Famous people who grew up or lived in Sweden

Agnetha Fältskog1950–1968

📍 Jönköping, Sweden

Agnetha Fältskog grew up in Jönköping, a lakeside town at the southern tip of Lake Vättern in Småland, the elder of two daughters. Her father, Ingvar, managed a department store and threw…

Annika Sörenstam1970–1990

📍 Bro, Upplands-Bro, Sweden

Annika Sörenstam was born in Bro, a small town in the countryside north-west of Stockholm, in October 1970, the elder of two daughters of Tom, an IBM executive, and Gunilla, who worked in a…

Astrid Lindgren1907–1924

📍 Astrid Lindgrens Näs, Prästgårdsgatan 24, 598 37 Vimmerby, Sweden

I was born in November 1907 at Näs, the farm by the vicarage on the edge of Vimmerby in Småland, and grew up there in the red farmhouse with my three brothers and sisters, our parents…

Björn Borg1956–1973

📍 Södertälje, Sweden

Björn Borg was born in Stockholm in June 1956 and grew up in Södertälje, an industrial town on a canal south-west of the capital, the only child of Rune, a clothing store worker and keen…

Carl Linnaeus1743–1778

📍 Linnaeus Museum, Svartbäcksgatan 27, 753 32 Uppsala, Sweden

I grew up in Råshult, in Småland, where my father, Nils, was a curate and a passionate gardener. He gave me a small garden of my own, and I was so fond of flowers that people called me the…

Emanuel Swedenborg1688–1772

📍 Gamla Stan, Stockholm, Sweden

I was born Emanuel Swedenborg on the 29th of January 1688 in Stockholm, the son of Jesper Swedenborg, a Lutheran bishop. I was a scientist, engineer, and polymath for the first half of my…

Greta Thunberg2003–2018

📍 Södermalm, Stockholm, Sweden

Greta Thunberg grew up in Stockholm, the elder of two daughters of the opera singer Malena Ernman and the actor Svante Thunberg. Her early childhood was busy and creative, sometimes spent…

Ingmar Bergman1967–2007

📍 Hammars, Fårö, Gotland, Sweden

I first came to Fårö on a stormy April day in 1960. Svensk Filmindustri had suggested the island at the northern tip of Gotland as a location for Through a Glass Darkly, and I went…

Ingrid Bergman1915–1939

📍 Strandvägen 7A, 114 56 Stockholm, Sweden

I was born Ingrid Bergman on the 29th of August 1915 in Stockholm, the only child of Justus Bergman, a shopkeeper and amateur photographer, and Frieda Adler, who died when I was two. My…

Olof Palme1927–1986

📍 Östermalmsgatan 36, Östermalm, Stockholm 114 26, Sweden

I was born Sven Olof Joachim Palme on the 30th of January 1927 in Stockholm, into an upper-class Swedish family, and I became the most internationally engaged Social Democratic Prime…

Raoul Wallenberg1912–1947

📍 Lidingö, Stockholm, Sweden

I grew up on the island of Lidingö outside Stockholm, in a comfortable upper-middle-class Swedish family, and my childhood there gave me the security and the values that I later put to…

Stefan Edberg1966–1983

📍 Västervik, Sweden

Stefan Edberg was born in Västervik, a small, pretty town on the Baltic coast of south-eastern Sweden, in January 1966, the son of Bengt Edberg, a police officer, and Barbro. Västervik is a…

Zlatan Ibrahimović1981–1999

📍 Rosengård, Malmö, Sweden

Zlatan Ibrahimović was born in Malmö, in southern Sweden, in October 1981, and grew up in Rosengård, a district of concrete apartment blocks on the edge of the city, home to immigrant…