Sweden's Modern History

Two hundred years ago, Sweden was a typical agricultural country — almost the entire population lived in the countryside and worked growing crops and tending animals, and at that time Sweden was a poor country compared with other countries in Europe. During the 1800s this changed: efficient machines were invented and industries grew, and Sweden developed into an industrial society. In the early 1800s there were about 2.5 million inhabitants in Sweden; a hundred years later the population was twice as large, thanks to better farming methods and medical advances. But Sweden was still poor and many people struggled to find work, so more than a million Swedes emigrated to the USA between 1850 and 1920 hoping for a better life. The first major industries were started in the mid-1800s — sawmills and the steel industry, later also factories for shoes, clothing, and engineering — which caused many people to move to the cities.

The king, noblemen, the church, merchants, and farmers had long held political power in Sweden. As society industrialized and became more modern, more and more people demanded that the political system change too. In 1809 the Riksdag adopted a new grundlag that limited the king's power, and in 1865 a constitutional amendment gave more people the right to vote in Riksdag elections. Women, however, still lacked the right to vote, and only men with a certain income or wealth could vote — the wealthiest had several votes. The folkrörelser (popular movements) — voluntary associations that brought people together around shared interests, such as the labor movement, the free church movement, the women's movement, and the temperance movement — became an important factor in the transition to real democracy, by demonstrating, holding protest meetings, and spreading their message through lawful methods. In 1909, almost all men gained the right to vote, and the women's movement pushed for this to apply to women as well; the decision on universal suffrage was made in 1918 after many years of protest, and in 1921 the first Riksdag election was held in which both men and women could vote.

During the 1920s and 1930s, society was modernized further, including through electric power, which changed everyday life, even though many people still lived in cramped housing. The period after the breakthrough of democracy was turbulent, with major conflicts between employers and workers — in 1931 the military fired on demonstrating workers in Ådalen, and several people were killed. In 1938, the Saltsjöbaden Agreement (Saltsjöbadsavtalet) was signed between employers and trade unions, laying the foundation for what became known as the Swedish model — that employers and trade unions, not politicians, agree on the terms of the labor market. In 1928, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, Per Albin Hansson, formulated the idea of folkhemmet ("the people's home"): a society in which everyone could feel security and community, regardless of background. At the same time, the rise of modern society had dark sides: widespread racism and so-called race-biology research affected minorities such as the Sami, Tornedalians, Jews, and Roma, and the Riksdag enacted special laws that made it harder for certain groups to immigrate to Sweden. Sweden has more recently come to terms with this history and given some redress to those affected.

During the First World War (1914–1918), Sweden declared itself neutral, but was nevertheless hit by shortages of food and other goods. Also during the Second World War (1939–1945), Sweden remained formally neutral, but found itself in difficult situations — among other things, the Swedish government allowed German soldiers to travel through Sweden on their way to occupied Norway and Finland, to reduce the risk of being drawn into the war. During the Holocaust, when the Nazis murdered about 6 million Jews in Europe, Sweden had a harsh policy in the 1930s that made it difficult for Jews to flee to the country, but toward the end of the war the policy changed and Sweden made several efforts to help Jews: around 7,000 Danish Jews fled to Sweden with the help of a Danish-Swedish rescue operation; the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg gave Jews protective passports showing that they were under Swedish protection; and the Red Cross rescued thousands of Jews from German concentration camps toward the end of the war, with the help of the so-called white buses.

After the Second World War, Sweden experienced strong economic growth over a long period, with low unemployment and rapidly rising living standards — the period from 1945 to 1976, when the Social Democrats usually held government power, is often called the Swedish record years (rekordåren). The welfare society was expanded more and more: employees gained, for example, the right to a 40-hour work week and five weeks of paid vacation, and health care, elderly care, and the social safety net (child allowance, health insurance, pensions) were improved. Many of the rights and social security systems that exist in Sweden today have their roots in this period. The strong economy meant more people moved from the countryside to the cities to work, while many people also immigrated to Sweden from countries including Finland, Greece, Yugoslavia, and Turkey — Sweden, which during the 1800s had been a country of emigration, now became a country of immigration. The rapid inflow of people created a housing shortage, and the state launched the so-called Million Programme (miljonprogrammet) in the 1960s, with the goal of building a million homes in ten years.

During the record years, wage gaps between women and men narrowed and more women began working outside the home, while daycare centers were expanded. The 1960s was a decade with strong engagement in peace, the environment, and international solidarity among young people, and the du-reform (du-reformen) meant people began addressing each other with the informal "du" instead of using titles. From the mid-1970s, Sweden went through another major social transformation: the industrial society changed into an information and knowledge society. The change was first felt as an economic crisis — competition increased as other parts of the world began producing cheaper goods, several major industries had to close, and unemployment rose. In 1976, as a reaction to the crisis, Sweden got its first non-Social Democratic government in decades. In the information society, people needed more education, universities and colleges were expanded, and the need for lifelong learning and adult education grew as technological development accelerated.

During the 1990s, immigration to Sweden increased again, now mainly refugees from dictatorships or war-torn countries, which made Sweden a more multicultural society — while segregation and xenophobia also increased, which made integration and countering exclusion important social issues. From the 1980s onward, individual rights gained greater importance, with increased freedom of choice in areas such as school and health care, while the rights of children and minorities were strengthened and anti-discrimination laws increased — attitudes toward LGBTQI people changed from strong discrimination to growing acceptance. A major change from the 1990s onward was the digital revolution: computers, the internet, smartphones, and more recently artificial intelligence (AI) have changed how people work, study, communicate, and access information, making Sweden a high-tech information society with connections to the whole world as part of everyday life.