Chris Gibson
7th Period
Murphy
12/6/08
Population of Sweden Analysis
In some developing countries around the world, such as India, booming populations of
youngsters are born, creating a mass-growing population. In others, such as Japan, population
is shrinking so fast that elders will easily outnumber children and teens. Not growing
significantly but not shrinking, the state of Sweden, manages to stay stable in a changing world.
Sweden is a developed country located in north Europe, along the Baltic Sea. Currently,
Sweden has a population of 9,045,389 people. According to the CIA World Factbook 2008, Sweden
has a current growth rate of 0.157%. Using the Rule of 70, we can find that Sweden has an estimated
doubling time of 445.86 years. Obviously Sweden’s population isn’t going anywhere big. There are
many factors that will determine the reason why. One, Sweden is a developed country, meaning there is
a stable growth and death rate. The current birth rate is 10.15 births/1,000 people while the death rate
is 10.24 deaths/1,000 people. This concludes there is barely any growth at all without mass-immigration.
This is unlikely due to the 1.66 migrants/1,000 people rate that is currently happening.
Since Sweden’s population is not growing rapidly, the population pyramid can be seen as a more
rounded object, with generally the same amount of people at different ages, rather than one certain
group standing significantly out. In developing countries, the bottom of the pyramid will stick out
significantly due to birth rates being so much higher than death rates. This is usually the opposite in
developed countries. These will be inverted pyramids, with mass numbers of elders outnumbering
young people. Since Sweden’s population is stable, this country does not have to worry about too many
of one group causing problems for the country as a whole.
More factors such as fertility and mortality rate affect population. Sweden has an extremely low
infant mortality rate of total: 2.75 deaths/1,000 live births and a fertility rate of 1.67 children
born/woman. With all this information together, we can conclude that since Sweden’s births and deaths
are so close together, the country has a near-zero growth pattern. More social factors play the same
role here. Sweden is a developed, high-tech, industrialized country, meaning that there is many
educated people and very good jobs available. Since this is a developed nation, birth control is available
Chris Gibson
7th Period
Murphy
12/6/08
and known about, there is no or rarely any child labor, and there is technology to improve the standard
of living even further.
Comparing this country to developing countries such as India, where the population is rising
greatly, many differences can be seen. India has a population growth rate of 1.578% and a birth rate of
22.22 births/1,000 people while Sweden has fractions of these numbers. This means that India’s
population is growing 10 times faster per year than Sweden. Over a period of years, this means a huge
difference. India also has a current population of 1,147,995,904. This stunningly high number can be
extremely bad news to India because exponential growth will cause this number will skyrocket faster
and faster. More people means less space, fewer jobs, more competition, and a general decline in some
parts of living. Sweden is much better off in this perspective because it has a supporting, stable, and
slightly growing population.
Since India is a developing country, many of the high parts of life we call basic can be considered
a royalty. Sometimes birth control is not readily available, child labor will be used to provide families
with more revenue, and many other factors can affect them. If the monsoon rains do not come and
drought occurs, the 60% of the population that works in agriculture is affected, hurting their overall
economy severely. This can cause famine, and overall, causing people to die of starvation which then
raises the death rate. Sweden, being mostly high-tech industry does not have to worry about
environmental factors to a large degree at all. Also, the culture of India affects them. If born into a low
caste in India, one’s life becomes difficult, faced with horrendous, low-salary jobs. This can cause loweducation rates among these groups, high birth rates, and high infant mortality rates. While India has a
culture which can cause imparities to some people, Sweden is a European-cultured society where
society is fair and equal to all members in its society. Everyone has equal opportunity in Sweden so
overall, society is better off.
Chris Gibson
7th Period
Murphy
12/6/08
Here is a graph of Sweden’s projected population from 2009 to 2019. It is seen here how
Sweden’s population growth is very small, only going from about 9.045 million to 9.189 million in a
period of 10 years. However, Sweden is in good shape for the future for being a developed country.
Many European, developed nations, such as German (growth rate of -0.044%) have shrinking
populations. This will cause more elders than young people in the future and cause a few problems.
Sweden Projected Population 2009-2019
9.2
9.15
Millions 9.1
Sweden
9.05
9
8.95
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014 2015
Year
2016
2017
2018
2019
Chris Gibson
7th Period
Murphy
12/6/08
Chris Gibson
7th Period
Murphy
12/6/08