The kingdom of Sweden is situated in Scandinavia, in Northern Europe. It is surrounded by Norway in the west, Finland in the northeast, the Skagerrak Strait and the Kattegat Strait in the southwest and the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia in the east. According to natural resources, Sweden is very prosperous. Sweden has a low population density. So its people enjoy a very high standard of living in a country.
After the decline of the Viking Age, Sweden became part of the kolmar Union together with Denmark and Norway Sweden left the union in the beginning of the 16th century and constantly fought with Russia, Denmark and Norway in the 17th and 18th centuries. Sweden extended its territory and it became a Great Power. The extended territory was lost within a century. From 1814, Sweden has been at peace, adopting a policy of keeping free of alliances.
Sweden had been a great exporter of iron, copper and timber. Due to improvement in transportation and communication, rapid industrialization could be possible by the 1890. In the early 20th century, a welfare state began to emerge. Today Sweden ranks among the top nations in the UN Human Development Index.

Pre-history: - Firstly, during the Stone Age, hunters and gatherers lived in Sweden. During the 1st century, Geats were lived in Sweden. During the Viking Age of the 9th and 10th century, Swedish Vikings traveled east setting their mark on the Baltic countries, Russia whose name comes from the Finnish name for these Vikings: Rus, the Black Sea, through the rivers of Russia down south to Constantinople and southern Europe.
Middle Ages: - In the 12th century, Christianization formed in Sweden. Sweden combined waterways of the northern Baltic and the Gulf of Finland. 14th century was very unlucky for Sweden, and it suffered so much due to the plague. During the middle ages, the expansion of Sweden into the northern wilderness of Laplandia, the Scandinavian Peninsula and present day Finland continued. Finland became a part of Sweden proper from the early thirteen century until 1809. In 1389, Norway, Denmark and Sweden were united under a single monarch in a treaty, which was known as the Kalmar Union. After several wars, and disputes between these countries, king Gustav I of Sweden broke free in 1521 and established a nation state, considered the foundation of modern Sweden Gustav I is called Sweden's "Father of the Nation."
A major power: - Sweden became the greatest power in Europe, during 17th century. During this century, Sweden quanqered Thirty Years wars. But in 18th century, Sweden fall apart with Imperial Russia. In 1809, when the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland was created out of the eastern half of Sweden. After Denmark was defeated in the Napoleonic wars, Norway was ceded to Sweden in the Treaty of Kiel.
Modern History: - During the 18th and 19th centuries, Sweden's population had been increased significantly. Due to increase in population, Sweden had faced poverty, and massive emigration. During 1850 to 1910, more than one million Swedes moved to the United States. In the 20th century, more Swedes lived in Chicago.
Traditionally Sweden was not more developed than Western Europe. During the late 19th century, protestant temperance movements affected Sweden. Ultimately, alcohol consumption was high in Sweden at this time.
Great unions, temperance groups and independent religious groups started movements during the latter half of the 19th century. These groups were all based on democratic principles and built a strong base for Sweden's migration into a modern parliamentary democracy, achieved by the time of World War I. As the Industrial Revolution developed during the century, people started migrating into cities to work in factories, industries and involved in Socialist unions. A Socialist revolution was avo8ided in 1917, after the re-introduction of Parliamentary and the county became democratic country.
Recent History: - By the 1930, Sweden had succeeded to get one of Europe's highest living standards. Sweden remained neutral during first and Second World War. Moreover, Sweden became one of the richest countries in the world by 1960.

Sweden's economy features a modern distribution system, excellent internal and external communications and a skilled labour force.
Sources of Income: -
Sweden is very rich country according to natural resources. It has very high quantity of timber, hydropower, and iron. Due to these natural resources, country can achieve income through foreign trade. The engineering sector accounts for 50% of output and exports. Agriculture accounts of only 2% of GDP and 2% of jobs. The public and their trade unions controlled person funds; non-profit organizations and the reserve funds of the trade unions own more than 50% of Sweden Capital.
GDP: - According to the 2005 estimate, total GDP was about $2,683 billion and its per capita GDP was about $29,898.
Growth: - Sweden's economic growth is expected to reach 3.3% in 2006.

Population: - According to the 2005 estimate, the total population of Sweden was about 90,41,000, and its population density was about 24 persons per sq. km. Moreover as of February 2006, the population of Sweden was 90,60,430.
Ethnic Groups: - About 86.7% of the total population is ethnically Swedish. Sweden's the largest minority are Finns, who make up about 2% of the total population. The remaining 11% of the total population are immigrants. Sweden's population includes some 17,000 indigenous Semi. Sweden welcomed many refugees and displaced people after World War II. During that time immigration has accounted for nearly half of Sweden's population growth. Today approximately one-fifth of the people are immigrants or have at least one foreign-born parent. The largest immigrant groups in Sweden are from Finland, Norway and Denmark.
Religion: - Before the 11th century, Swedish people followed Norse religion and they worshipped Esir Gods and visited the Temple in Uppsala.
But in the 11th century, Christianities came in Sweden.
In the 1530, after the Protestant Reformation the Church and state were united. At that time, the authority of the Roman Catholic bishops was vanished and Lutheranism has been started. During the era after the Reformation, this period is known as the period of Lutheran Orthodoxy. During the 18th century, some other people like Sami people who were followers of shamanistic religion were converted to Lutheranism.
In 18th century, Judaism and Catholism were also entered in Sweden. The followers of these religions allowed living and following any religion freely to Swedish people. In the 19th century, various evangelical free churches were arrived at Sweden. In 1951, the constitution of Sweden gave religious freedom to all its citizens.
Today approximately 78% of Swedes belong to the Church of Sweden. About 2,75,000 Swedes are today followers of various free churches, and about 2,00,000 to 4,00,000 Muslims are also living in Sweden.
According to the recent survey, only 23% of Swedish citizens believed that, "there is a god," while 53% of the people believed that, "there is some sort of spirit or life force", and 23% of the Swedish population believed that "there is not any sort of spirit, god or life force."

Swedish is a Germanic language, closely related to Danish and Norwegina. Sweden has no official language but the Swedish language holds a de facet status. The dominant language has always been Swedish. In Sweden, Swedish mostly speaks English and German. Finnish, Saami languages and other languages like Meankieli, Romani and Yiddish are also mother tongues for minority groups.
On 1st of April, 2000 the issue of whether Swedish should be declared the official language was raised. On December 7, 2005 the parliament voted on this issue, as a result according to law Swedish is not the official language.
Though English is spoken in Sweden by those Swedes who are under the age of 60 and who are literate, because English became a compulsory subject for secondary school students studying natural sciences as early as 1849 and has been a compulsory subject for all Swedish students since from the 1940. In the local schools, English is a compulsory subject from first until ninth grade. In school, students also study some additional languages like German, French or Spanish.