Economy of Sweden - History

History

In the 19th century Sweden evolved from a largely agricultural economy into the beginnings of an industrialized, urbanized country. Poverty was still widespread in sections of the population. However, incomes were sufficiently high to finance emigration to distant places, prompting a large portion of the country to leave, especially to the USA. Economic reforms and the creation of a modern economic system, banks and corporations were enacted during the latter half of the 19th century.

By the 1930s, Sweden had what Life magazine called in 1938 the "world's highest standard of living". Sweden was also the first country worldwide to recover completely from the Great Depression. Sweden declared itself neutral during both world wars, thereby avoiding much physical destruction like several other neutral countries. The post-war boom propelled Sweden to greater economic prosperity, putting the country in third place in per capita GDP rankings by 1970. Beginning in the 1970s and culminating with the deep recession of the early 1990s, Swedish standards of living developed less favorably than many other industrialized countries. Since the mid 1990s the economic performance has improved.

In 2009, Sweden had the world's ninth highest GDP per capita in nominal terms and was in 14th place in PPP terms.