Events from the year 1878 in Sweden

• Monarch – Oscar II
• Prime Minister – Louis Gerhard De Geer

• 21 July - The Vega Expedition starts
• August – Mission Covenant Church of Sweden is founded
• 22 November - The Metric system is introduced in Sweden
• 6 December - The Phonograph is introduced in Sweden
• - First issue of Bohusläningen
• - The Stockholm University is founded.
• - The Eldkvarn fire.
• - The Svenska Federationen is founded to stop the regulation of prostitutes.^[1] It also questioned the sexual double standards that justified it, which also inspired the public sexual morality debate referred to as Sedlighetsdebatten.
• - The Swedish colony of Saint Barthélemy is bought by the French.

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2015)

• 4 January – Rosa Grünberg, actress and singer (died 1960)
• 25 January – Ernst Alexanderson, television pioneer (died 1975)
• 27 May – Anna Cervin, artist (died 1972)

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2015)

• 8 February – Elias Magnus Fries, mycologist and botanist (born 1794)
• October 8 - Caroline Ridderstolpe, composer (born 1793)
• 30 November – Dorothea Dunckel, playwright (born 1799)