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 a nother coutry.

Less than three per cent of Sweden’s land area is built up and forests cover 69 per cent of the country. Sweden is long – some 1,574 kilometres from top to bottom – and can be divided into three major regions: Götaland in the south, Svealand in the middle and Norrland in the north.

InnovationPopulationThere 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.Read more:sweden.se: Quick factssweden.se: Sweden: an overviewGeographyAn aerial view of Stockholm in the summer.Stockholm. Photo: Ola Ericson/imagebank.sweden.seThe 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.Less than three per cent of Sweden’s land area is built up and forests cover 69 per cent of the country. Sweden is long – some 1,574 kilometres from top to bottom – and can be divided into three major regions: Götaland in the south, Svealand in the middle and Norrland in the north.Read more:sweden.se: Swedish geography, weather and naturesweden.se: Nature in SwedenLanguageSwedish 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 programmes 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.