A study compiled by Statistics Sweden indicates almost 700,000 Swedish Internet users downloaded and shared content through peer-to-peer file sharing in the first three months of 2008.
"More than a third of all men aged 16 to 24 used a P2P file sharing program during the first quarter of 2008," according to the study. "Among all surveyed ages the corresponding proportion is approximately one out of 10."
"The number of women using P2P file sharing is less than half than that of men," with no women aged 65 to 74 using P2P programs for file sharing.
Sweden has about nine million people spread throughout the country -- almost one in 10 is now downloading illegal content.
The country currently is No. 2 in the EU nations for Internet use, trailing only Norway. Sweden is home to The Pirate Bay, so maybe it's understandable there is such a high level of piracy in the country at the moment.
Some EU lawmakers have called Sweden a "safe haven" for Internet pirates, which was the cause of the study. The pressure against the government has also come from the music and movie industries as they become increasingly concerned about the level of piracy taking place inside Sweden's borders.
Swedish legislators are anxiously waiting a new law -- which goes into effect on April 1 -- that would give copyright holders a stronger ability to track illegal file sharing.
