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Updates: 

Georg Ebner discovered an error in the Population history table. The error was in my source. I've corrected it in a plausible way.

Update 12 to Geopolitical Entities and Codes (formerly FIPS 10-4) is dated 2013-06-30. It changes all of the county names to informal ones. For example, it changes Hallands Län to plain Halland. The new names are the same as in the table below.

The NUTS code scheme for Sweden has been revised several times. In ~2001, the level-2 codes for two regions were changed for no apparent reason. In 2003, the level-3 code for Stockholms län was changed. There was another revision in ~2008, affecting all counties. The latest version is shown in the tables below.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter II-3 is dated 2011-12-15. For Sweden, the sort order of county names is corrected, and the status of the divisions is changed from provinces to counties (or départements in French).

International standard ISO 3166-2 was published on December 15, 1998. It superseded ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft international standard). For Sweden, the draft standard showed 24 counties. The final standard shows 21 counties. The difference is due to actual changes in Sweden's administrative geography.

Sweden has two sets of county codes. Länskoder are two-digit codes; länsbokstäver are one- or two-letter codes. The alphabetic codes are more familiar to the typical Swede. The numeric codes are used in governmental work. In government reports, for example, the counties may be sorted by numeric code. Both versions of ISO 3166-2 show both sets of codes, but the draft standard represents the numeric codes as official. The alphabetic codes are given as background information. The final standard reverses the positions of the two sets of codes. It states, however, that the numeric codes may eventually supplant the alphabetic ones.

Country overview: 

Short name	SWEDEN
ISO code	SE
FIPS code	SW
Language	Swedish (sv)
Time zone	+1~
Capital	Stockholm

 

Sweden was sovereign over Norway during most of the 19th century. The united kingdom was called Sweden and Norway. Norway became separate on 1905-06-07.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Sverige
2. Dutch: Zweden, Koninkrijk Zweden (formal)
3. English: Kingdom of Sweden (formal)
4. Finnish: Ruotsi
5. French: Suède f
6. German: Schweden n
7. Icelandic: Svíþjóð
8. Italian: Svezia f
9. Norwegian: Sverige, Kongeriket Sverige (formal)
10. Portuguese: Suécia, Reino m da Suécia f (formal)
11. Russian: Королевство Швеция (formal)
12. Spanish: Suecia, Reino m de Suecia f (formal)
13. Swedish: Sverige, Konungariket Sverige (formal)
14. Turkish: İsveç Krallığı (formal)

Origin of name: 

from ethnic name variously transcribed Suethi, Svear, etc.

Primary subdivisions: 

Sweden is divided into 21 län (counties).

County	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Lk	NUTS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital	Swedish
Blekinge	SE.BL	K	SW02	10	SE221	151,436	3,055	1,180	Karlskrona	Blekinge län
Dalarna	SE.KO	W	SW10	20	SE312	275,711	30,404	11,739	Falun	Dalarnes län
Gävleborg	SE.GV	X	SW03	21	SE313	275,653	19,756	7,628	Gävle	Gävleborgs län
Gotland	SE.GT	I	SW05	09	SE214	57,297	3,184	1,229	Visby	Gotlands län
Halland	SE.HA	N	SW06	13	SE231	288,859	5,720	2,208	Halmstad	Hallands län
Jämtland	SE.JA	Z	SW07	23	SE322	127,020	54,100	20,888	Östersund	Jämtlands län
Jönköping	SE.JO	F	SW08	06	SE211	331,539	11,253	4,345	Jönköping	Jönköpings län
Kalmar	SE.KA	H	SW09	08	SE213	233,776	11,694	4,515	Kalmar	Kalmar län
Kronoberg	SE.KR	G	SW12	07	SE212	179,635	9,429	3,641	Växjö	Kronobergs län
Norrbotten	SE.NB	BD	SW14	25	SE332	251,886	106,012	40,931	Luleå	Norrbottens län
Örebro	SE.OR	T	SW15	18	SE124	275,030	9,343	3,607	Örebro	Örebro län
Östergötland	SE.OG	E	SW16	05	SE123	417,966	11,646	4,497	Linköping	Östergötlands län
Skåne	SE.SN	M	SW27	12	SE224	1,184,500	11,369	4,389	Malmö	Skåne län
Södermanland	SE.SD	D	SW18	04	SE122	263,099	6,607	2,551	Nyköping	Södermanlands län
Stockholm	SE.ST	AB	SW26	01	SE110	1,918,104	6,789	2,621	Stockholm	Stockholms län
Uppsala	SE.UP	C	SW21	03	SE121	319,925	7,206	2,782	Uppsala	Uppsala län
Värmland	SE.VR	S	SW22	17	SE311	273,489	19,388	7,486	Karlstad	Värmlands län
Västerbotten	SE.VB	AC	SW23	24	SE331	257,581	59,284	22,890	Umeå	Västerbottens län
Västernorrland	SE.VN	Y	SW24	22	SE321	243,978	23,107	8,922	Härnösand	Västernorrlands län
Västmanland	SE.VM	U	SW25	19	SE125	248,489	6,614	2,554	Västerås	Västmanlands län
Västra Götaland	SE.VG	O	SW28	14	SE232	1,538,284	25,389	9,803	Göteborg	Västra Götalands län
21 counties						9,113,257	441,370	170,414
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2; identical to länsbokstäver. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Lk: Länskoder (county codes). The counties are often sorted by länskod. NUTS: Level-3 NUTS code (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics). Population: 2006-12-31, based on population registers Area: Source [5]. Swedish: Names of counties in Swedish

