Spotify leads the field in terms of brand awareness, with figures revealing almost 70% of all consumers to be familiar with the Swedish service.

BBC: Digital music 'becomes mainstream' in the UK

As it now functions, the Web site is primarily hosted on a Swedish Internet service provider called PRQ.se, which was created to withstand both legal pressure and cyber attacks, and which fiercely preserves the anonymity of its clients.

NEWYORKER: No Secrets

Spotify, a music-streaming service created by Swedish programmers that has grown at an astonishing rate, is trying to move from dependence on advertising to subscriptions.

ECONOMIST: Media conglomerates in the downturn

The family still controls the food service, making sure that Swedish meatballs, cream sauce and lingonberry jam is served in most stores.

FORBES: IKEA Is A World-Wide Wonder

In 2003 one of his poems was read at the memorial service of Anna Lindh, the murdered Swedish foreign minister.

BBC: Swedish poet Transtroemer wins Nobel Literature Prize

Just this week, the English High Court ordered six of the country's Internet service providers to block access to the Swedish site The Pirate Bay on the grounds that it induced its users to infringe copyright.

WSJ: Is the U.K.'s Love Affair With the Internet at Risk?

The new study involved almost 50, 000 Swedish men born between 1949 and 1951 who were undergoing medical examinations for military service.

CNN: Study: Anxiety in youth linked to heart attacks later on

Foreign holidays can be politically damaging, too: Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish prime minister, has been criticised for choosing a trip to Turkey over a memorial service for the victims of the Norway killings.

ECONOMIST: Charlemagne