Sweden Facts

Placing keys on a table is considered unlucky in Sweden, a superstition rooted in historical social contexts.

At the 1912 Olympics, a marathon runner quit and went home to Japan without telling officials and was considered a missing person in Sweden for 50 years. In 1966, he was invited to complete the marathon. His time: 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes and 20.379 seconds.

Despite being one of the top 10 richest men in the world, Ingvar Kamprad (founder of IKEA) lives in a small home, eats at IKEA, and uses the bus.

In Sweden, a common Christmas decoration is the Julbukk, a small figurine of a goat. It is usually made of straw. Scandinavian Christmas festivities feature a variety of straw decorations in the form of stars, angels, hearts and other shapes, as well as t

Sweden has more telephones per capita than any country on earth.

Americans buying a Volvo can get a free holiday to Sweden to test drive their new car. All costs, including airfare and shipment of the car, are covered by the Volvo Overseas Delivery program.

There's a Swedish power metal band called Sabaton who teach history through their music, including multiple albums devoted to World War II battles and heroes.

Sweden is so good at recycling, it has run out of garbage and now must import garbage from Norway to fuel its energy programs.

There's a competition in Sweden called Kaninhoppning, or rabbit show jumping.

In 2012, Swedish artist Fredrik Saker created a super-detailed self portrait and successfully submitted it as his driver’s license picture.

There is a Swedish religion called Kopimism whose sole tenet is that all knowledge should be available to everyone - and thus, using CTRL+C and CTRL+V are sacred acts.

In Sweden, blood donors receive a text message whenever their blood is used to save someone's life.