 

The NUTS code system also defines groupings of counties. All the counties whose NUTS codes begin with the same four characters (for example, SE31-) can be designated as a group using those four characters. These areas have no administrative significance, but are used for statistical summaries. Here are the descriptions of the eight level-two NUTS regions of Sweden.

NUTS	English description	Swedish
SE11	Stockholm city and county	Stockholm
SE12	East Central Sweden	Östra Mellansverige
SE21	Småland with Islands	Småland med Öarna
SE22	South Sweden	Sydsverige
SE23	West Sweden	Västsverige
SE31	North Central Sweden	Norra Mellansverige
SE32	Central Norrland	Mellersta Norrland
SE33	Upper Norrland	Övre Norrland

 

Remove the last digit of these codes to get a NUTS-1 region code, where SE1 represents Eastern Sweden, SE2 is Southern Sweden, and SE3 is Northern Sweden.

Postal codes: 

Sweden uses five-digit postal codes, sometimes written with a space between the third and fourth digits. Swedish addresses can be identified by prefixing the postal codes with "SE-".

Further subdivisions:

See the Municipalities of Sweden page.

The counties are divided into kommuner (municipalities; 288 in 1998), which are further subdivided into församlingar (parishes). Sweden has a hierarchical system of numerical codes for these entities. The first two digits are a länskod, the first four are a kommunkod, and all six digits are a församlingskod.

There are also 25 traditional divisions called landskap (provinces). The counties and the provinces overlap, but rarely coincide. There are also three traditional regions: Götaland, Norrland, and Svealand, each consisting of several provinces.

Territorial extent: 

All of the counties except Gotland are predominantly on the Scandinavian mainland.

1. Gotland consists of the island of Gotland and its smaller neighbors, such as Fårö and Gotska Sandön. Gotland is the only county that consists of a single municipality.
2. Jönköping includes Visingsö in Lake Vättern.
3. Kalmar includes Öland.
4. Scania includes Ven island in Øresund sound.
5. Stockholm includes many islands, in both the Baltic Sea and Lake Mälaren. The Baltic islands extend from Torö and Mörkö in the south to Gräsö in the north. The lake islands include Svartsjölandet, Munsö, and Adelsö.
6. Västerbotten includes Ängesön and Holmön.
7. Västra Götaland includes Torsö, Källandsö, and Djurö in Lake Vänern.

The UN LOCODE page  for Sweden lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names: 

1. Älvsborg: Old Swedish Eluesborg, from älv: river, ö: mouth, borg: fort
2. Botten (Bothnia): Swedish botten: bottom
3. Gotland: Land of the Goths
4. Jämtland: Land of Jämte (ethnic name)

Change history: 

1. 1637: Västerbotten county split from Västernorrland.
2. 1645: Sweden acquired Gotland, Halland, and Jämtland from Denmark by the Peace of Brömsebro.
3. 1658: Sweden acquired Bohus county, and a guvernement which corresponds to present-day Blekinge and Scåne, from Denmark by the Peace of Roskilde.
4. 1680: Göteborg and Bohus county formed by merging Bohus county and Göteborg city; Kronoberg county split from Småland.
5. 1683: Kalmar county split from a guvernement.
6. 1687: Jönköping county split from Kronoberg.
7. 1714: Blekinge county split from Kalmar; Stockholm county formed from parts of Nyköping and Uppsala; the remainder of Nyköping renamed Södermanland.
8. 1719: Halland county split from a guvernement.
9. 1762: Gävleborg county split from Västernorrland.
10. 1779: Närkes och Värmlands län (Närke and Värmland county) split into Örebro and Värmland.
11. 1809: Kristianstad and Malmöhus counties split from a guvernement.
12. 1810: Jämtland county formed from parts of Gävleborg and Västernorrland; Norrbotten county split from Västerbotten.
13. 1819: Öland county split from Kalmar.
14. 1825: Öland county merged with Kalmar again.
15. 1968-01: Stockholm City merged with Stockholm county. Before the change, Stockholm City had länskod 01, länsbokstav A, FIPS code SW20; Stockholm county had 02, B, and SW19, respectively. Stockholm was the capital of both. This was the first change in the number or identity of primary administrative divisions of Sweden since 1825.
16. 1995-01-01: Sweden joined the European Union.
17. 1997-01-01: Kristianstad (ISO=11, lb=L, FIPS=SW11, capital=Kristianstad) and Malmöhus (ISO=12, lb=M, FIPS=SW13, capital=Malmö) counties merged to form Scania. Name of Kopparberg county changed to Dalarna.
18. 1998-01-01: Älvsborg (ISO=15, lb=P, FIPS=SW01, capital=Vänersborg), Göteborg och Bohus (ISO=14, lb=O, FIPS=SW04, capital=Göteborg), and Skaraborg (ISO=16, lb=R, FIPS=SW17, capital=Mariestad) counties merged to form Västra Götaland. Two municipalities (Habo and Mullsjö) transferred from Västra Götaland county to Jönköping.

