Population - 10.5 million (2024)
* Sweden has a low population density: 21 per square kilometre, lower in the north, higher in the south. About 85% live in urban areas.
* Life expectancy (2012 est): male 79.8, female 83.5

Ethnic groups - 79.6% Swedish, 17.9% other. These include the Sami and Finnish minorities and inter-nordic immigrants; about 10% are refugees and migrants – from Iraq, former Yugoslavia, Iran, Poland, Chile, Somalia, etc.
* Until the interwar period Sweden was a country of emigration:
   1820 – 1930 approximately 1.3 million Swedes (1/3 of the population) emigrated to North America, mainly the USA.
   After 1945 it became a country of immigration, initially inter-nordic migration and in more recent decades refugee migration.

Religion – Church of Sweden Evangelical Lutheran 53.9%;  none 37.2% 
In practice Sweden is very secularised.o

Language – Swedish. Recognised minority languages are Finnish/Meänkieli (Tornedalen Finnish), Sami, Yiddish.

Education
One of the best education systems in Europe.
1-5 year olds are guaranteed a place in public kindergartens.
6 –16 year olds compulsory comprehensive school education.
Free school lunches for all.
Tertiary education – one of the highest European levels of higher education degree holders.
Long established universities – the oldest in Uppsala, Lund, Stockholm, Gothenburg.

Sport – Spectator sports: football, ice hockey.
* Sportsmen: Björn Borg (tennis), Jan-Ove Waldner (table-tennis), Gunnar Nordahl (football), Ingemar Stenmark (Alpine skiing).
* Great sporting event: Vasaloppet – 90 kilometre cross-country skiing race.