<\/a>Being neutral in both world wars, Sweden has achieved a solid standard of living, based on a successful economy. Even though Sweden joined the European Union in 1995, the people rejected entry into the euro zone in 2003. They were worried it would affect their sovereignty and economy. In 2012, Sweden had a GDP of $399.4 billion, higher than the one in 2011 – $394.7 billion – and the one in 2010 – $380.4 billion. Sweden\u2019s economy by GDP is mostly based on services (70.8%), industry (27.4%), and agriculture (1.8%). With a GDP per capita of $41,900, Sweden accomplished an economic growth of 1.2% in 2012. The center-right government managed to increase employment, to reduce welfare dependence, and to streamline the state’s role in the economy. In 2012 and 2013, the government proposed to stimulate those measures that can curb the effects of a global economic slowdown and boost employment and growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sweden, officially known as the Kingdom of Sweden, is a constitutional monarchy situated in Northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia, Kattegat, and Skagerrak, between Scandinavian Finland and Norway. With a total area of 173,745 square miles, Sweden is slightly larger than California. By land mass, it is the 56th largest country in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.populationfun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.populationfun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.populationfun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.populationfun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.populationfun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.populationfun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2712,"href":"https:\/\/www.populationfun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686\/revisions\/2712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.populationfun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.populationfun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.populationfun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}