Malmö vs Stockholm

On arriving to Sweden for studies i ended up in Stockholm which is Sweden's largest city. It has all the big city amenities such as great shopping, international airport and feels somewhat like home (coming originally from Calgary, Alberta).

When i decided to stay in Sweden the main hindrance preventing me from doing that was finding full time employment so that I could get the work visa which was my ticket to staying in Sweden. After sending out more applications then i can count i ended up getting interviewed for a job which would be based out of Malmö - Swedens third largest city. The benefit of living here is that it has many of the large city amenities and a small town feel. For example, Copenhagen Airport is a short train ride away and this ensures that you have an international hub nearby. Malmö also has its own domestic airport. Being third biggest it has about 300,000 people that reside in Malmö. If you want to party in the big city the option is also there to travel to Copenhagen to go out, with the cheaper drink prices and higher currency value it ends up being about the same price as going out in Malmö.

One thing that is definitely different here in Malmö is the population ethnicity distribution. Of course Stockholm is a very culturally diverse city but Malmö has a higher percentage of foreign born citizens living here, the effects of which has made headlines across the globe.

Another big difference between Malmö and Stockholm are the beaches! Of course in Stockholm you have fresh water whereas here in Malmö its salt water. I actually did notice a difference on my last visit to Stockholm over the summer that it is harder to float in the water there.

As Stockholm is the countries capital city you definitely notice that a lot of money is spent to make the city look nice. Malmö does its part as well but not to the same degree. Ironically, taxation here in Malmö is higher then in Stockholm (one pays a different local or city tax depending on what city you are living in here in Sweden).

There is a also a difference in the accents here in Skåne versus those in Stockholm and having been to Stockholm first, the Swedish that I learned was based on their accent. The Skåne residents tend to have more of a twang to their voices and much more emphasis on the letter 'r'. I would almost say that its more of a Danish version of Swedish (which im sure many of the residents here will not want to hear).

The Swedish word of the day is Huvudstad which means Capital City