Swedish News:

The 'goodest' nation in the world. A first for Swedish men. 

  • A group of Swedish men from the late nineteenth century. Until 2015 women always outnumbered men.
  • The 'goodest' nation in the world
    Sweden is the country that makes the greatest contribution to humanity, according to the Good Country Index, which measures how much a country gives to the common good. Sweden, now the “goodest” nation in the world by these standards, outranks 162 other countries in 35 indicators through data collected by UN agencies and other international bodies. “It’s as objective as anything like this can possibly be,” said creator Simon Anholt, who isn’t surprised Sweden has won another in a string of similar distinctions: “Sweden must be bored of coming out on top in every bloody country index, but that’s the fact of the matter!” Sweden ranked best in the health and wellbeing — for contributions to medicine and international health disasters — and in prosperity and equality, which recognizes Sweden’s beneficial trade practices with other countries. Previously, Sweden didn’t fair as well in the last Good Country Index, when coming in 6th place after it ranked 52nd in the International Peace and Security category because of its arms exports associated with operations in Afghanistan, which since ended in 2014. Now, “Since it’s killing fewer people abroad, Sweden is free to be recognized as the goodest,” Anholt said. Visit http://goodcountry.org to find out how other countries, including the United States, ranked.

  • The leading authority on national identity and branding - Simon Anholt. Nordstjernan asked him about ideas on how Sweden ought to be branded: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/2dcp584" target="_blank">“Simon says”</a>
  • A first for Swedish men
    Swedish men can say they won the race against women. In population, that is. It wasn’t really a race, but given how quickly the numbers have jumped, one can’t help but take note. Although more males are born than females, females tend to live longer (the life expectancy for a baby boy born in Sweden today is just 3.4 years behind that of his female counterpart), favoring the women who thus have always outnumbered men. Until now. In the last year Sweden has counted more men than women since the country started keeping such records in 1749. Suddenly in March 2015, there were 277 more men than women, and now just 15 months later there are over 12,000 more men than women. Though Norway shifted to a male majority a few years ago, and Britain is expecting the same in the next 30 years, it’s clear that men are simply living longer. Sweden, however, largely attributes its number spike — a majority of them male teenage emigrants — to the throngs of people who are moving to Sweden as they flee oppression and war in their home countries.