In Scots Swane, Swaine, appears in the 16th century. Anglo-Norman of the 12th and 13th centuries used Suane, Swane (with the adjective as Suaneis). In Old English the country was named Swéoland and Swíoríce ( Old Norse Svíþjóð). As early as 1287, references are found in Middle Dutch referring to a lande van sweden ("land of (the) Swedes"), with swede as the singular form. The word Sweden is derived from 17th-century Middle Dutch and Middle Low German. It is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, the Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 but rejected Eurozone membership following a referendum. It has the world's eleventh-highest per capita income and ranks very highly in quality of life, health, education, protection of civil liberties, economic competitiveness, income equality, gender equality, prosperity and human development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides universal health care and tertiary education for its citizens. It is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden is a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy, with legislative power vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. In 2022, Sweden applied for NATO membership and was formally invited to join the alliance at the NATO Summit in Madrid. Sweden has since 2008 joined EU battlegroups, provided intelligence to NATO and since 2009 openly moved towards cooperation with NATO. ![]() Sweden maintained an official policy of neutrality during wartime and non-participation in military alliances during peacetime, although Sweden secretly relied on U.S. In 2014, Sweden celebrated 200 years of peace, breaking even Switzerland's record for peace. The last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814 when Norway was militarily forced into a personal union, which peacefully dissolved in 1905. ![]() Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, ending with the annexation of present-day Finland by Russia in 1809. When Sweden became involved in the Thirty Years' War on the Protestant side, an expansion of its territories began and eventually the Swedish Empire was formed, this became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. This led to the forming of the Scandinavian Kalmar Union in 1397, which Sweden left in 1523. After the Black Death in the middle of the 14th century killed about a third of the Scandinavian population, the dominance of the Hanseatic League in Northern Europe threatened Scandinavia economically and politically. An independent Swedish state emerged during the early 12th century. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats (Swedish: Götar) and Swedes ( Svear) and constituting the sea peoples known as the Norsemen. Sweden has a total population of 10.4 million, and a low population density of 25.5 inhabitants per square kilometre (66/sq mi), with around 87% of Swedes residing in urban areas in the central and southern half of the country. The capital and largest city is Stockholm. At 450,295 square kilometres (173,860 sq mi), Sweden is the largest Nordic country, the third-largest country in the European Union, and the fifth-largest country in Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, Finland to the east, and is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge–tunnel across the Öresund. Sweden ( Swedish: Sverige ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: Konungariket Sverige ( listen)), is a country in Northern Europe. eu domain is also used, as it is shared with other European Union member states. This is not, however, to be confused with migrants' national backgrounds, which are recorded. As the Swedish government does not base any statistics on ethnicity, there are no exact numbers on the ethnic background of migrants and their descendants in Sweden. ^ Persons who have foreign backgrounds are defined as persons who are foreign born, or born in Sweden with foreign born parents.The Swedish Sign Language also has a special status. Five other languages are officially recognised as minority languages: Finnish, Meänkieli, Romani, Sami, and Yiddish. ![]()
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