California versus Sweden

As many of you know, I’m from California. Well, not really from California but spent a good part of my life and college years there. It still counts.

And every time I visit California, I notice all these differences between there and Sweden. Duh, I know they are two different regions. There isn’t much to compare when you have the North Pole versus silicon babes and chips.

But, did you know that Sweden is roughly the same geographic size as California? And did you know that Stockholm has a similar sized population as San Francisco?

Yea, I bet you didn’t know that!

the stockholm archipelago

wine country – napa county

I thought then how fun would it be to make a comparison list of California versus Sweden. Crime, teenage pregnancy, unemployment rate, geography, the number of Swedes hiding in Noe Valley, etc.

Perhaps that will help all you’all people sitting on the fence whether to move to Sweden from California or vice versa.

Fun facts and statistics:

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/USTPtrends.pdf

http://www.fhi.se/Statistik-uppfoljning/FolkhalsoAtlas–ett-interaktivt-visualiseringsverktyg/Tonarsaborter/

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/02/teen-pregnancy-record-low-rate-california-.html

http://www.library.ca.gov/history/symbols.html

And just a caveat, moving to San Francisco is like moving to Göteborg, it’s rainy, foggy, and rainy most of the year with a chance of crazy people. On the upside, SF is warmer, sunnier and has less hipsters.

If you think about more facts and bits to compare, write in a comment and I will add them to the table.