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172 CHAPTER 8 ■ Establishing a Healthy Drinking Culture

SWE D E N: A C O U NTRY OVE RVI EW

Sweden is the third largest country in western Europe, a country with long dis-
tances (longest north–south distance 978 miles or 1,574 km) and a comparatively
small population (9 million inhabitants; Sweden.se, 2008). The language is Swedish,
and all Swedes start to learn English as a second language in third grade. The lit-
eracy rate is 99% (CIA, 2009). At the end of 2007, 14% of the Swedish popula-
tion was immigrants (Immigrant Institute, 2008). The major religion is the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sweden, to which 80% of the population belongs
(Sweden.se, 2008).
Since 1995, Sweden has been a member of the EU. Sweden has a market econ-
omy and, during the twentieth century, built up a substantial tax-financed social
welfare system. The Swedish welfare state idea—“the Swedish model”—has inspired
other countries. Even though there are structural and financial problems related to
the economic security system today, the main features of the Swedish welfare state
still remain intact (Sweden.se, 2008). Sweden is a constitutional monarchy based on
a parliamentary democracy. Social democratic governments have been in power for
most of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Presently, there is a collaboration
government, representing conservative and liberal parties. Swedes have one of the
world’s largest average life expectancies: 83 years for women and 79 years for men
(Sweden.se, 2008). Swedish people have an active lifestyle and are open to trends
and new patterns of behavior. Therefore, Sweden is used as a test market by major
multinational corporations when launching new products and services (Sweden.se,
2008). New culinary trends have been noticeable during the past decades, and
Sweden has become internationally famous for its gastronomy (Landes, 2008). A
reason for an increased interest in new food trends could be increased immigration,
but also the fact that Swedish people are extremely well traveled.

Alcohol Consumption in Sweden
Historically, Sweden has had high alcohol consumption, but today it is among the
lowest in Europe (Anderson & Baumberg, 2006). However, alcohol consumption in
Sweden has increased dramatically since the middle of the 1990s when Sweden
joined the EU. The yearly consumption was 7.8 liters of pure (100%) alcohol per in-
habitant (aged 15 years and older; including unrecorded estimated consumption) in
1995, and it increased to 10.2 liters in 2005. Since then, consumption has decreased
marginally—with the exception of 2007, when consumption remained virtually un-
changed (Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs [SoRAD], 2008).
Statistics for 2008 show that consumption decreased to 9.5 liters (SoRAD, 2009).
Reasons for the increase since 1995 are changes in lifestyle and drinking occasions