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# Lagom
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/article-2118jsp/
- Published: 2004-08-18T23:08:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-17T11:52:49.000Z
- Author: Sara Forsstrom
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 19:17, #ImagesUploaded

![swedish house](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/2026/04/skansenhouse_1mCIexl-1776425901678.jpg)

swedish house

The lack of extremes in the Swedish language and culture is epitomised by the excessive use of the untranslatable word *lagom*.

In a country where everyone is worth the same, hierarchies are non-existent, inequalities erased, it is not good to stand out. Everything – and everyone – is supposed to be just *lagom*.

Anders Svensson was born in 1962\. He was politically active as a student; left-wing, as was the norm in traditionally socialist Sweden. He is now married and has two children, a boy and a girl; a *lagom* size for a family. His wife Lena is a teacher. Pelle is 17, with two years of school left to decide what to do next. Anna is 14, and good at football and maths. Anders has a sales position in an IT company, a 9-to-5 routine.

Anders started to play golf only in his 30s, when the IT boom was in full swing and it was all right to display a *lagom* amount of success. The family has always had a Volvo, and Lena now uses a little Toyota also. They live in a Stockholm suburb, in a modest but comfortably-equipped house with a garden. It is a *lagom* arrangement.

Anders tends not to get very excited over anything. Lena finds his emotional equilibrium comfortable; his character is *lagom*. One could call the family happy though they would not use that term themselves. Not that they are unhappy, but things could of course always be better.

*Lagom* does not mean boring.

It means rather “not too much and not too little”, “not good and not bad”, “not big not small”, “ok”, “just right – though not perfect”.

*Lagom* is a way to avoid clear answers and decisions:

“How much of the cake do you want?” “A *lagom* piece.”

*Lagom* is a way to stay transparent:

“How many years have you been doing this?” “*Lagom* many.”

*Lagom* is a way to show ability to conform; whatever you think is right, is fine with me:

“I’m sure it is *lagom* like that.”

Untranslatable? Yes. Thinking to be precise and explain something very specific, the word actually means nothing. It is weak and meek, it is cowardly, it is a non-statement.

And it is cherished.

Anders Svensson lives a *lagom* life in a *lagom* country where, collectively, everyone agrees that *Sweden is best*.