swedish krona (SEK)
Official language	Swedish
Calling code	+46
Internet TLD	.se
Time zone	UTC+01:00
Drives on the	Right
ISO codes	SE / SWE

DID YOU KNOW? ◢

It has around 267,000 islands, one of the highest counts of any country in the world.
The Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm each year, funded by the will of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel.
The furniture giant IKEA, the music of ABBA, and the seatbelt's three-point design all came from Sweden.
'Allemansrätten', the right to roam, lets anyone camp and hike freely across most of the countryside.
In the far north the summer sun never fully sets, giving weeks of midnight sun.