Stockholm is the capital of Sweden and the most populous city in the Nordic countries; 932,917 people live in the municipality, approximately 1.5 million in the urban area, and 2.3 million in the metropolitan area. The city is spread across 14 islands on the coast in the southeast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago and the Baltic Sea. The area has been settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC, and was founded as a city in 1252 by a Swedish statesman Birger Jarl. It is also the capital of Stockholm County.