Swedes take off their the shoes at the entrance in many places: at home, their own or someone else’s, in their children’s school, in the gym, and even in some doctors offices, beauty parlors, and other similar public spaces. Even at work, many Swedes have a different pair of shoes that they can change to during office hours.
Why?
A cleaner floor and improved hygiene help prevent diseases. Think of how much dirtiness there is on city sidewalks and other walkways: dust, garbage, animal droppings, food leftovers, snow and so much more. All of that can be collected in the shoes and spreads bacteria and dirt wherever we walk with them. Including our homes if we don’t take off the shoes at the entrance.
At the same time, having our feet inside a pair of winter boots the whole day might not make for very happy feet either. That’s also why you might see some Swedes changing to indoor shoes at work. Higher hygiene and more comfort.
History
At the end of the 1800s, governments of different countries started a campaign throughout Europe to improve people’s hygiene habits in order to get cleaner houses and better health in the population. In 1936, Sweden created a housing inspection under the health care boards whose responsibility it was to make sure that Swedes moved away from unhealthy living habits, such as over crowdedness, dirty living spaces and shoes indoors and got better habits around airing, cleanliness and bathrooms. This lead to a wide spread change in the 1930s, where Swedes started taking off their shoes and leaving them at the entrance of their homes. This helped prevent diseases and made them literally stay outside the door.
Swedes are big consumers of candy, with their tradition of lördagsgodis (Saturday candy), filling a paper bag with diverse loose candy, bought in any corner shop, supermarket, or larger candy store. What as a kid I could only dream of, in Sweden is a reality, for both adults and children.
This alone is an oddity, but we can dig deeper in the subject. One of the most popular candy types in Sweden is Salmiak or salty licorice (the black candy). Licorice is a candy flavored and colored with a vegetable extract found in the roots of Glycyrrhizin glabra. Glycyrrhizin is very very sweet, more than sugar, and to balance that sweetness almost all Swedish licorice candy contains ammonium chloride, giving it a salty flavor. This combination of flavors makes Swedish licorice quite special with many people describing its taste as a “love it or hate it” situation.
Why?
It is hard to know exactly why Swedes (and other Nordic countries) enjoy licorice so much, but there are some guesses, as described by the bloggers at
Scandi Baking. In general, Scandinavians like strong flavors and the combination of sweet and salty exists even in other traditional foods, such as pickled herring and fermented fish. Another possibility is that salty foods might keep the blood flowing, which helps stand the cold winters. At the same time, strong flavors entertain the brain and keep dark evenings more interesting. A more obvious reason might be that Swedes love licorice, because they grow up eating it! Who doesn’t like to go back to the flavors of their childhood?
History
The history of the licorice root goes way back to the Egyptians. Pieces of licorice root were even found in Tutankhamun’s tomb! However, it is not known if it was there for decoration or as food. Historically, licorice was used for medicine, both by the Egyptians and the Chinese. The licorice candy, however, appeared much later, in the 1760s by George Dunhill, an English pharmacist. He wanted to make cough tablets tastier and started adding licorice root and sugar, creating this odd black-colored candy. Don’t be fooled though! Licorice might have been used to cure diseases in the past, but its excessive consumption leads to some serious side effects. Read more about it and other weird Swedish foods
here.
Sweden is known throughout Europe (if not the world) for being well ahead of the times in many ways. One of them is the concept of family, which can be many different things. When living in Sweden you will meet many divorced people, as separating is normal, whether the couple has children together or not. It is also normal for the parents to keep having other partners and healthy relationships.
In this way, a family might not be composed of two parents and a few children. Instead, you might find a parent, his/her new partner, and some siblings from the previous marriage. The siblings might also be a lot older and have their own boyfriends/girlfriends, making a family dinner table a big fun mix of ages and generations.
Same-sex families are also a fairly common occurrence and it is therefore not too unusual that a child may have two mums/one dad, two dads/one mum, two mums, two dads or two mums and two dads – or any other variation for that matter.
Why?
Swedes are practical beings and have a big respect for people’s rights and freedom. Everyone is free to love and to build a family with whomever they want. If someone is not happy in a relationship, they should end it. Two adults might grow in different directions over the years and decide to part ways when being together no longer makes sense. Believe it or not, many adults find new partners for the sake of their children and their happiness.
History
In 1915, Sweden passed the Act on Celebration and Dissolution of Marriage. Under this act, married couples could get a divorce but both partners had to agree on it. In 1975 the law was reformed and since then it is enough that one spouse wants a divorce. The current Marriage Act is from 1987 when modifications were made to include clauses on child custody and maintenance.
More recently in 2009, Sweden adopted a gender-neutral marriage law, giving same-sex couples the same rights as opposite-sex couples. Later that same year the Church of Sweden joined and allowed its priests to wed same-sex couples. These rights include members of the Royal Swedish Family. Same-sex couples can adopt children since 2003 (both joint adoption and stepchild adoption). Since 2005, lesbian couples can also access IVF treatments with both spouses becoming automatically parents after birth.
Thursday, October 16 | 2025
2 responses to “Why do Swedes take off their shoes at the front door and other Swedish oddities”
I wish I knew the part about “Swedish students screaming at night” while I was still studying for my master’s degree. That would have come in really handy! 😄
Thank you for the tips, Sara.
I know right! But you don’t have to be a student for this work. If you ever find yourself in Uppsala just join the students 🙂