Sweden
Scandinavia's largest nation, of forest, lakes, and design
Sweden is the largest of the Nordic countries by area and population, a long northern land of about 10.6 million people stretching from the temperate Baltic south to Arctic Lapland. Vast forests and tens of thousands of lakes cover much of its territory, and a tradition of public access, the right to roam, lets anyone wander them freely. Globally, Sweden looms larger than its size through IKEA, Volvo, Spotify, ABBA, the Nobel Prizes, and a social-democratic welfare model that has long served as a reference point for the rest of the world.
The Scandinavian Mountains rise along the Norwegian border, peaking at Kebnekaise at about 2,096 meters, while the rest of the country slopes east and south into forested lowlands, glacial lakes such as Vanern and Vattern, and a fertile southern plain. The Baltic coast is fringed by archipelagos, including the thousands of islands off Stockholm. Winters are long in the north, where the midnight sun and polar night reign. A highly industrialized economy spans automobiles, telecoms, forestry, mining, pharmaceuticals, and a vibrant tech and gaming scene.
A medieval kingdom that became a great power across the Baltic in the seventeenth century, Sweden has not fought a war in over two centuries, maintaining a famed neutrality that ended only when it joined NATO in 2024 after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. A constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, it built one of the world's most generous welfare states in the twentieth century. The capital, Stockholm, spread across fourteen islands, hosts the Nobel ceremonies. Sweden joined the EU in 1995 but keeps its own currency, the krona, and remains a leader in design, sustainability, and gender equality.