In 2022, there was a reduction in theft crimes by 11 percent compared to 10 years ago. On the other hand, the number of property damage cases increased by five percent and fraud crimes by three percent. In 2022, around 1.5 million crimes were committed in Sweden.

Types of crime

The most common crime in Sweden in 2022 was theft crime, which accounted for 27 percent of all crimes. Crimes against people was the second largest type of crime, which accounted for 20 percent of all crimes. On the other hand, traffic crimes made up only five percent of the crimes committed in Sweden that year.

 Theft crimes

While theft crimes made up the largest share of reported crimes, only one percent reported to have been victims of thefts in Sweden. On the other hand, eight percent reported to have been threatened at some point.

The crime rate in Sweden was around 15,000 per 100,000 inhabitants from 2010 to 2020. However it fell in both 2021 and 2022. The total number of crimes also decreased in 2021.

Increased use of firearms

While Sweden usually is perceived as a peaceful country to live in, it has received unwanted attention in recent years for increasing gang violence and incidents involving the use of firearms. In 2022, the country recorded its highest number of shootings and its highest number of fatal-shootings.

The perpetrators

A high majority of the crime suspects in Sweden are men. In 2021, more than three in four crime suspects were men. In terms of age, 30-49-year-olds made up the highest share of suspects.

In 2022, robberies and thefts was the type of crime reported most often in Sweden. That year, there were registered over 390,000 cases of robberies and theft. Graffiti and vandalism was the second most reported type of crime in Sweden, followed by fraud and counterfeiting. That year, there were registered 395 homicides or violence causing death in Sweden.

Historical dataset showing Sweden crime rate per 100K population by year from 1990 to 2021.

Sweden - Population reporting occurrence of crime, violence or vandalism in their area was 9.40% in December of 2023, according to the EUROSTAT. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Sweden - Population reporting occurrence of crime, violence or vandalism in their area - last updated from the EUROSTAT on September of 2025. Historically, Sweden - Population reporting occurrence of crime, violence or vandalism in their area reached a record high of 14.40% in December of 2018 and a record low of 9.40% in December of 2023.

The region with highest number of homicides in Sweden in 2022 was the region of Stockholm, where 38 deaths by homicide were registered. Region South ranked second by number of homicides, with Region West following in third. The lowest number of homicides were recorded in the Northern Region and Region Bergslagen. The number of homicides in Sweden was roughly the same in 2021 as in 2022.

This is a development key figure, see questions and answers on kolada.se for more information. Deviation from model calculated value for reported violent crimes. The model calculation is based on various structural factors in the municipality. The model calculation is compared to the indicator indicating reported violent crimes. The data are taken from the Swedish Crime Prevention Council’s official crime statistics and highlight the crime based on the crimes reported to and handled by police, customs, prosecutors, courts and prison services. Crimes that are not reported are therefore not included in the criminal statistics. Offences that have occurred before, but were reported during the accounting year are included in the statistics, as well as offences reported in Sweden but committed abroad. To a lesser extent, there are also reported offences that in later investigations do not turn out to be a crime reported. The category of violent crime includes murder, manslaughter, child murder and ill-treatment with and without fatal outcome, rape including aggravated rape, gross violation of peace, gross violation of women’s rights, violence against officials, and robbery including aggravated robbery. The number of reported offences has then been adjusted with data from Statistics Sweden on the population of each municipality. Three-year average (year T-2 to year T).

Deviation from the model-calculated value for reported violent crimes. The deviation is graded as follows:

Fewer than = 2

Equal to = 1

More than = 0

The model calculation is based on various structural factors in the municipality. The model result is compared with the indicator showing reported violent crimes. The data has been retrieved from the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention’s (Brå) official crime statistics and reflects crime based on offenses reported to and processed by the police, customs, prosecutors, courts, and correctional services. Crimes that are not reported are therefore not included in the crime statistics. Crimes that occurred earlier but were reported during the reference year are included in the statistics, as well as crimes reported in Sweden but committed abroad. To a lesser extent, reported incidents that later turn out not to be crimes are also included. The category of violent crimes includes murder, manslaughter, infanticide, assault with and without fatal outcome, rape including aggravated rape, aggravated violation of integrity, aggravated violation of a woman’s integrity, violence against an officer, as well as robbery including aggravated robbery. The number of reported crimes has then been adjusted with population data from Statistics Sweden (SCB) for each municipality. Three-year average (year T-2 to year T). Data retrieved from Kolada. The source is MSB – Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap.

In 2022, the most common self-reported type of crime in Sweden was threats. 7.8 percent of Swedes reported that they had been victims of threats that year, which was slightly less than the year before. Moreover, the share of Swedes who reported that they had been victims of sexual abuse increased by over four percentage points from 2014 to 2018, but decreased in the following years, dropping to 4.5 percent in 2022.

