In 2024, approximately ******* people lived in Stockholm, making it not only the capital, but also the biggest city in Sweden. The second biggest city, Gothenburg (Göteborg) had about half as many inhabitants, with about ******* people. Move to the citySweden is a country with a very high urbanization rate, the likes of which is usually only seen in countries with large uninhabitable areas, such as Australia, or in nations with very little rural landscape and agrarian structures, like Cuba. So why do so few Swedes live in rural areas, even though based on total area, the country is one of the largest in Europe? The total population figures are the answer to this question, as Sweden has only about 10.3 million inhabitants as of 2018 – that’s only 25 inhabitants per square kilometer. Rural exodus or just par for the course?It is no mystery why most Swedes flock to the cities: Jobs, of course. Over 65 percent of Sweden’s gross domestic product is generated by the services sector, and agriculture only contributes about one percent to the GDP. Employment mirrors this, with 80 percent of the workforce being deployed in services, namely in foreign trade, telecommunications, and manufacturing, among other industries.

Population in the largest city (% of urban population) in Sweden was reported at 18.28 % in 2024, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Sweden - Population in the largest city - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on October of 2025.

Sweden SE: Population in Largest City data was reported at 1,553,180.000 Person in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 1,523,953.000 Person for 2016. Sweden SE: Population in Largest City data is updated yearly, averaging 1,058,018.000 Person from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,553,180.000 Person in 2017 and a record low of 804,595.000 Person in 1960. Sweden SE: Population in Largest City data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Sweden – Table SE.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population in largest city is the urban population living in the country's largest metropolitan area.; ; United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.; ;

Sweden SE: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data was reported at 17.703 % in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 17.683 % for 2016. Sweden SE: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data is updated yearly, averaging 15.683 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 17.703 % in 2017 and a record low of 14.346 % in 1981. Sweden SE: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Sweden – Table SE.World Bank: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population in largest city is the percentage of a country's urban population living in that country's largest metropolitan area.; ; United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.; Weighted average;

Of the total population in Sweden of 10.55 million people, around half resided in the counties Stockholm, Västra Götaland or Skåne. This is also the three counties where the three largest cities in Sweden, Stockholm, Göteborg, and Malmö, are located. In the capital region Stockholm county, there lived nearly 2.5 million inhabitants in 2023. Västra Götaland county had close to 1.8 million inhabitants, while Skåne county, the southernmost region, had roughly 1.4 million inhabitants. The island Gotland had the lowest number of inhabitants with only 60,000.

The highest population density

Stockholm, Skåne and Västra Götaland were also the three counties in Sweden with the highest population density. In 2022, 374.6 inhabitants per square kilometer lived in Stockholm county, while the corresponding figures for Skåne and Västra Götaland were 129 and 73.9, respectively.

The highest rents

Unsurprisingly. Stockholm county is the county in Sweden with the highest rents for rented dwellings, with average prices for one square meter amounting to over 1,400 Swedish kronor in 2022. The lowest average renting prices were in the northwestern region Jämtland, one square meter costing 1,000 Swedish kronor.

According to a 2019 report, findings show that online shopping behavior in the combined categories of pharmaceutical and beauty goods differed in the three largest cities of Sweden, namely Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, compared to the rest of the country. Bigger cities shared showed a higher preference for online purchases of both beauty and pharmaceutical goods at ** percent compared to rest of the country at ** percent. When it came to beauty goods alone, big cities took the lead by ** percent over the rest of Sweden. Pharmacy goods also saw a similar purchase popularity online, with slightly over one fifth of all Swedes purchasing them.

This horizontal bar chart displays birth rate (per 1,000 people) by capital city using the aggregation average, weighted by population in Sweden. The data is about countries per year.

This horizontal bar chart displays urban land area (km²) by capital city using the aggregation sum in Sweden. The data is about countries per year.

Among the regions in Sweden, the the capital region Stockholm county had the highest population density in 2022, with 374.6 inhabitants per square kilometers. In 2021, more than 2.4 million people lived in Stockholm. In terms of highest population density, Stockholm county was followed by Skåne, with 129 inhabitants per square kilometer. The least populated county was Norrbotten, with only 2.6 inhabitants per square kilometer.

Increasing population density

The population in Sweden is increasing steadily and reached 10.52 million inhabitants in 2022. Because of the growing population, the population density in Sweden increased as well over the past 10 years. In 2012, there were 23.4 inhabitants per square kilometer and in 2022 the number had increased to 25.8. Despite this, Sweden is a relatively sparsely populated country.

Highest rent per square meter in Stockholm

As the most densely populated county, the rents for rented dwellings in Stockholm were higher than in Sweden’s other counties. In 2020, the average rent per square meter in Stockholm county amounted to almost 1,300 Swedish kronor, while the rent in Norrbotten, the least populated county, reached an average of 999 Swedish kronor per square meter.

This statistic displays the online grocery shopping penetration in Sweden in 2016 and 2017, by city size. Overall, the online grocery shopping became more popular in 2017. While ** percent of the respondents from the biggest cities shopped food online in 2016, the percentage increased to ** percent as of 2017.

