17 things you did not know about Sweden
OUR friends over at Factslides put together some interesting facts for us about Sweden, most of which we bet you didn’t know.
1. In Sweden, parents are entitled to 480 days of paid parental leave when a child is born or adopted.
2. The official Twitter account of @Sweden is given to a random citizen every week to manage.
3. Passports issued by Sweden, UK and Finland offer visa-free travel to more countries than any other passports.
4. 89% of people in Sweden speak English.
5. You can’t name your child “IKEA” or “Elvis” in Sweden.
6. Sweden pays students US$187 a month to attend high school.
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7. Sweden and Norway formed a United Kingdom from 1814 to 1905.
8. There is a cruise ship that runs between Stockholm, Sweden, and Helsinki, Finland, just to purchase cheap alcohol.
9. Sweden has run out of trash, so it is importing garbage from Norway.
10. Absolute Vodka used to belong to the Sweden’s government, until they sold it in 2008 for US$8.3 million to Pernod Ricard.
11. The band ABBA wore ridiculous outfits to avoid Sweden’s taxes, which allowed deductions for clothing if it wasn’t meant to be used every day.
12. Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, is built on 14 islands, and the city centre is virtually situated on the water.
13. 99% of Denmark’s Jews survived the holocaust because the Danish organised a massive evacuation to neutral Sweden.
14. IKEA names sofas, coffee tables and bookshelves after places in Sweden; beds, wardrobes and hall furniture after places in Norway; carpets after places in Denmark and dining tables and chairs after places in Finland.
15. Sweden has the largest scale model of the solar system in the world. It is in the scale of 1.2 million and stretches 950 km across the country.
16. Homosexuality was classified as an illness in Sweden until 1979. Swedes protested by calling sick into work, claiming they “felt gay.”
17. Swedish was not made the official language of Sweden until 2009. 
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