For the first time, more than half of Swedes worried about crime in the country to a large extent in 2023. The share increased gradually from 2014. Sweden has experienced increasing levels of gang-related violence recently, including bombings.

Sweden - Population reporting occurrence of crime, violence or vandalism in their area: Above 60% of median equivalised income was 9.10% in December of 2023, according to the EUROSTAT. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Sweden - Population reporting occurrence of crime, violence or vandalism in their area: Above 60% of median equivalised income - last updated from the EUROSTAT on October of 2025. Historically, Sweden - Population reporting occurrence of crime, violence or vandalism in their area: Above 60% of median equivalised income reached a record high of 14.20% in December of 2018 and a record low of 9.10% in December of 2023.

The number of reported violent crimes in Sweden increased from 2014 to 2021, before falling slightly in 2022 and 2023. Overall, 1.45 million crimes were reported in Sweden in 2023.

Selection of time series of different scientific publications and of publication of the official statistics:

EUROSTAT, European Statistical Office OECD: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development; ONS: Office for National Statistics, England; SCB: Statistiska Centralbyran, Sweden; Federal Statistical Office, Wiesbaden. Deutschland; WHO: World Health Organization.

The research project is a subproject of the research association “Strengthening of integration potentials within a modern society” (Scientific head: Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Heitmeyer, Bielefeld) which contains 17 subprojects and is supported by the ministry of education and research.
In almost all the economically highly developed countries violent crime increased significantly in the second part of the last century - in contrast to the long term trend of decline of individual (non-governmental) violence since the beginning of modern times. The authors develop an explanatory approach for these facts which is inspired mainly by Norbert Elias´s civilization theory and Emil Durkheim´s theory on society. Detailed time series on the development of different forms of violent crime are presented and set in relation with certain aspects of economic and social structural changes in three countries and also refer to the changes in integration of modern societies. The analysis deals especially with effectivity and legitimacy of the governmental monopoly of violence, the public beneficial security and power system, forms of building social capital, economic and social inequality, precarity of employment, different aspects of increasing economization of society, changes in family structures and usage of mass media and modern communication technologies.

Register of tables in HISTAT:

A: Crime statistics

A.01 Frequency of types of crimes in different countries (1953-2000) A.02 Suspects by crimes of 100.000 inhabitants of Germany, England and Sweden (1955-1998) A.03 Murders, manslaughter and intentional injuries by other persons by sex of 100.000 persons after the statistics of causes of death (1953-2000) A.04 Clearance rate by types of crimes in Germany, England and Sweden (1953-1997) A.05 Prisoners of 100.000 inhabitants of Germany, Great Britain and Sweden (1950-2000)

B: Key indicators for economic development in Germany, Great Britain, Sweden and the USA

B1: Data on the overall economic framework

B1.01 Percent changes in the real GDP per capita in purchasing power parities (1956-1987) B1.02 Percent changes in GDP per capita in prices from 2000 (1955-1998) B1.03 GDP of Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom in purchasing power parities in percent og the US GDP (1950-1992) B1.04 Labor productivity index for different countries, base: USA 1996 = 100 (1950-1999) B1.05 GDP per hour of labor in different countries in EKS-$ from 1999 (1950-2003) B1.06 Foreign trade - exports and imports in percent of the GDP of different countries (1949-2003) B1.07 GDP, wages and Unit-Labor-Cost in different countries (1960-2003)

B2: Unemployment

B2.01 Standardized unemployment rate in different countries with regard to the entire working population (1960-2003) B2.02 Share of long-term unemployed of the total number of unemployed in different countries in percent (1992-2004) B2.03 Youth unemployment in different countries in percent (1970-2004) B2.04 Unemployment rate in percent by sex in different countries (1963-2000)

B3: Employment

B3.01 Employment rate in percent in different countries (1960-2000) B3.02 Share of fixed-term employees and persons in dependent employment in percent in different countries (1983-2004) B3.03 Share of part-time employees by sex compared to the entire working population in different countries (1973-2000) B3.04 Share of un-voluntarily part-time employees by sex in different countries (1983-2003) B3.05 Share of contract workers in different countries in percent of the entire working population (1975-2002) B3.06 Share of self-employed persons in different countries in percent of the entire working population (1970-2004) B3.07 Shift worker rate in different countries in percent (1992-2005) B3.08 Yearly working hours per employee in different countries (1950-2004) B3.09 Employment by sectors in different countries (1950-2003) B3.10 Share of employees in public civil services in percent of the population between 15 and 64 years in different countries (1960-1999) B3.11 Female population, female employees and female workers in percent of the population between 16 and 64 years in different countries (1960-2000) B3.12 Employees, self-employed persons in percent of the entire working population in different countries (1960-2000)

B4: Taxes and duties

B4.01 Taxes and social security contributions in percent of the GDP (1965-2002) B4.02 Social expenditure in percent of the GDP (1965-2002) B4.03 Social expenditure in perc...

