Sweden
With an area of 449,964 km ² [11] Sweden is the size of the fifth largest country in Europe and has a population of 9.5 million people. Sweden has a low population density of 21 inhabitants per km ², but with a much higher density in the southern half of the country. About 85 percent of the population lives in urban areas and this proportion is expected to increase. [12] Sweden's capital is Stockholm, which is the country's largest city with 1.4 million inhabitants in the urban area and total of 2.1 million inhabitants in the metropolitan area. Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg is with 550 000 inhabitants in the urban area and a total of about 950 000 inhabitants in the metropolitan area. The third largest city, Malmö with 280,000 inhabitants in the urban area and 670,000 in the metropolitan area.
Sweden is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system and a developed economy. Sweden ranks fourth in the world in The Economist's "Democracy Index" and seventh in the United Nations' Human Development Index. "The country has been a member of the European Union (EU) since 1 January 1995.