This horizontal bar chart displays agricultural land (km²) by capital city using the aggregation sum in Sweden. The data is filtered where the date is 2021. The data is about countries per year.

In the month of October, the cities Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Visby, Umeå, and Kiruna in Sweden recorded record-low rainfalls in 2015. That year, the highest number of rainfall was only ** millimeters, recorded in Malmö and Kiruna. On the other hand, October 2020 was the wettest ever recorded in Umeå. In 2022, Gothenburg recorded the highest level of rainfall with ** mm.

This horizontal bar chart displays electricity production from oil sources (% of total) by capital city using the aggregation average in Sweden. The data is about countries per year.

In the fall semester of 2023, 383,000 students were registered in universities and other higher education institutions in Sweden. The number of students remained relatively stable until 2018, and rose sharply in 2020 as many chose to take up studies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Around 60 percent of the higher education students in Sweden are women. Financial aid for studies Sweden has a long tradition of state financial aid for students. Swedish students can apply for both student grants and loans at a low interest rate, or apply only for subsidies but no loans. The financial aid for students is managed by the Swedish Board of Student Finance (CSN). In 2021, more than 207,000 students in Sweden received both subsidies and loans. Moreover, there are no tuition fees at universities and high schools in Sweden. Stockholm largest university The Stockholm University had the highest number of registered students in Sweden in 2022, followed by the Uppsala University and the University of Gothenburg. Stockholm University is ranked among the world’s top 100 universities and located in the Swedish capital, which is also the largest city in Sweden.

The MPP was started in the early 70's as a screening survey in the middle-aged population of Malmö, the third largest city of Sweden. Subjects born in Malmö and residents of the city were invited for a clinical examination, questionnaire and blood sampling. In all 22,444 men and 10,902 women participated during the period 1974-1992. During a later follow-up, the MPP-Re-examination (MPP-RES) in all 17,284 of the original screenes attended in 2002-2006.

Purpose: 1. To screen for cardiovascular risk-factors and alcohol abuse in the local population, and to offer intervention to subjects at risk;

1. To use DNA (at MPP-RES) for analyses of genetic risks of type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, as well as some cancers.

The MDC was started in the early 1990s as a screening survey in the middle-aged population of Malmö, the third largest city of Sweden. 28000 subjects living in Malmö were during 1991-1996 invited by letter and through public advertisement to a clinical examination whitch included blood sampling and a questionnaire about nutrition. 62 % of the participants were women. Cardiovascular risk factors were measured in a random subsample (n= 6000). After 16 years, during 2007-2012, a new clinical examination and blood sampling was performed (n=3700). Morbidity and mortality have been followed up by national registers.

Purpose:

1. To screen for dietary habits in order to predict incident cancers in the general population
2. To screen for cardiovascular risk factors and early atherosclerosis in a sub-sample.

The aim of this study is to throw light on why inequality in the distribution of income in Sweden fell from the mid-1920s to the second part of the 1950s. For this reason the project decided to collect income information referring to different years from a sample of households for one Swedish city. A database was created by coding tax records and other documents for the city of Göteborg, the second largest city in Sweden.

The determination of which years to investigate was critical. For analysing changes over time it was thought as essential to have roughly equal numbers of years between years studied. Further, it was thought advisable to avoid years with too much macroeconomic turmoil as well as the years of the two World Wars. Balancing the resources for the data collection between the size of a sub sample and the number of subsamples, it was decided to assemble data for four years. The years 1925, 1936, 1947 and 1958 was chosen to investigate. It should be pointed out that the year 1947 was preferred to the following years as large social insurance reforms leading to increases in pension benefits and the introduction of child allowances were put in effect in 1948.

Household is defined from registers kept in the archives (Mantalslängder). A household is defined as persons with the same surname living in the same apartment or single-family house. This means that there can be people belonging to more than two generations in the same household; siblings living together can make up a household as well. Foster children are included as long as they are registred at the same address. Adult children are considered to be living in the household of their parents as long as they are registred at the same address. In almost all cases, servants and tenants not belonging to the household are treated as separate households.

Purpose:

The aim of this study is to throw light on why inequality in the distribution of income in Sweden fell from the mid-1920s to the second part of the 1950s

Dagens Nyheter was the most read daily city newspaper in Sweden in 2024, with **** million people reading the paper published by Bonnier either in print form or online. The second most popular city newspaper was Svenska Dagbladet with *** thousand readers.

In December 2018, ** percent of respondents living in a small city stated not to think about whether the garment is good or bad from a gobal sustainability perspective when they made their last purchase. By comparison, the share of Swedes answering the same but living in a big city amounted to ** percent.

In Sweden, the Region of Stockholm had the highest number of police officers in 2022. This comes as no surprise as this is also the most populous of the regions. The regions South and West, where the second and third largest cities Malmö and Gothenburg are located, had the second highest number of police officers. In total, there were nearly ****** police officers in Sweden that year.