“Did You Know?” Blog Series – Facts About the Swedish Culture

  • December 13, 2013
  • |
  • Blog

Stockholm, Sweden; Photo via Flickr

In honor of Saint Lucia’s Day (celebrated most commonly in Italy and Scandinavia on the 13th of December), this week’s “Did You Know?” blog series focuses on the Swedish culture. Did you know that a popular souvenir in Sweden is the road sign for moose-crossing? Or that Sweden has the highest number of McDonald’s restaurants per capita in Europe? Continue reading below for more interesting facts about the Swedish culture!

Did You Know?

  • The Swedish maternity and paternity leave is one of the longest and most generous in the world, allowing the mother and father to take a shared total of 480 days (16 months) off at 77.6% of their salary.
  • Sweden has the smallest gender employment-rate gap in the developed world, with only 4% more men in employment than women.
  • The world-famous discount furniture chain IKEA was founded in Sweden in 1943 by a man named Ingvar Kamprod.
  • Most places of work in Sweden will have two “mandatory” coffee breaks per day.
  • On December 24th at 3:00 p.m. of every year, it is a tradition for the Swedish to watch “Donald Duck and His Friends Wish You a Merry Christmas.”
  • In Sweden, the sun rises at 3:30 a.m. in the summer and sets at 3:30 p.m. in the winter.
  • It is not uncommon to find restaurants and stores shut down for an entire month, usually in July, while employees take their four to six weeks of holiday.
  • Most Swedish grocery stores charge you for plastic or paper bags in an effort to keep waste low and encourage recycling.
  • Swedish women have their first child, on average, at 30 years old, the oldest in Europe along with Ireland and the Netherlands.
  • The Stockholm Globe Arena is the world’s largest hemispherical building, with a diameter of 110 meters, an inner height of 85 meters and a total volume of 600,000 meters. It is also the world’s largest scale model of the Solar System.
  • As of 2010, the Stockholm metropolitan area is home to approximately 22% of Sweden’s total population.

What facts about the Swedish culture would you add to this list? We encourage you to post your comments below!