Climate.—The climate of Sweden is continental in the north, along the Norwegian frontier, and on the southern plateau. The lakes in the colder districts of the north are ice bound for some two hundred and twenty days in the year; in the south only for about ninety days. The rainfall is greatest on the coast of the Cattegat.
Production and Industry.—The principal articles of cultivation are the various cereals—oats, rye, barley, wheat—and potatoes. The forests are very extensive, covering one-half of the surface of the country, and consisting of pine, birch, fir; these are of great importance, supplying timber, pitch, and tar, and also the chief fuel.
The mineral products are extremely rich: iron of excellent quality, that known as the Dannemora iron, being converted into the finest steel; gold and silver in small proportions; copper, lead, nickel, zinc, cobalt, alum, sulphur, porphyry, and marble. There is a railroad opening up the rich iron ore districts of Lapland, and mineral trains run from Gellivare and Kiruna to Lulea on the Gulf of Bothnia and to Narvik on the Atlantic. Considerable mines of coal are worked in Scania.
The chief articles of export are timber, butter, iron, steel, wood pulp, paper, matches, stone, iron and zinc ores, etc.
People.—The Swedes are a Germanic people, tall and strong, but with more variety of characteristics than the Norwegians. The Swedish language, allied closely to Norse and Danish, appears in very many dialects. It has had, especially since the sixteenth century, an extensive literature.
Almost the whole population is Protestant, adhering to the Lutheran Church, members of which alone are permitted to hold public offices. Education is well advanced in both countries, public instruction being gratuitous and compulsory. Sweden has the Universities of Upsala, which dates from 1477, and of Lund, founded in 1668, besides the many scientific and educational institutions of Stockholm.
Government.—The constitution of Sweden dates from 1809, but in 1866, when the separate meetings of the four estates—nobles, clergy, burghers, and peasants—were done away, the legislative system was much modified. The executive power is vested in the king, acting under the advice of a Council of State; the legislative in the two Chambers of the Diet, both of which are elected by the people—the first for nine years from proprietors, the second for three years from a lower class. The administration of justice is entirely independent of the government.
Cities.—The capital, Stockholm, has a population (1913) of 382,085. In addition to the capital, there are fourteen towns with above 20,000 population, viz.: Göteborg, 178,030; Malmö, 95,821; Norrköping, 46,180; Gefle, 35,736; Helsingborg, 37,385; Örebro, 33,182.
Malmö, on the sound opposite Copenhagen, is the outlet of the corn granary of the southern plain; Norrköping, on an inlet of the Baltic, after Stockholm, is the busiest manufacturing town of Sweden, its mills being driven by the rapids of the Motala; Gefle lies north of Stockholm, and is second only to it as a seaport on the Baltic side of the country; and Karlskrona, on the south coast, is the naval arsenal and headquarters of the fleet of Sweden.