Affluent Stockholm suburb named best place to live

- In Sweden that is. All the same, if various experts are right, the Nordic countries are not only the richest part of the world, but also global leaders in the domain of QUALITY of life. Therefore, living in this part of Stockholm is probably as good as life gets, or?

"The Stockholm suburb of Danderyd is the best municipality in which to live, according to a new ranking by the magazine Fokus.

Ljusnarsberg municipality in the Bergslagen region of central Sweden ended up in last place.

The locations were judged on 30 different factors, such as suicide rates, tax levels, unemployment, teacher and population density, new companies, net worth, and number of divorces.

It is the third year the magazine has ranked which municipalities are the best places to live in Sweden.

Well-to-do Danderyd won first place this year, knocking down Lund from the top spot in last year’s ranking to second place this year.

Danderyd has the highest net worth, the most high school-aged students and the least number of people with low levels of education.

It also has the highest level of entrepreneurship, and the lowest level of unemployment.

“We have a clear focus on maintaining high standards in our core activities, and we are effective with our tax resources,” said Danderyd municipal commissioner Gunar Oom to the TT news agency.

The popular ski resort town of Åre in northwestern Sweden made a stunning jump in the rankings, improving from 51st place last year to a very respectable 5th place this year, thanks to strong growth, plenty of jobs, and a high number of staff in local schools and daycare centres.

Eighth-ranked Norsjö in northern Sweden made almost as big a jump, thanks to its efforts in schools and recreation, while at the same time achieving the fifth lowest level of social welfare payments in the country.

Last-ranked Ljusnarsberg featured the most divorces, difficult problems with poor health, a net worth among the lowest in the country, and a level of alcohol-related deaths among the highest.

According to the ranking, Haparanda, located in the far north on Sweden's border with Finland, is the second-worst place to live.

The municipality has the highest unemployment, the worst level of gender equity, and among the highest number of divorces in the country."

If we are to believe Reader’s Digest, Stockholm is THE most livable city on Earth (see link below), and therefore one would perhaps expect posh Danderyd to be home to some of the most enviable people on this planet.

(How do they live? - see link below displaying an average Danderyd house)

Well, is that so?

I haven’t been to Danderyd myself even though I’m Swedish, but I visit Stockholm from time to time and my impression is that the up-and-coming inhabitants of this Baltic Sea metropolis prefer to dwell in small - although well built and often luxurious - apartments in the city, just like a lot of kindred spirits of theirs living in Inner City London, Manhattan and such places do.

Danderyd is ‘old money’ and a dinner party over there is more likely to consist of a boring speech and an even more boring Pauillac -92 than anything resembling a night out with the Swedish Bikini Team (see link below).

In conclusion:

Most of us aren’t stinking rich (- I’m not). Those who are can chose whether they wish to spend their time in London, Malibu or some night club in Stockholm/Oslo/ Copenhagen where a beer costs $20.

Some links:

Reader’s Digest claims Stockholm to be ‘world’s most livable city’:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1900947/posts

An average house in Danderyd:

http://www2.skandiamaklarna.se/common/capitex/misc/popup.aspx?ActivePage=/images.ascx&kat=all&OBJTYPE=CMVilla&OBJGUID=3GSKG22U9N5074O4

- Nice, but nothing special. In rural Sweden, such a house would go for 10-20% of that money.

If any magazine would wish to portray Scandinavia as THE most livable place on Earth, they’d better begin by examining how the rich people in Skåne/Scania live (some of these mansions/palaces are not inhabited though);

http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_%C3%B6ver_slott_och_herres%C3%A4ten_i_Sk%C3%A5ne

Far more interesting stuff (Swedish vs British nightclubs):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpWnpG8yXRk

A certain Swedish lady by the name of Susanne Bidegård, a resident of Djursholm, Danderyd, who refuses to apologize for voting for a party (namely Moderaterna, second largest party in Sweden and presently in power) that has lowered taxes for ALL of the inhabitants of Sweden:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjljZx3Quvg

Furthermore, have a closer look at the clip linked to above; the houses, the cars and the powerboats. Sure this is an affluent neighborhood, but not very different from any middle class/upper middle class area in Scandinavia. To begin with, cars like large Audis, BMWs and Volvos are average cars in Sweden and the comparatively large houses are probably in need of major refurbishing:D

The houses in Danderyd are nowhere near the ones owned by rich people in France, the US or - why not - the people who can afford mansions like the ones spread out all over Skåne/Scania in southern Sweden (see above).

