Sweden was originally a plural form of Swede and is a so-called "back-formation", from Old EnglishSweoðeod, which meant "people of the Swedes" (Old NorseSvíÞjóð, LatinSuetidi). This word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas (Old NorseSviar, LatinSuiones). As the name for the country itself, Sweden is borrowed from DutchZweden, which is probably the dative case of Zwede. It appeared in Scots during the 17th century in forms such as Swethin and Swadne. Before this, Sweden was called Swedeland, and in Old English it was called Sweoland (see Svealand) or Sweorice (Old NorseSviariki, which is the origin of the modern Swedish name for the country, Sverige).
Sweden was originally a plural form of Swede and is a so-called "back-formation", from Old English Sweoðeod, which meant "people of the Swedes" (Old Norse SvÃþjóð, Latin Suetidi).
As the name for the country itself, Sweden is borrowed from Dutch Zweden, which is probably the dative case of Zwede.
In Sweden, the form Swerike is attested from the end of the 13th century, Svearike, from the 14th century, as well as the Icelandic SvÃarÃki and the Old Gutnish Suiariki.
In the south of Sweden leaf-bearing trees are prolific, in the north pines, spruces and hardy birches dominate the landscape.
Sweden was also known to be the first western nation to detect unusually high radiation levels in the atmosphere, which later was confirmed to have been the residual nuclear fallout from the Chernobyl accident.
Sweden is known for having an even distribution of income, with a Gini coefficient at 0.21 in 2001 (one of the most even income distributions in the industrialized world).
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