Researcher blogs

Hi everyone! I am a British/Italian PhD student at the Karolinska Institutet who has been here in Sweden for 4 years. During that time, I have travelled within Sweden extensively and have done my best to culturally educate myself here.

Pros

Weather. The Summers are long and beautiful. Perfect for memorable parties like midsummer. Then in the winter there is plenty of snow for skiing/snowboarding and Ice for ice skating. Just buy or borrow some skates and try it out on your local lake (but don’t go alone and make sure the ice is safe)! You can also trek more north to see the magical Northern lights.

English literacy. Sweden has the 6^th highest English literacy rate of any non-natively English-speaking country. You can easily live here without any Swedish (although it is recommended for a long-term stay). In fact, it is so good that it is hard to learn Swedish as you can switch to English anytime!

Transport: Swedish public transport is generally good with few downsides.

Sweden economic model: The Swedish model is defined by high taxes funding good public services like healthcare and education. This is great for starting a family with benefits such as parental leave, cheap daycare, after school clubs and more. These are good for starting a family, especially if both parents want to pursue their career. Whilst both healthcare and education have been recently struggled with new public managements Sweden still ranks highly for promoting families.

Nature: Sweden has lush forests, Archipelagos, northern lights, good beaches, and plenty of nature. This is perfect for exploring the great outdoors.

Gender equality: Sweden ranks first in gender equality in the EU.

Work life balance: Sweden has a strong sense of personal time and family. Working hours are more relaxed to accommodate for parents and parental leave is very high. The parents share 480 days, of which 390 days of the compensation is based on your income.

Employment law: Employment law in Sweden is strong and favours the employees over employers. This means that losing your job is rare and employers do their best to keep employees or help them to get other roles. Unions are also strong, and help protect employees’ interests.

Lagom: This beautiful word captures the Swedish approach. Not too much and not too little of any one thing. This applies to emotions, how we spend our time, diet etc.

Equal Society and lack of hierarchy: Sweden strives to be an equal society in all senses with as little formal hierarchy in the workplace and nationally. While it doesn’t always live up to this, it is certainly better than many places.

IKEA, Clas Ohlson and interior design: No need to explain this one. It is world famous and durable. Built for function over style.

A digital society: Sweden is almost completely cashless and digital identification like BankID makes banking and some bureaucracy much simpler. Once you have a personal number other bureaucracy is generally smooth.

People: The people here like many Nordic countries (and we are generalising a lot) are typically reserved. They don’t show off and are non-confrontational with a strong sense of law, Justice, and order.

Great clothing: Nordic clothing brands are stylish yet functional. Great to wear, treasure, and as presents.

Glögg: A nice Christmasy drink alongside any of the saffron flavoured food you find at Christmas.

Cons

People: Swedish people are overall friendly but reserved, some may say cold. Especially compared to southern European or North/South America. Therefore, don’t expect lots of small talk or a friendly small village feel.

Transport: The National trains are not as frequent or punctual as one would like. This can frustrate people who feel they pay very high taxes but don’t get the expected value for money.

Too much empty space: 90% of Sweden is lake, forests and fields which is of course very pretty! On the other hand, the space between major cities is vast. So taking a 5-hour train from Stockholm to Malmö is the price to pay.

Winter daylight hours: There is nice snow but very few daylight hours, grey skies and plenty of slush (slask in swedish) all the way until the end of April. The lack of daylight and the late arrival of spring is hard to adjust to.

Alcohol rules: Sweden has the Systembolaget system for alcohol. The idea is noble (not Nobel) and its effectiveness in tacking the negative effects of alcohol is backed by some scientific studies. However, it adds some inconvenience to everyone. On top of this, alcohol is far more expensive than expected.

Location: Sweden’s location, and particularly Stockholm is inconvenient. It’s too far north. If it was located a little more south it could easily be a much bigger global metropolis.

Jantelagen (Law of Jante). This is a mindset of Nordic countries. In short don’t be exceptional, don’t try anything ambitious, just be average as you are one of many. This can be seen as BORING and discourages anything interesting, groundbreaking or even forward thinking. This is the opposite of some countries such as USA where being loud, exceptional and boastful is more encouraged.

Taxes: Whilst the Swedish model promotes families, it also has high tax rates. So it is not the place if you want to be a millionaire and don’t plan on having children.

Healthcare: The healthcare system is nationalised and decentralised, meaning it is free or very cheap. However, it is often slow and struggles when patients need specialised help quickly.

Julmust and påskmust: This is a bland drink, like coca cola but with all the fun taken out. It is sold at Christmas (Julmust) and Easter (Påskmust) but with different packaging. Don’t be fooled! It is the same drink.

Social integration: Integrating into Swedish culture can be challenging, not just the language barrier but other smaller things. Sweden has seen a large influx of migrants in recent years and many struggle to integrate into society.  Despite their highly acclaimed ‘gender equality’ and ‘LGBTQIA+ friendly’, non-white/-cis/-heterosexual/-abled minorities struggle the most with social integration.

Even the digitalised society falls short when it comes to integration. As a non swede getting BankID or even just a bank account it’s all tied to having a personnummer (personal identification number), which in turn is dependent on employment. Despite the seamlessness of the digital systems in place, the barrier to entry is extremely high, especially for refugees seeking asylum as they may not get support for that.

Housing (Stockholm): Housing in Sweden and Stockholm in particular is a constant problem. The high demand and the queue system leads to people queueing for 10+ years. This has led to fierce political debate and was the main catalyst for Prime Minister Stefan Löfven being ousted in a no confidence vote in 2021. Gothenburg and Uppsala and most university locations share this same issue.

What are your personal pros and cons of living in Sweden? Comment down below!