How long is a Swedish mile?

Old habits in measurement sometimes take a long time to fade away. The Nordic countries provide interesting examples of this. In Norway and Sweden, the old "land mile" or "mil," was 36,000 feet: because of the different definitions of foot then in use; in Norway this was 11,295 metres (37,057 ft) and in Sweden 10,688 metres (35,066 ft). The metric system was introduced in Norway in 1875 and Sweden in 1889. When the metric system was introduced, the “mil” did not disappear, but was redefined to be exactly 10 kilometres (about 6.2 English miles).

The redefined “mil,” known as the “Swedish mile” or “Scandinavian mile,” is not used on official Swedish road signs, and the kilometre is the standard for formal written distances. However, the “mil” is common in colloquial speech, including 5 km, which is referred to in Swedish as "half a mil" (“en halvmil”). You can also find old mileposts, such as the one illustrated in the picture; but if you were on a hiking tour beware inscriptions such as that “2 mil” in the picture; the distance is not two miles as understood in the English-speaking world, but nearly twelve-and-a-half miles!

The “mil” has retained some formal usage: some tax deductions, for example regarding distance travelled for business purposes, are measured in “mil” by the Swedish Tax Agency. It is also used in the most common unit for measuring vehicle fuel consumption (litres per "mil") and in car advertisements, where odometer readings are often quoted in “mil.”