Mason Harp's Maps

Switzerland Vs. Sweden Using the 5 Themes

Sweden and Switzerland are commonly thought to be similar or even the same country mistakenly. Throughout this essay, I will go into detail about each of these countries while outlining the five themes of geography. By describing the region, location, place, movement, and human-environment of Sweden and Switzerland, I will distinguish the similarities and differences between the two countries. Although they both have the English letters SW- in the first parts of their names does not make them the same or coincidentally similar countries.

The regions of Sweden and Switzerland differ greatly. Sweden’s region is located to the north of Central Europe in “Northern Europe.” Within Northern Europe is a region considered Scandinavia. Scandinavia is composed of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. These countries share similar historical, cultural and linguistic ties. For instance, the languages are divided into East and West Scandinavian. Both are quite similar yet have differences due to the amount of German rule in their histories, as well as each country devising their own language (Harrison). When looking at the Map of Sweden, you can see that nearly more than half of the country’s edges are located against the sea. There is a boundary made by the Torne River to the north of Sweden that connects Sweden to Finland. On the western side of the country, Norway and Sweden are divided by a confusing man-made line along with lakes and rivers dividing the two countries. The Map of Sweden clearly shows how the areas along the coast are of low elevation, and mainly flat. Where the land is not green, away from the coast, there are high elevations in brown (Map of Sweden). There are twenty-five provinces in Sweden. In 1634, each individual province with its own culture and regional identity became one country. Even though they lost their administrative powers, they still are distinguishable regions located within Sweden. On the other hand, Switzerland is in a completely different region than Sweden. In Central Europe, Switzerland is located next to France, Germany, Austria, and Italy. As you can see in the Map of Switzerland, there is the Swiss Plateau in the northern part of Switzerland. In the southern parts there is the Swiss Alps. A small mountain range in the North-Western parts of Switzerland, north of the Swiss Plateau is called the Jura Mountains. Most of the so-called regions in Switzerland are named after the towns and its surrounding areas. For example, two major regions within the Swiss Plateau are the Zurich region, and Bern region, named after the cities (Map of Switzerland). Switzerland holds 20% of the Alps mountain range, therefore creating its own region alone in Switzerland.

The location of these two countries are far from each other. The distance between them is more than 500 miles. You cannot pinpoint a country by the latitudinal/longitudinal coordinates; however, I will give its maximum and minimum latitudes and longitudes. The country is not a square, so these maximums and minimums are very specific to each other to compute the exact size of the country. Its minimum longitude is 10.980, maximum longitude is 24.160, minimum latitude is 55.340, maximum latitude is 69.060. The land area is close to 410,000km squared. Sweden’s capital is Stockholm with a population of more than 1.2 million. Its absolute location is 59.33258000N 18.06490000E. Sweden’s relative location is east of Norway, south of Finland, west of the Baltic Sea, and north of Germany and Poland. Switzerland is surrounded by land inside of Central Europe. Germany is bordered to its north, France to its west, Italy to its south, and Austria and Liechtenstein to its east. Switzerland is shaped more like a square than Sweden making its coordinates line up better. Its minimum longitude is 5.970, maximum longitude 10.490, minimum latitude 45.820, and maximum latitude 47.800. It has a land area of almost 40,000km squared. Bern is the capital of Sweden with a population of 121,000 people. Bern’s absolute location is 46.94809000N 7.44744000E. As you can see, the locations between Sweden and Switzerland based off their relative and absolute locations are entirely different.

Next, I will begin discussing the differences and similarities between these two countries places. In Sweden, there are oceanic climates as well as subpolar climates in the northern areas. Because the latitude of the country is above 55 degrees, we can associate the land with colder climates. Santa Barbara has a latitude of roughly 34 degrees, therefore making it significantly warmer than Sweden. Switzerland has an average latitude of 46 degrees. This means that Switzerland is roughly right between Santa Barbara’s and Sweden’s climates. However, Switzerland has a continental climate rather than oceanic. Its area is located a distance from any type of sea making its climate slightly warmer. Then again, there are the Alps in Switzerland where the climate is unbelievable cold. Sweden has the Scandinavian Mountains that reach up to nearly 7000 feet. In Switzerland, the highest peaks among the Alps are about 14,000 feet. Therefore, both countries have Alpine tundra within each of their high altitudinal mountain ranges. The weather in Switzerland is average year-round; there are no excessive heat surges nor excessive cold temperatures at the lower altitude areas in Switzerland. In Sweden, on the contrary, the climate is a bit cooler. There are more lakes in Sweden than Switzerland creating a more humid environment. The higher in latitude you go, the cooler the climate becomes. According to Daniel Hungerford, a Swiss native, there are many things that each of these countries are famous for that make them unique from one another. In Sweden, popularities include Ikea, the Pirate Bay, Absolut Vodka, Vikings, ABBA, and Bjon Borg. In Switzerland, they are known for Rolexes, banks, Swiss army knives, cheese, chocolate, yodeling, and Roger Federer (Hungerford). By describing their place, each of these countries are similar in some ways.

