People that have visited Sweden now has a different understanding of what the average quality of life means. The citizens of this country have the right to free education, free medical services, high allowances for children, and unemployment benefits. But that’s not all. Recently, they have started implanting microchips in people so that all the important data about a person is safe and can be accessed on the go.

We have compiled something about the lives of regular people in Sweden that the world should try to emulate.

1. The Scandinavians are tough people.

The Swedes are totally fine with cold weather. When it’s 32°F on the thermometer, or even below that, men are wearing thin windbreakers and riding bicycles, 3-year-old children outside without any hats, and fathers carrying their babies in unbuttoned jackets.

2. There are rules about good manners in stores.

Local people go to supermarkets with special shopping bags made of fabric instead of plastic bags that pollute the environment Any piece of news about a company or a farm that contaminates the air, the water, or abuses its animals is potentially detrimental as the people just stop buying their products.

 

At the stores, the Swedes put their products on the counter so that the cashier can see the barcode right away. This makes the whole process significantly faster. 

3. Fathers have to spend 3 months with their children when they are born.

Maternity leave in Sweden is probably the longest in the world, 480 days long. Fathers are mandated by the law to spend 90 days with their newborn children. 

The authorities believe that a father has to be fully involved in the process of raising children, more so in the early days of their lives.

4. The Swedes are very eco-conscious.

There are a lot of Parks in the towns of this country; inhabited by birds, rabbits, hedgehogs, and other animals. And everyone is required by law to respect nature.

 

The country has another law that says everyone is allowed access to natural resources. According to the law, people can swim in the water, camp, collect berries, and ride bicycles, even in private property. In lakes and rivers, the swedes fish only for sport and later let the wild fish go.

Wild animals even live near big cities and are seen pretty often.

5. In Sweden, people don’t work overtime.

Local people in Sweden respect work time and their private time. And will gracefully separate the two.

If a company has a 45-minute lunch break, the employees will spend exactly 45 minutes on that break. They follow the rules, and will not work when office time is up.

The offices are also mindful of the moral and physical comfort of their workers. For instance, next to many keypads, there are shelves for people’s cups

6. They almost never use cash.

The Swedish people use a cashless system called Swish to pay for all of their purchases. It is connected to their phone number and their bank account. In September 2018, it had 6.5 million users.

 

 They can “swish” the money to a seller, even in a street market.

7. They don’t yell at each other when they argue.

When swedes have a confusing situation that they can’t solve on their own, they always ask for a third-party mediator. For example, if someone turns on loud music at night, a Swedish tenant will write a complaint to the landlord of the house. Whatever happens, there is always a third party there to restore justice and normalcy

8. In Sweden, people eat candy on Saturdays

Strange as it sounds, this sweet tradition has a pretty dark origin. In the 1940s, together with several candy corporations, the government ran tests on the patients of psychiatric hospitals in order to find out if there was any danger in eating sweets.

 

When they found out that eating candy too often was bad for your teeth, the lördagsgodis tradition was born: the Swedish people could eat as many sweets as they wanted, but only one day a week. 

9. Regular citizens are responsible for the official Twitter account of the country.

Everyone has the chance to become a manager of the official Twitter account of the country for one week. The task is simple: to show the country through the eyes of the citizens. To qualify to become the manager, you need to live in Sweden but your citizenship doesn’t matter. You can’t nominate yourself though, someone else who thinks your best qualified for the task will propose you.

10. There are no beds in Swedish kindergartens

In some Swedish kindergartens, the kids that want to sleep can sleep on mattresses, and those who don’t want to sleep, don’t have to. In others, the smallest children are dressed up and taken outside in big strollers on the porch to take naps.

 

The Swedes have their own version of what is right and what is wrong. One-year-old toddlers are allowed to go to kindergarten and there are no requirements for them at all: they don’t need to be able to speak or use the potty, because, at this age, many children are just learning to walk. 

11. They have “gossip windows.”

A Reddit user posted this photo and wrote, “What is the purpose of these mirrors? I came across them in Trosa, Sweden, near the river. They are at almost every house.” He was told that it was an old invention that is usually put on the kitchen windows, so you can see and gossip about what is going on outside while you are drinking coffee. “It is basically a mirror that makes it possible to view the street from the comfort of your couch,” someone replied in the comments.

12. The Swedish passport is the third most powerful passport in the world.

With this passport traveling around the world is very easy. Travelers don’t need a visa and are not required to give any information about themselves at foreign airports.

 

The locals are very proud of the fact that they can enter 171 countries without a visa. The United Arab Emirates is in first place on this list: the residents of this country can visit 179 countries without a visa.

13. €10 old boxes are in demand in Sweden.

On workdays and on weekends, the Swedes go to stores in search of cool-looking vases, pillows, and lamps of all kinds. Nobody skimps when it comes to comfort and original design.

In Sweden, Instead of just throwing away our old vegetable boxes, they put some hipster caption on them and sell them for €10 each. 

14. Sports are extremely important in this country

3 million Swedes have a membership to local athletic clubs. Winter sports are very popular, but people also love to play soccer and basketball, they love swimming, hiking, and riding bicycles.

In the intersections, there are special posts that have a pad to place your feet on and rest while on a bike.

15. The Stockholm metro is the longest gallery in the world.

The Stockholm metro is famous for the unusual decor in its central stations. Since the city was originally built on rocks,  the tunnels are dug in stone. Every station boasts of its own unique design making them one of the must go to places for tourists visiting the nation.

16. In 2015, they started implanting chips in people in Sweden.

The Swedes started experimenting with microchips in 2015 and now, there are more than 3,000 chipped people in the country. The procedure involves using a syringe to inject a chip that looks like a thin wire under the skin.

The chips contain information about credit cards, all access cards, driver’s licenses, and all other important data. These chips cost between $150 to $200.

17. They have very strict rules about fireworks.

In order to ensure the safety of people during the holidays, Sweden adopted a law regarding fireworks in 2019. The law states; in order to launch fireworks, people have to take special classes and get special permission. And sellers can only sell their products to the people that have completed this class and have a license.