Swedish Geography — Regions, Climate, Nature

Size, population, and neighbours

Sweden is one of the largest countries in Europe by area, covering about 450,000 km². That makes it the third-largest country in the European Union, after France and Spain. The population is roughly 10.5 million, which is small for the size of the country — large parts of the north are very sparsely populated.

Sweden borders Norway to the west along the Scandinavian mountain range, and Finland to the east in the far north. To the east and south Sweden has a long coastline on the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia — one of the longest coastlines in the EU. The Öresund Bridge connects Sweden to Denmark across the strait.

The three traditional regions

Sweden is informally divided into three historical regions, called landsdelar:

• Götaland — the southern region, including Skåne, Småland, Västergötland, and the islands of Öland and Gotland. It contains Sweden's most fertile farmland and its second- and third-largest cities, Göteborg and Malmö.
• Svealand — the central region, including the capital Stockholm and the Mälaren valley. Most of Sweden's industrial heartland and its oldest universities (Uppsala, founded 1477) are here.
• Norrland — the vast north, covering more than half of Sweden's land area but home to only about a tenth of the population. Forests, rivers, mountains, and the Sami homeland dominate here.

Län and kommuner

Politically Sweden is organised into 21 län (counties), each headed by a county administrative board (länsstyrelse) and a directly elected regional council (region) responsible mainly for healthcare. Below the län sit 290 kommuner (municipalities), which run schools, social services, elder care, water, and local roads. This three-level structure — state, region, kommun — is one of the most-tested points on the citizenship test.

Major cities

Most Swedes live in cities and towns in the southern third of the country. The largest urban areas are:

• Stockholm — capital, financial centre, and political seat. Built across 14 islands.
• Göteborg (Gothenburg) — west-coast port and home of Volvo.
• Malmö — third-largest city, in Skåne, connected to Copenhagen by the Öresund Bridge.
• Uppsala — old university city north of Stockholm.
• Västerås, Örebro, Linköping, Helsingborg — other major regional cities.

Climate and the Arctic Circle

Sweden has a varied climate. The south has mild winters and warm summers thanks to the Gulf Stream. The north has long, cold, snowy winters and short cool summers. Above the Arctic Circle, in northern Norrland, you can experience the midnight sun in summer (the sun doesn't fully set) and the polar night (polarnatt) in winter, when the sun barely rises. The northern lights (norrsken) are common during the dark months.

Nature — forests, lakes, mountains

About 70% of Sweden is covered by forest, mainly pine and spruce. The country has thousands of lakes; the two largest are Vänern (the EU's largest lake) and Vättern. The Scandinavian mountains run along the Norwegian border, with Kebnekaise (about 2,097 m) in Lapland as the highest peak. Sweden has 30 national parks (nationalparker) protecting wilderness, alpine tundra, archipelagos, and old-growth forest. The right of public access (allemansrätten) lets everyone walk, camp, and pick berries on most land — a deeply Swedish freedom.

Sápmi — the Sami homeland

The far north of Sweden is part of Sápmi, the homeland of the Sami, an Indigenous people whose territory stretches across northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Russia. Sami are an officially recognised national minority of Sweden, with their own parliament (Sametinget) in Kiruna. Reindeer herding is a protected Sami livelihood. Sami languages are official minority languages alongside Swedish.

What else is on the test?

Geography is just one of 20 topic areas covered on the medborgarskapsprovet. The other 19 cover democracy, laws, history, healthcare, education, work, taxes, housing, integration, and Swedish values. See the full topic list →