Next, we will move on to the theme of movement. Movement is described as the involvement and effects of anything that moves across the earth. This is often associated with humans, whether it may be goods, services, or actual dispersion of themselves. According to the official site of Sweden, the relationship between Germany and Sweden have been occurring since the Thirty-Years War. There is a long trail connecting the two countries that many generations have walked across (Sweden – an Overview). From the information on the Switzerland website, more than half of their population is German (Federal Statistic Office). This is probably one of the biggest reasons Switzerland and Sweden are often mixed up. Common associations with both countries involve inhabitants with light colored skin, blonde hair, blue eyes, and fit body outlines. When I think of Germany, I think of all these traits as well. Therefore, the history behind how the people of Sweden and Switzerland migrating from Germany is a logical conclusion for this stereotype. However, because Switzerland is more central and Sweden is more northern, there are a few differences. Switzerland has a higher percentage of Italian ethnicities than Sweden. This lies with the fact that Switzerland and Italy are bordering countries. Sweden on the other hand, is a boat ride away from Germany, making it easily accessible for Germans to migrate to the Scandinavian land. When comparing each country’s population pyramids, you can see that Sweden has a more balanced population meaning there is a strong foundation at the bottom (younger generation) and a consistent population until the 70+ year old people which then the population begins to taper. On the opposing side, Switzerland has a somewhat inversed population. There are not many children when comparing population sizes to the baby boomers (45 – 60-year-old people). This is most likely caused by the amount off veterans having children after the end of World War 2. The amount of baby boomers in Switzerland is most likely higher than Sweden due to Switzerland’s location and percentage of migrants (De Wulf). According to the total public spending on education graph, Sweden have been and are currently still striving higher than Switzerland on keeping a high level of education in their schools. This is due to the way their education system works. Sweden follows a democratic welfare program where their population pays a high tax rate to cover many programs the government is involved in. Switzerland, on the other hand, follows a liberal path letting the student choose what they want to learn. Consequently, the amount spent on education tends to be lower than that of a welfare society (World Bank).

Human-environment interaction is one of the most popular themes in geography. The importance of human-environment interaction is how the world can adapt to the changes we are making to earth. A major change we are causing is the human population. We are continuing to rise at a fast pace. Switzerland and Sweden used to be causes of this phenomenon. Today, both countries are doing the opposite. When looking at the crude birth rates graph, there is a trend between the two countries. They are very similar; however, Switzerland appears to have a more drastic change in crude birth rates. In the 1980’s Switzerland’s crude birth rate per 1000 people was 19, today it is around 11. As technology advanced, and women began to rise in political power, less and less families were wanting to raise big families and the crude birth rate declined (Federal Statistic Office, World Bank). Based off the crude birth rate data, the total fertility rate of both countries is under 2 (World Bank). 2.1 is the official replacement-level fertility rate. This means that Sweden and Switzerland’s population might start to decline. Though, many people still migrate into these countries causing their populations to increase. The crude birth rate of Sweden is just under 12 while the crude birth rate of Switzerland is about 10.5. Along with crude birth rate come crude death rate. The crude death rate in Sweden is higher than Switzerland’s crude death rate by one person per 1000 people (World Bank). Understandably, their rate of natural increase computes to be very similar to each other.

Trough the discussion of the five themes of geography, I was able to compare two countries that perceive to be similar. After listing each country’s region, location, place, movement, and human-environment interaction, we can see the similarities and differences between each other. Sweden and Switzerland have unique locations located in different regions, properties of place that make them exclusive to one another, different types of movement, whether it may be goods, or migration, and somewhat similar and human-environment interaction. Just because two countries may sound similar do not mean they are the same or have similar ties. Sweden and Switzerland, each with particular pieces of land, are home to certain groups of people that have unique styles of life.

Sources

https://www.britannica.com/place/Switzerland

https://aspectfoundation.org/host/switzerland.html

https://www.commisceo-global.com/resources/country-guides/sweden-guide

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Sweden

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.2304/eerj.2009.8.1.54

Works Cited

De Wulf, Martin. “Sweden's Population Pyramid.” Populationpyramid.net, 2017, www.populationpyramid.net/sweden/2017/.

De Wulf, Martin. “Switzerland's Population Pyramid.” Populationpyramid.net, 2017, www.populationpyramid.net/switzerland/2017/.

Federal Statistic Office. Accessed 24 Apr. 2019, Web. https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home.html

Feher, Daniel. “Switzerland Physical Map.” Free World Maps, 2019, www.freeworldmaps.net/europe/switzerland/map.html.

Harrison, John. “Megaregions: Globalization's New Urban Form?” Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015.

Howard, Elan. “Map of Sweden.” Guide of the World, 2017, www.guideoftheworld.com/map-of-sweden.html.

Hungerford, Daniel. Quora.com. Accessed 24 Apr. 2019, Web.

Map of Europe Highlighting Sweden and Switzerland. Google Maps, 2018, maps.google.com.

“Sweden – an Overview.” Sweden.se, 6 Dec. 2018, sweden.se/society/sweden-an-overview/.

World Bank. "Crude Birth Rate per 1000 People." World Development Indicators, The World Bank Group, 2017, google.com. Accessed 24 Apr. 2019.

World Bank. "Crude Death Rate per 1000 People." World Development Indicators, The World Bank Group, 2017, google.com. Accessed 24 Apr. 2019.

World Bank. "Total Public Spending on Education." World Development Indicators, The World Bank Group, 2017, google.com. Accessed 24 Apr. 2019.