Sweden Trivia
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120 free Sweden trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
61 free Sweden trivia questions with answers. Sweden is a country of 10 million people that somehow gave the world dynamite, flat-pack furniture, Spotify, ABBA and surströmming. This quiz covers all of it: sixty questions on Stockholm's fourteen islands, Gotland and Lapland, the Vasa kings and Charles XII, the Bernadotte monarchy, the Riksdag, Nobel Prizes and Olof Palme, then Midsummer, fika, Lucia, Systembolaget and the Dala horse, before turning to IKEA, Volvo, H&M, Minecraft, Eurovision wins, Zlatan, Borg, Stenmark and Duplantis. The easy questions ask which fish surströmming is made from and who wrote Pippi Longstocking; the hard ones want the fortress where Charles XII fell, the river the Icehotel is carved from, and which publisher turned down Pippi. It suits anyone planning a trip, brushing up before a pub quiz, or just curious about the place behind the meatballs. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Sweden and its cities, monarchs, companies, artists and athletes, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 120 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Stockholm's centre is spread across how many islands?
14
Stockholm's centre is spread across 14 islands where Lake Mälaren meets the Baltic, which is why so many of the city's roads run through tunnels and over bridges.
Q 02Which Swedish city has the largest port in the Nordic countries?
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is Sweden's second-largest city and its biggest port, sitting on the west coast at the mouth of the Göta älv about 400 km from Stockholm.
Q 03What is Sweden's third-largest city?
Malmö
Malmö is Sweden's third-largest city and the largest in Skåne, sitting at the Swedish end of the Öresund crossing to Denmark.
Q 04The Öresund Bridge carries road and rail from Sweden across the strait to which foreign capital?
Copenhagen
The crossing links Sweden with Copenhagen; the bridge ends on the artificial island of Peberholm and a four-kilometre tunnel completes the link to the Danish capital.
Q 05Why did Kiruna, Sweden's northernmost city, decide in 2004 to relocate its centre?
Ground subsidence from its iron mine
Kiruna decided to move its centre because of ground subsidence from its iron mine, as LKAB's ore body runs beneath the old town; the relocation began with buildings shifted piece by piece.
Q 06Which is Sweden's largest island?
Gotland
Gotland, at about 3,000 square kilometres, is Sweden's largest island; its main town Visby hosts Almedalen Week every summer, followed by Medieval Week.
Q 07What is the largest lake in Sweden?
Vänern
Vänern, about 5,650 square kilometres, is the largest lake in Sweden and in the European Union, and the third-largest in Europe after Ladoga and Onega.
Q 08What is the highest mountain in Sweden?
Kebnekaise
Kebnekaise is Sweden's highest mountain; its glaciated southern summit has melted so much that since 2018 the ice-free northern summit, about 2,097 metres, has been the higher of the two.
Q 09Sweden's National Day, 6 June, marks the 1523 election of which king?
Gustav Vasa
Gustav Vasa was elected king at Strängnäs on 6 June 1523, ending Danish rule over Sweden; he went on to lead the country into the Protestant Reformation.
Q 10King Gustavus Adolphus was killed in 1632 at which Thirty Years' War battle?
Lützen
Gustavus Adolphus was killed at Lützen on 16 November 1632 (New Style), riding into fog and smoke during a cavalry charge; his army held the field but lost its king.
Q 11Charles XII's army was crushed by Russia in July 1709 at which battle?
Poltava
Charles XII's army was destroyed at Poltava on 8 July 1709; the king, already wounded in the foot, escaped south and lived in exile in the Ottoman Empire until 1714.
Q 12Charles XII was killed in 1718 while besieging which fortress?
Fredriksten
Charles XII was shot in the head in the trenches before Fredriksten fortress on 30 November 1718 (Old Style); it overlooked the Norwegian town of Fredrikshald, now Halden.
Q 13The reigning Swedish royal house, Bernadotte, was founded by a marshal in the service of which emperor?
Napoleon
Jean Baptiste Bernadotte was one of Napoleon's marshals before being elected heir to the Swedish throne in 1810; he reigned as Charles XIV John from 1818.
