ABSTRACT
The Kingdom of Sweden is, in area, the fifth largest country in Europe after Russia, the Ukraine, France and Spain, but it has only 8.6 million inhabitants. The southern parts of the country are relatively densely populated, whereas the northern parts include extensive and more or less uninhabited regions of mountain and forest. Agriculture and forestry, at 3%, were negligible, although if the food industry is included their contribution rises by a couple of percentage units. Patterns of household consumption during the 1980s were relatively static in that food, clothing and housing accounted for almost two thirds of private consumption, and transport another 15-20%. Investment-intensive sectors were energy and water supply, transport and communications and real estate, i.e. sectors characterized by a more or less high level of building activity. The workforce has been declining in industry, agriculture and forestry, while the service sector has expanded.
