ABSTRACT
Sweden, with its 450 000 km2, is barely the size of France, a bit bigger than Germany and almost twice as big as the United Kingdom. Half its area is productive forest land, just over 5% is agricultural land and 1-2% is urban land. The rest is made up of lakes and watercourses, mountains and other impediments. Sweden’s 8.5 million inhabitants live mainly in the southern parts of the country and along the Gulf of Bothnia coast. The country is divided into 284 municipalities. The largest urban regions are Stockholm (1.5 million residents), Gothenburg (700 000) and Malmö (500 000). Another eight municipalities have more than 100 000 residents each. Sweden’s population density is 20/km2. The most densely populated region is Stockholm, with 235 residents/km2, and the most sparsely populated is Northern Norrland, in the far north of the country, with 3 inhabitants/km2.
