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SWEDEN AND SWITZERLAND

Sweden vs Switzerland: 12 facts to help you tell them apart

Completely different, or remarkably similar? We'll let you decide for yourself.

Sweden vs Switzerland: 12 facts to help you tell them apart
Ah, Sweden. The land of chocolate, cuckoo clocks and... oh no, wait. Photo: Maria Orlova/Pexels

When Sweden in 2022 announced its intentions to join Nato, US President Joe Biden made headlines after he accidentally referred to the country as Switzerland. To be fair to Biden, he had only seconds prior said the correct country, and he also corrected himself with typical folksy good humour in the very next sentence. “Switzerland? My goodness, I’m getting really anxious here about expanding Nato.”

But of course, he is far from the first to make the mistake. 

The New York Stock Exchange a few years’ back unfurled a Swiss flag when the Swedish music streaming service Spotify listed there. 

And you can see the similarities. The countries do at least share their first syllable (almost). Both have flags with crosses on them. Both are peopled by reserved, orderly folk, with a culture formed in geographically isolated communities drenched in austere protestant Christianity. 

But there ARE differences. 

Kings

Sweden’s current king is Carl XVI Gustaf who has been on the throne since 1973. Switzerland is a federal republic and doesn’t have a monarch, though Roger Federer could perhaps lay claim to the unofficial title.

Beaches

Switzerland is landlocked, so if you feel like a trip to the beach you’re going to have to travel elsewhere. Sweden on the other hand has around 3,218 kilometres of coastline, so swimming spots aren’t hard to come by – if you can handle the cold.

‘Four-thousander’ mountains

“Four-thousander” mountains are, as the name suggests, those with a summit at least 4,000 metres above sea level, and Switzerland is home to no less than 234 of the giants – perhaps not a surprise considering the nation’s fame for skiing.

Sweden on the other hand can’t lay claim to a single one: its tallest mountain Kebnekaise is a mere 2,096.8 metres above sea level.

World Cup honours

Sweden has taken a football medal (ie: finished within the top three) at the World Cup on three occasions, coming third in 1950 and 1994, and runner-up in 1958. Switzerland has never gone that far, with their biggest achievement the quarter-finals in 1954 (when they hosted the event) and 1966.

Record goalscorer

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is one of Sweden’s best-known football exports, and holds the record for scoring the highest number of goals in the yellow shirt (62).

Alexander Frei’s 42 goals make him Switzerland’s all-time top scorer, and the current crop looks unlikely to catch him. 

Olympic football medals

Though the two countries have populations of not much more than 10 million people, both have won Olympic medals in football. Sweden took Gold in 1948, while Switzerland took Silver in 1924, at a time before the first World Cup when the Olympic tournament was considered the most important in the game.

National languages

Diverse Switzerland has four national languages – French, German Italian and Rhaeto-Romansch – but it’s perhaps more surprising to learn that Sweden has six. Swedish is the majority tongue but there are also five official minority languages in the Nordic nation: Finnish, Meänkieli, Sami, Yiddish and Romani.

Fallout shelters

Both small countries are prepared for the worst, but if you think Sweden’s 65,000 bunkers is impressive, consider Switzerland’s 300,000 private bunkers plus an additional 5,100 for the public.

Contributions to the world of alcohol

Sweden’s most famous drink is brännvin, but that can’t hold a candle to the mystique of absinthe. The green fairy was invented in 18th century Switzerland, and is associated with great artists and thinkers, unlike Sweden’s throat-burning spirit.

Chocolate

Switzerland has Toblerone, Sweden has Marabou, although these days they are both owned by Mondelez International. When it comes to artisan chocolate however, Switzerland still holds the edge over Sweden.

Tennis singles Grand Slam wins

The achievements of the two nations in the world of sport go well beyond football, and both share a common love of tennis in particular. Swedish players have won a singles Grand Slam on 26 occasions, with the most successful of them all a certain Björn Borg with 11.

Switzerland is even better though, with 28 singles Grand Slam titles. By far the most impressive of the winners is Roger Federer, who has 20…so far.

Large Hadron Colliders

Switzerland has one, Sweden has none. Sorry Sweden.

Member comments

  1. It just shows how ignorant, uneducated and stupid the majority of people in the world are. I am not surprised by this .

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TOURISM

Swedish tourist board launches campaign to end confusion with Switzerland

Sweden's tourist board has issued a plea to Swiss officials to co-sign a proposition designed to put an end to people mixing up the similarly-named Nordic country and Alpine republic for good.

Swedish tourist board launches campaign to end confusion with Switzerland

Sweden and Switzerland are often mixed up, whether that be by tourists, protesters burning the wrong flag, Wall Street celebrating the listing of Spotify on the New York Stock Exchange, or even US President Joe Biden mistakenly welcoming Switzerland into Nato.

Sure, they’re both mountainous European countries beginning with “Sw” with a cross on their flag, but the similarities end there.

“Leaders and citizens of Switzerland, we’re contacting you regarding our mutual problem,” a Swedish official, played by comedian Emma Peters, in Visit Sweden’s new ad states, while flanked by Swedish (not Swiss) flags.

“It’s time we make the distinction between our two nations as clear as day, by deciding who talks about what.”

In the video, Visit Sweden proposes that each country sticks to an agreed list of topics. Switzerland can have red flags, while Sweden gets red cabins. Switzerland can have LSD (it was invented there), while Sweden gets “a different kind of surreal experience”: the Northern Lights.

Yodelling, gold and banks go to Switzerland, while Sweden in return is allocated silence (or rather “a lack of yodelling”), chanterelles (also known as skogens guld or “forest gold”), and sandbanks (Switzerland is landlocked, while Sweden has over 48,000 kilometres of coastline and over 100,000 lakes).

“As long as both tourism destinations stick to this division in all communication with the outside world, the confusion should come to an end,” the agreement, addressed to Swiss officials, reads.

Visit Sweden’s proposed division of topics between Sweden and Switzerland. Image: Visit Sweden

So what happens if Switzerland doesn’t sign the agreement? 

“We understand,” Visit Sweden writes. “We are both used to being neutral.”

Austria and Australia have yet to comment on the new campaign.

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