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25 more vaguely interesting stats you didn't know about Sweden

The Local Sweden
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25 more vaguely interesting stats you didn't know about Sweden
Trivia to use at parties. No need to thank us. Photo: Clive Tompsett/imagebank.sweden.se

The Local's article highlighting 25 vaguely interesting stats about Sweden proved such a hit with readers that we decided to take a deep dive into Statistics Sweden's website to see if we could come up with 25 more.

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1. Last year, 63,818 people were granted Swedish citizenship. 
 
2. This was an increase of 5,080 over the previous year and was also the first time since the turn of the century that more men than women became Swedish citizens. 
 
3. Despite Sweden's status as one of the world's most technically advanced countries, around 7 percent of the population does not have internet access at home and a full 29 percent of those aged 75 and above say they never use the internet. 
 
4. The vast majority of Swedes who do have internet access are crazy about social networks and listening to music online, with two-thirds of all 16 to 85-year-olds using the internet to do both. 
 
5. All ten of the most popular surnames in Sweden end in -sson. 
 
6. The most common of all is Andersson, with 231,727 having that as their surname. 
 
7. Swedish women outlive men by an average of three years. Average life expectancy at birth as of 2017 was 84 years for women and 81 years for men. 
 
8. The average age at which women become first-time mothers was 29 years as of 2017, an increase of one year since just 2000. 
 
9. Men wait even longer, with the average of becoming a first-time father at 31. This has remained basically the same since 2000. 
 
 

The age of first-time fathers has remained more or less the same since 2000. Photo: Isabell Höjman/TT
 
10. Swedes take democracy quite seriously. Voter turnout for the 2018 parliamentary election was 87.2 percent. 
 
11. Turnout for last month's European elections was a much lower 53.3 percent, but that was still a record high. 
 
12. There were 31,351 new passenger vehicles registered in April, a nearly 12 percent decrease from the same month last year. 
 
13. The number of electric cars on Swedish roads increased over 100 times between 2009 and 2018, going from just 157 to 16,664. 
 
14. Over 90 percent of Swedish children say that they get along with their parents. 
 
15. But only three out of ten girls between the ages of 16 and 18 say that they turn to their parents when they have concerns or worries, and only two of ten boys say the same. 
 
16. Nearly 9 million hectares of land and marine areas are protected, or around 15 percent of Sweden's total land surface (including inland waters). 
 
17. This number has increased by 1.6 million hectares since just 2012. 
 
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A nature reserve in the Älvdalen area of Sweden. Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT
 
18. The Swedish economy emitted 63.8 million tonnes of CO2 last year, an increase of nearly one percent over 2017. 
 
19. Roughly 13.3 percent of the adult population received social assistance or benefits in 2018.
 
20. Around 10 percent of the population is at persistent risk of poverty, meaning they have been at risk of poverty in three of the past four years. 
 
21. This number is significantly higher for those born outside of Sweden, as one in five foreign-born individuals is at persistent risk of poverty. 
 
22. Swedes are statistically more likely to rent than own if they live in a multi-dwelling building. Rentals account for 58 percent of the multi-dwelling housing market. 
 
23. For detached one- and two-dwelling buildings, home ownership is the norm. Over 90 percent of those dwellings are owned by private individuals. 
 
24. There are nearly 8,000 football pitches across Sweden. They are home to some 3,200 clubs and 8,500 teams. 
 
25. When we compiled our first list of vaguely interesting facts, Sweden had just passed the ten million person mark. While the population is still growing, the rate of increase is slowing. The Swedish population is expected to hit 11 million in 2029 but it won't be until the early 2050s that it exceeds 12 million. 
 

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