If you happen to enjoy the “soundtrack” of the Djursholm clip;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpHKfwTfhTE

Magnus Uggla is an immensely popular artist in Sweden who hasn’t changed his image since his debut in the mid 1970s. He is himself from the posh Stockholm upper class (Uggla is a Swedish noble family of ancient lineage), still Magnus manages, rather convincingly, to make the impression of being very much of an ordinary guy.

“So Sweden has the best place to live AND the 2nd WORST place to live?..(”

- Pretty much so.

Just like all other countries, Sweden features magnificent aspects while simultaneously suffering from several flaws.

Undeniably, the material standard of living is very high over here just like it is in the US and so is the standard of most services provided by the government, for free or at low cost, like health care, child care and education (I’m not recommending this concept of society to others, I’m simply saying people in these segments of employment HERE IN SWEDEN usually display the same amount of acquaintance with Lutheran work ethics as, for instance, the folks working at the assembly line of Volvo Cars, Torslanda, Gothenburg).

On the other hand, Sweden isn’t exactly Italy or Florida when it comes to climate (although the southern part mostly is quite endurable from March to November) and although it isn’t as high as it often is said to be, our suicide rate is higher than average nation wise.

Something that makes me proud of belonging to the nation of Sweden is that we, apparently, have been intelligent enough to abandon the Socialist inspired ideas that had a very strong position in Sweden during the 1970s and the early 1980s.

“I’ll have to study the map for a while. I like Stockholm, but the beer is too expensive and it was strange to have someone tell you in which hotel you will be staying. (I didn’t mind that as much, because every hotel in town was full and the nice girl at the train station found me one).”

- Stockholm is expensive, even for Scandinavians.

If you have the time, you’ll always manage to find hotel rooms costing at least 50% of the ordinary rate of the “official” budget ones, where ever you find yourself in this universe.

I remember entering a “Gasthof” in central Nuremburg, Germany, at 2 am some years ago.

I hadn’t been especially fortunate during my business adventures at that particular journey and therefore, I entered the ground floor of this establishment posing a question to the manager and his staff gathered round some half-emptied 1 litre “maas” (mugs) regarding wether or not they could offer me an exceptionally cheap overnight accomodation.

Upon being asked, in return, of what kind of money I was prepared to pay, I daringly responded “-€5” ($7,50)

They accepted and in return I received a damp but comfortable room with a splendid panoramic view of the old city centre of Nuremberg. I sat down by the window in my room in this 3-400 year old building, opened a bottle of Tücher and after having enjoyed it to the fullest, I slept very well.

Best of regards from Gothenburg, Sweden!

“Here it is, ( I feel confident to say. ) Pan around and you can see that this is among the “nicer” houses in the area, but it’s true that it doesn’t appear qualitatively different than a lot of the others. Then again, just to the south you can see a tract of much smaller houses.”

- You’re probably right. Perhaps that house isn’t as typical for Danderyd as I thought.

Whether it is or not, I’m well aware the houses in this part of Stockholm isn’t much larger or more luxurious than those in many other parts of the city even though they are SOMEWHAT more attractive in general. Anyhow, there definitely are several houses in Danderyd that are far more impressive.

This one isn’t nowhere near the mansions/palaces presented on the wikipedia site I’ve linked to above (regarding Skåne/Scania), but it’s one of the nicest Danderyd houses that presently is for sale (click “Fler bilder” just below the image of the house to the left in order to view more pictures of the estate):

http://hemnet.se/beskrivning/hemnet/140750

This is a house most Swedes can’t afford, still our royal family happen to live much better:D

Thanks for posting fellow freeper!

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