Q 21The annual Nobel Prize award ceremony in Stockholm is held in which building?
The Concert Hall
The prizes are presented in the Concert Hall (Konserthuset) in Stockholm on 10 December; the banquet that follows is held separately in the City Hall, which is why the venue trips up so many people.
Q 22UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld died in a 1961 plane crash in what is now which country?
Zambia
Hammarskjöld's plane crashed near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, on 18 September 1961; he was the second Secretary-General and the first to die in office.
Q 23Which Swedish prime minister was shot dead on a Stockholm street in February 1986?
Olof Palme
Q 14In 1809 Sweden lost which territory, then its eastern half, to Imperial Russia?
Finland
Sweden ceded Finland to Russia by the Treaty of Fredrikshamn in September 1809, after the Finnish War, leaving Sweden with roughly its modern borders.
Q 15In which year did Sweden join the European Union?
1995
Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995, after a referendum in November 1994 approved membership by about 52 to 47 per cent.
Q 16Sweden deposited its instrument of accession and formally joined NATO in March of which year?
2024
Sweden became NATO's 32nd member on 7 March 2024, ending two centuries of formal non-alignment, a shift prompted by Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Q 17Carl XVI Gustaf became King of Sweden in which year?
1973
Carl XVI Gustaf became king on 15 September 1973, succeeding his grandfather Gustaf VI Adolf; his father had died in a plane crash in 1947 when he was nine months old.
Q 18Which palace on Lovön has been the Swedish royal family's permanent home since 1981?
Drottningholm
Drottningholm Palace, on the island of Lovön in Lake Mälaren, became the royal family's permanent residence in 1981 and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991.
Q 19How many members sit in the Riksdag, Sweden's parliament?
349
The Riksdag has 349 members, an odd number adopted from the 1976 election to avoid the tied votes seen with the earlier 350 seats; it has been unicameral since 1971.
Q 20Alfred Nobel patented which invention in 1867?
Dynamite
Nobel patented dynamite in 1867, stabilising nitroglycerine by absorbing it in kieselguhr; he later left 94% of his estate to fund the prizes that bear his name.
Olof Palme was shot on Sveavägen on 28 February 1986 while walking home from a cinema with his wife; it was Sweden's first killing of a national leader since Gustav III in 1792.
Q 24In Sweden, the main Midsummer's Eve celebrations always fall on which day of the week?
Friday
Midsummer's Eve falls on the Friday between 19 and 25 June; the date was fixed to a weekday slot in 1953, so the celebrations land on a long weekend every year.
Q 25The Swedish ritual of fika centres on which drink?
Coffee
Fika centres on coffee, usually with a pastry; Swedes are among the world's heaviest per-capita coffee drinkers, a habit that took root after the drink arrived in the 1670s.
Q 26Sweden's candle-lit Lucia processions take place on which date?
13 December
Lucia is celebrated on 13 December, the feast of Saint Lucy; it is not an official public holiday, but early-morning processions fill schools, churches and workplaces.
Q 27Surströmming, infamous for its smell, is a fermented version of which fish?
Herring
Surströmming is Baltic herring fermented for months in brine; a Japanese study once rated its smell the most putrid of any food, and Swedes have eaten it since at least the 1500s.
Q 28Swedish meatballs are traditionally served with jam made from which berry?
Lingonberry
Swedish meatballs come with lingonberry jam, whose tartness cuts the cream sauce; pickled cucumber and boiled or mashed potatoes usually round out the plate.
Q 29Kanelbullens dag, Sweden's Cinnamon Roll Day, falls on which date?
4 October
Kanelbullens dag is 4 October, a theme day created in 1999 by Sweden's Home Baking Council rather than an official holiday; a large share of Swedes mark it.
Q 30Systembolaget is the only shop allowed to sell drinks above what alcohol strength?
3.5%
Ordinary shops may sell only beer up to 3.5% alcohol; anything stronger goes through Systembolaget, the state retail monopoly, where the minimum purchase age is 20.