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| Country | Sweden | | | Flag |  | | | Capital | name: Stockholm geographic coordinates: 59 20 N, 18 03 E time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October | | | Population | 9,031,088 (July 2007 est.) | | | GMT | +1 | | | Location | Northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia, Kattegat, and Skagerrak, between Finland and Norway
see map | | | Area | total: 449,964 sq km land: 410,934 sq km water: 39,030 sq km | | | Ethnic groups | indigenous population: Swedes with Finnish and Sami minorities; foreign-born or first-generation immigrants: Finns, Yugoslavs, Danes, Norwegians, Greeks, Turks | | | Religions | Lutheran 87%, other (includes Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist, Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist) 13% | | | Languages | Swedish, small Sami- and Finnish-speaking minorities | | | Government type | constitutional monarchy | | | National holiday | Swedish Flag Day, 6 June (1916); National Day, 6 June (1983) | | | Constitution | 1 January 1975 | | | Legal system | civil law system influenced by customary law; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations | | | Background | A military power during the 17th century, Sweden has not participated in any war in almost two centuries. An armed neutrality was preserved in both World Wars. Sweden's long-successful economic formula of a capitalist system interlarded with substantial welfare elements was challenged in the 1990s by high unemployment and in 2000-02 by the global economic downturn, but fiscal discipline over the past several years has allowed the country to weather economic vagaries. Sweden joined the EU in 1995, but the public rejected the introduction of the euro in a 2003 referendum. | | Internet country code | .se | |
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