In 2023, approximately 988,943 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 596,840 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.

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.; ;

Population in largest city in Sweden was reported at 1719604 in 2024, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Sweden - Population in largest city - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on July of 2025.

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;

Stockholm was ranked as the best city for startups in Sweden in 2023, with a total score of *****. Malmö followed in second with a score of ****, followed by Gothenburg. That year, Sweden was ranked as the second best country for startups in Europe and the fifth best worldwide.

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 38 percent compared to rest of the country at 33 percent. When it came to beauty goods alone, big cities took the lead by 20 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.

About this dataset

Context

The dataset tabulates the population of Sweden town by gender across 18 age groups. It lists the male and female population in each age group along with the gender ratio for Sweden town. The dataset can be utilized to understand the population distribution of Sweden town by gender and age. For example, using this dataset, we can identify the largest age group for both Men and Women in Sweden town. Additionally, it can be used to see how the gender ratio changes from birth to senior most age group and male to female ratio across each age group for Sweden town.

Key observations

Largest age group (population): Male # 20-24 years (1,113) | Female # 15-19 years (1,097). Source: U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2019-2023 5-Year Estimates.

Content

When available, the data consists of estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2019-2023 5-Year Estimates.

Age groups:

• Under 5 years
• 5 to 9 years
• 10 to 14 years
• 15 to 19 years
• 20 to 24 years
• 25 to 29 years
• 30 to 34 years
• 35 to 39 years
• 40 to 44 years
• 45 to 49 years
• 50 to 54 years
• 55 to 59 years
• 60 to 64 years
• 65 to 69 years
• 70 to 74 years
• 75 to 79 years
• 80 to 84 years
• 85 years and over

Scope of gender :

Please note that American Community Survey asks a question about the respondents current sex, but not about gender, sexual orientation, or sex at birth. The question is intended to capture data for biological sex, not gender. Respondents are supposed to respond with the answer as either of Male or Female. Our research and this dataset mirrors the data reported as Male and Female for gender distribution analysis.

Variables / Data Columns

• Age Group: This column displays the age group for the Sweden town population analysis. Total expected values are 18 and are define above in the age groups section.
• Population (Male): The male population in the Sweden town is shown in the following column.
• Population (Female): The female population in the Sweden town is shown in the following column.
• Gender Ratio: Also known as the sex ratio, this column displays the number of males per 100 females in Sweden town for each age group.

Good to know

Margin of Error

Data in the dataset are based on the estimates and are subject to sampling variability and thus a margin of error. Neilsberg Research recommends using caution when presening these estimates in your research.

Custom data

If you do need custom data for any of your research project, report or presentation, you can contact our research staff at research@neilsberg.com for a feasibility of a custom tabulation on a fee-for-service basis.

Inspiration

Neilsberg Research Team curates, analyze and publishes demographics and economic data from a variety of public and proprietary sources, each of which often includes multiple surveys and programs. The large majority of Neilsberg Research aggregated datasets and insights is made available for free download at https://www.neilsberg.com/research/.

Recommended for further research

This dataset is a part of the main dataset for Sweden town Population by Gender. You can refer the same here

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.

About this dataset

Context

The dataset tabulates the Sweden town population by age cohorts (Children: Under 18 years; Working population: 18-64 years; Senior population: 65 years or more). It lists the population in each age cohort group along with its percentage relative to the total population of Sweden town. The dataset can be utilized to understand the population distribution across children, working population and senior population for dependency ratio, housing requirements, ageing, migration patterns etc.

Key observations

The largest age group was 18 to 64 years with a poulation of 263 (55.60% of the total population). Source: U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2019-2023 5-Year Estimates.

Content

When available, the data consists of estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2019-2023 5-Year Estimates.

Age cohorts:

• Under 18 years
• 18 to 64 years
• 65 years and over

Variables / Data Columns

• Age Group: This column displays the age cohort for the Sweden town population analysis. Total expected values are 3 groups ( Children, Working Population and Senior Population).
• Population: The population for the age cohort in Sweden town is shown in the following column.
• Percent of Total Population: The population as a percent of total population of the Sweden town is shown in the following column.

Good to know

Margin of Error

Data in the dataset are based on the estimates and are subject to sampling variability and thus a margin of error. Neilsberg Research recommends using caution when presening these estimates in your research.

Custom data

If you do need custom data for any of your research project, report or presentation, you can contact our research staff at research@neilsberg.com for a feasibility of a custom tabulation on a fee-for-service basis.

Inspiration

Neilsberg Research Team curates, analyze and publishes demographics and economic data from a variety of public and proprietary sources, each of which often includes multiple surveys and programs. The large majority of Neilsberg Research aggregated datasets and insights is made available for free download at https://www.neilsberg.com/research/.

Recommended for further research

This dataset is a part of the main dataset for Sweden town Population by Age. You can refer the same here

This horizontal bar chart displays death 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 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 26 percent of the respondents from the biggest cities shopped food online in 2016, the percentage increased to 38 percent as of 2017.

This horizontal bar chart displays rural 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.

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.

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.

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.

The Swedish capital Stockholm has the largest population of the five Nordic capitals with 2.46 million inhabitants. This is unsurprising as Sweden also is the Nordic country with the largest population. The capital area of Copenhagen is slightly larger than that of Helsinki, whereas Iceland's capital Reykjavik had the smallest population with 244,000 inhabitants. Oslo's rapid population decline in 2024 is explained by only the numbers for Oslo municipality being reported.

Shared mobility fleets in Swedish cities were dominated by scooters in 2022. Helsingborg has one of the largest scooter fleets by population, with 157 scooters per 10,000 inhabitants as well as 23 free-floating bikes per 10,000 inhabitants.

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.