The Republic of Svanholm is a large, socially progressive nation, renowned for its irreverence towards religion, devotion to social welfare, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic population of 69 million Svanholmians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Welfare, and Law & Order. The average income tax rate is 74.5%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The imploded Svanholmian economy, worth 438 billion Sets a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is led by the Door-to-door Insurance Sales industry, with major contributions from Book Publishing, Cheese Exports, and Arms Manufacturing. Average income is 6,348 Sets, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Anti-government political posters adorn every building like wallpaper, droves of former desperados are applying to join the border police, every workday begins with group therapy, and people stand their fridges back-to-front to benefit from the free heating. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Svanholm's national animal is the Sperm Whale, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans.

Svanholm is ranked 252,612^th in the world and 254^th in Wintreath for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring -6.83 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.