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II. THE SWEDISH PEOPLE.
rapidly rising commercial and manufacturing town, situated at the
narrowest part of the Sound. Västerås and Halmstad have especially to thank
their industries for their progess.
Amongst the smaller towns of less than 20 000 inh., we need here name
only Falun, near the celebrated copper-mine of the same name; Visby,
the remarkable and historic capital of the island of Gottland; Luleå, the port
where the iron-ore of Gällivare is shipped; Trälleborg, the port for the Continent,
and Motala, known for its celebrated engineering works. A number of the
other smaller towns of Sweden are celebrated in tourist literature for their
beautiful situations; we may mention Södertälje (now also a progressive industrial
town), Strängnäs, Gränna, Ängelholm, Marstrand, Säter, etc.
Before the rise of modern industrialism in Sweden, its towns subsisted
—■ apart from extensive farming — principally on commerce. It is
significant of this that the greater number of the towns lie by the sea, or near
the great lakes, which afford easy access to the sea. At the
commencement of the century the towns on the Baltic coast (not including those on
the Gulf of Bothnia) possessed 57 % of the whole urban population of
Sweden. At present, this proportion has fallen to about 40 %. The towns
on the west coast, on the other hand, which, at the beginning of last
century, had but 15 %, have now attained to more than 25 %.
There is, as is well known, a very broad distinction between Town and
Country in respect to the greater number of the problems which constitute
subjects for treatment in vital statistics. This has been the case not least
in Sweden. But during the last few generations this distinction has been
to a great degree obliterated in Sweden, the towns having more and more
nearly approached the more natural conditions of the rural districts. The
towns have thus made very considerable progress during the last few
decades as regards communal administration. It may be mentioned, for
instance, that hygienic arrangements in Stockholm, and also in several other
places in Sweden, are regarded as perfect. And even the smaller towns
of Sweden nowadays present a most attractive appearance in consequence
of their cleanliness and orderliness. In consequence of the spaciousness
they generally offer in the houses — a feature peculiar to Sweden — they
are considerably larger in extent than might be expected from the
population, which is often small.
Division of the population according to age.
The preceding pages have recorded the total population of Sweden,
and the division of this population over the area of the country, as well
as into the two classes of communities called "town" and "country". If we
now proceed to the more specially demographical problems, the most
important point of view which presents itself is the one suggested by the
title of this section — the division of the population according to age.
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