- Debt: Sweden is owed over 2.6 billion SEK by North Korea. Back in the 70s, the Asian country bought a lot of Volvos from our brother nation. Sweden hasn’t received that money yet, and they’re still sending North Korea a reminder of their outstanding debt.
- Illness: You may be familiar with the feeling that sometimes you need a vacation after you’ve been on vacation. The Swedes actually understand this. If you get sick while on vacation, you can actually use your sick days during that period.
- Early retirement: A man in Sweden is no longer able to work. His affliction? He goes to too many heavy metal concerts. That’s roughly 300 concerts a year for him, which is almost one a year. The incredible thing is that his condition has been recognized and he is being compensated by the state.
- Waste: Swedes love to keep their waste to a minimum. Much of their waste is either converted into other forms of energy or ends up being recycled. However, this has created another problem: too little waste to keep the incinerators running. So they import waste from Norway and the UK.
- Disney: Donald Duck as a character has always been more popular than Mickey Mouse here in the Nordics. In Sweden, however, they take it even more seriously. The well-known Disney Christmas show as we know it in Denmark is called in Swedish: “Donald Duck and his friends wish you a Merry Christmas”.
- Pause: In most countries, we like a lunch break during the workday. In Sweden, they go one step further. They have a concept called “Fika”. It’s an idea embedded in Swedish culture that during the workday you take a break or two to relax, talk and – most of all – not work.
- Spank: It is illegal to hit your children. That’s logical for most people, thankfully. But Sweden was actually the first country in the world to make it illegal to hit your children. The ban was introduced in 1979. In comparison, it was only made illegal in Denmark in 1997.
- Fast food: We don’t associate Swedes with unhealthy living, and they aren’t unhealthy per se. However, Sweden has the highest number of MacDonald’s restaurants per capita.
- Forest: Sweden is a large country, but if you compare the number of inhabitants to the Danish population and look at the area of Denmark, there are actually not that many more Swedes than Danes. This is because much of Sweden’s land is covered in forest. In fact, 2/3 of Sweden is covered in forest. This corresponds to 280,650 square kilometers of the country.
- Donations: Sweden really wants the world to do well. In fact, Sweden donates so much to foreign countries, among others, that their donation share is 1 percent of their gross domestic product. It is the only country in the world where this is the case.
Fact: Sweden is the country with the highest number of McDonald’s restaurants per capita