Sweden Demographics 1970

Sweden Demographics 1970

At the 1970 census the population of the Sweden was 8,076,930 residents, revealing an increase of 8.1% compared to 1960 and an average annual growth coefficient of 0.7%. The increase was not distributed uniformly, but polarized in the central-eastern part of the peninsula, accentuating the phenomenon of urbanization, while the northern counties, and some also in the southern part, show a certain decline. In this way the urbanized population increased from 77.4% in 1965 to 81.4% in 1970. The agglomeration of Stockholm, in particular, grew from 807,909 residents in 1960 to 1,344,750 in 1970, to 1,374. .922 in 1979.

According to a 1977 estimate, which gave 8,236,179 residents, the population was distributed, by counties, as indicated in the table.

Economic conditions. – As regards the primary sector, which now employs less than a seventh of the active population, it should be noted that, despite the progressive reduction of the cultivated area, which between 1960 and 1975 went from 9% to 6, 7% of the territorial surface, the gross salable agricultural production is increasing, thanks to the adoption of very advanced techniques and a modern organization of farms.

Compared to 1960, the average yield per hectare of the most common cereals has increased by more than 50%, such as wheat (376,000 ha and 15,620,000 q in 1977), rye (116,000 ha and 3,640,000 q) and barley (604,000 ha and 19,920,000 q), while the yield of oats (446,000 ha and 13,990,000 q) and potatoes (48,000 ha and 13,460,000 q) appears to have more than doubled, which, however, together with the sugar beet (54,000 ha and 22,140,000 q), suffer a certain contraction in the area occupied. Significant progress is also being made by vegetables and fruit trees, especially in southern Scania, which are also grown in greenhouses.

Livestock farming reveals a downsizing of cattle (1,876,000 in 1977, against an average of 2,500,000 in the years 1960-63) in favor of sheep (404,000) and pigs (2,585,000), while they are in phase extinction of horses (48,000).

The use of the forest – which covers 58.7% of the land area – was further intensified: in 1977 47.4 million m 3 of wood were obtained (36% sawn timber, 58% wood pulp, 6% firewood) and 900 sawmills with over 5 employees and 96 pulp factories were surveyed. On the other hand, fishing becomes increasingly marginal (192,134 t of fish in 1977), to which a few thousand people now dedicate themselves.

The mining industry, operated by 210 companies, in 1978 obtained 13,432,500 t of iron ore from the subsoil, mostly from Lapp deposits, 44,900 t of copper, 81,600 t of lead, 128,300 t of zinc, 402,000 t of pyrites, as well as a non-negligible quantity of tungsten, manganese, gold and silver, generally doubling their production compared to a decade ago.

The production of electricity has also more than doubled (installed power 24,440,000 kW and 86,416 million kWh, of which almost 70% of water origin, in 1976), having entered into operation new hydroelectric plants in the northern regions, especially on the River Lule, as well as nuclear reactors in Agesta and Oskarshamn (installed power 3,314,000 kW in 1976, production 15,993 million kWh), the first realizations of an important nuclear program in progress.

The increased mining and energy production was the cause and consequence of a strong boost given by Sweden to the steel industry and basic metallurgy (2,364,000 t of cast iron, 4,224,000 t of steel, 78,720 t of aluminum, 49,300 t of lead of first fusion in 1978), which was accompanied by the development of the metalworking industries, especially in the centers of central-southern Scania, attracting conspicuous currents of immigrants from the innermost rural areas. Almost half of the added value of the manufacturing industry comes from metal products, machinery and equipment of various kinds, among which high-quality and precision tools, and transport equipment (ship and railway construction, motor vehicles and airplanes) occupy a prominent place.. The rest derives mostly from

In the field of roads and means of communication, there was a slight expansion of the railway network (12,070 km, of which 7484 were electrified in 1977) and road networks (97,500 km, of which 1034 are motorways) and a significant contraction of the merchant fleet (from 1211 to 728 ships from 1960 to 1977), which corresponds, however, to an increase (+ 50%) in the gross tonnage (7,429,394 t).

The trade balance, slightly in deficit until 1970, is now tending towards the positive side, by virtue of a new course of economic policy initiated by the government to reduce the liability of the balance of payments. Among the imports (91,119 million crowns in 1978) coal and petroleum products, foodstuffs, especially fresh fruit, and manufactured goods prevail; exports (96,999 million crowns) are dominated by special equipment, raw materials, mainly minerals, vehicles, wood pulp and paper. The most intense exchanges take place with the Federal Republic of Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Norway.

Economy. – The productive structure of Sweden is strongly influenced by the wealth of its natural resources. In fact, the abundance of forests, deposits of ferrous metals and waterways have made possible the development and concentration of the manufacturing industry in the wood and iron sector. The manufacturing industry is of vital importance in terms of added value and export flows, while it is a little less important in terms of employed power. This partly explains the dominance of the private sector, although the share of production attributable to the public sector rose from 15% in 1950 to 20-25% in 1970. For Sweden 2012, please check eningbo.info.

The public sector, on the other hand, is more important on the demand side; public consumption and investment represented 20% of the gross national product in 1950 and 30% in the 1970s. Income in the form of taxes, social insurance, etc., of the public sector amounted to 51 per cent, of gross national product in 1971; therefore, while the degree of nationalization of the means of production is rather small, there is a considerable degree of nationalization in the formation of income which has led to an increase in the public role in the supply of savings and credit.

In the early 1960s, the public sector, including semi-public pension funds, accounted for about 34% in the formation of gross savings and about 40% in the supply of credit. In the period following the end of the Second World War, monetary policy had been relatively accommodative, later it was more restrictive mainly through the control of interest rates. The interest rate maneuver was particularly used after 1965 following the rise of balance of payments problems in order to favor the inflow of foreign capital. This more prudent monetary policy has also made it possible to have a moderate rate of inflation: the consumer price index increased in the period 1960-72 by an average of 4.7% per year.

After 1974, the rate of inflation accelerated to a level above the average for other OECD countries. In the period following the oil crisis, Sweden was one of the few industrialized countries that tried to offset the deflationary effect by expanding both private and public domestic demand. In 1975 it recorded a rate of increase of the gross national product of 0.5% against the average -2.25% of the major OECD countries. The inflationary tensions that ensued, however, caused the loss of competitiveness for exports, which attempts were made to remedy by successive devaluations of the exchange rate (15% against the dollar in 1977).

Sweden Economy 1970

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