Other names of subdivisions: 

In the early years of the 20th century, it was common to see e instead of ä, f instead of medial v, and w instead of initial v (Elfsborg, Gefleborg, Wermland, etc.).

1. Dalarna: Dalecarlia (Anglicized); Kopparberg (obsolete)
2. Göteborg: Gautaborg (Icelandic); Gothembourg (French); Gothenburg (English-variant, German)
3. Gotland: Gothland, Gottland (obsolete)
4. Skåne: Scania (Anglicized); Scanie (French)
5. Södermanland: Sörmland (informal)
6. Stockholm: Estocolmo (Portuguese, Spanish); Stoccolmo (Italian); Tukholma (Finnish); Стокгольм (Russian)

Population history:

County	1895	1910	1945	1955	1965	1975	1989
Älvsborg	274,698	287,692	338,996	366,827	390,000	418,150	437,516
Blekinge	143,387	149,359	146,908	146,034	149,000	155,391	149,960
Gävleborg	218,864	253,792	275,436	290,676	293,000	294,595	288,223
Göteborg and Bohus	313,340	381,270	510,896	579,551	666,000	714,660	735,672
Gotland	51,855	55,217	59,505	57,526	54,000	54,447	56,840
Halland	139,356	147,224	155,257	165,865	180,000	219,767	250,959
Jämtland	104,259	118,115	143,213	144,880	131,000	133,559	134,789
Jönköping	195,856	214,454	253,794	277,949	296,000	301,905	306,590
Kalmar	229,176	228,129	231,336	237,462	236,000	240,768	239,564
Kopparberg	206,774	233,873	253,507	276,172	282,000	281,082	286,667
Kristianstad	219,858	228,307	253,277	259,398	262,000	272,090	286,654
Kronoberg	158,838	157,965	153,572	159,112	164,000	169,454	176,589
Malmöhus	383,202	457,214	551,610	596,809	667,000	740,137	771,361
Norrbotten	115,500	161,132	229,568	250,521	260,000	264,215	262,838
Örebro	188,771	207,021	235,989	254,136	268,000	273,994	271,523
Östergötland	270,973	294,179	332,946	354,126	366,000	387,104	399,506
Skaraborg	244,514	241,284	244,737	249,389	255,000	263,382	274,546
Södermanland	161,722	178,568	201,051	219,501	241,000	252,030	253,363
Stockholm City	271,638	342,323	671,284	776,947
Stockholm	157,457	229,181	321,989	386,489	1,382,000	1,493,052	1,629,631
Uppsala	123,015	128,171	146,415	159,752	185,000	229,879	264,738
Värmland	252,915	260,135	272,275	286,786	287,000	284,442	282,375
Västerbotten	133,336	161,366	228,135	236,434	234,000	236,367	250,134
Västernorrland	217,220	250,512	278,707	288,599	277,000	268,202	260,488
Västmanland	142,735	155,920	183,346	213,723	250,000	259,872	256,510
Totals	4,919,259	5,522,403	6,673,749	7,234,664	7,775,000	8,208,544	8,527,036

 

Data for 1895 and 1955 are estimates. For 1975, data represent the 1975-11-01 census (source [6]).

Sources: 

1. [1] Gustafsson, Agne, Local Government in Sweden. Roger Tanner tr. The Swedish Institute, Uddevalla, 1983.
2. [2] När Var Hur 1956. Bokförlaget Forum AB, Stockholm, 1955. The table in this book gives 776,462 for the population of Kalmar län, which differs egregiously from earlier and later figures. What's more, using that figure would produce a column total of 7,773,664, which differs from the total given in the book by 539,000. The simplest fix is to assume that the entire 539,000 discrepancy is due to a mistake in Kalmar's figure. Under that assumption, the correct population of Kalmar was 237,462, which is a very plausible figure.
3. [3] Chisholm, George G., ed., Longman's Gazetteer of the World. Longmans, Green and Co., London, 1920 (apparently not revised since the 1895 first edition).
4. [4] Statistiska centralbyrån  (SCB). Retrieved 2007-09-22.
5. [5] SCB , using the column headed "Land area and inland water excluding the four large lakes" (retrieved 2007-09-22).
6. [6] 1979 Demographic Yearbook , 31st Ed. Statistical Office, United Nations, New York, 1980 (retrieved 2011-12-28).