After having decreased from 2012 to 2016, the number of crime suspects in Sweden increased again on an annual basis until 2020, before falling slightly again the following years. Moreover, a significant majority of the suspects are men. In 2022, over 146,000 of the 189,185 crime suspects in Sweden were men.

Since 2012, the number of deaths caused through shootings in Sweden increased. In 2012, 17 fatal shootings were registered, whereas this number had increased to a record-high 63 in 2022. In a recent report, the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention found that Sweden was one of the European countries where the number of fatal shootings per 100,000 inhabitant had increased the most since 2000.

Since February 2010, the longitudinal research study The Stockholm Life Course Project: Life-Courses and Crime In the Swedish Welfare State Through Half a Century is conducted at the Department of Criminology. The project consists of two research blocks, a quantitative and a qualitative, and is a follow-up study of three existing research populations. The Stockholm Life Course Project is a nearly unique project, conducted with the purpose of studying the life courses of individuals with and without delinquent background. The main purpose of the project is to explore and understand the life course processes surrounding onset, persistence, desistance and intermittency of offending. Specifically, the project is focused around five themes: 1) The processes, factors, events and turning points through the life course, which are of importance for understanding the individual’s criminal career. 2) The importance of different welfare structures for life courses processes of criminal offending and other norm-breaking behavior. 3) The relationship between physical/mental health and criminal offending, as well as other norm-breaking behavior across the life course. 4) The “Social Heritage”, in the form of horizontal and vertical diffusion of criminal offending and other norm-breaking behavior. 5) The possibilities and limitations in predicting future offending and other norm-breaking behavior.

The populations in The Stockholm Life Course Project will here be called the Clientele Boys, the Skå Boys and the SiS Youth. The Clientele Boys (b. 1943-1951) The population consists of four groups: 1) 192 delinquent boys with registered delinquent background prior to age 15 2) 95 matched controls (corresponding to every second delinquent boy), without registered delinquency prior to age 15 3) 96 “shadows” to the matched delinquent boys, and 4) 96 “shadows” to the matched controls. The 287 boys that make up group 1 and 2 went through extensive examinations during the 1960s, within the frame of the 1956 Clientele Study of Juvenile Law-breakers. The study included psychological tests, a medical examination, psychiatric interviews, sociological interviews, interviews with the boy’s parents and teachers, and also the collection of official data on the boy and his family. This group was followed-up at age 18, and also during the 1980s. During the 1980s follow-up, extensive official data were collected on the men. 199 of the original 287 boys were also interviewed. The project have access to the audio recordings of these interviews. The boys in group 3 and 4, the “shadows”, are matched on the same variables as the controls in group 2. The two “shadow” groups, however, are only followed through official data. The original reason for this, was the wish to account for any “treatment effects” in the original study design. The Skå Boys (b. 1941-1954) This population consists of 322 boys - 100 of them were admitted to treatment due to “antisocial problems” at the Skå institution. The remaining 222 boys make up a representative sample of boys born in Stockholm, around the same time as the Skå boys. The SiS Youth (b. 1969-1974) The SiS Youth consists of 420 individuals (298 boys, 122 girls). During their teens, 267 of these individuals were admitted to special youth care homes in Stockholm, due to delinquency, drug use and/or other social problems. The remaining 153 individuals, also with a history of offending, drug-use, etc., were used as a control group. All 420 individuals were followed-up with the help of official data in the middle of the 1990s, roughly at the age of 25. Eighty individuals in the treatment group and 53 in the control group were interviewed during this follow-up.

In the present follow-up, we use both quantitative and qualitative research methods (official register data, and life history interviews). For the quantitative branch of the project, data has been collected from Statistics Sweden, The National Board of Health and Welfare, The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, The Military Archives of Sweden, and The Swedish Prison and Probation Service. To study the possible importance of the social heritage, we have also collected data on the individuals’ parents, children, grandchildren, siblings, siblings’ children, and siblings’ grandchildren. The qualitative branch of the project consists of life history interviews with the individuals who have been interviewed in earlier follow-ups (the Clientele boys and the SiS Youth). The interviews conducted during 2010/11 have the form of life history interviews. This means that we, with the help of an interview guide, ask questions and explore different areas of the individuals’ life courses, where we are interested in understanding how the interview participants relate the past to the present and the future. The interviews cover a range of topics including living arrangements, education and school experiences, employment history, health, social relations, experiences of crime, drug-use, victimization and the criminal justice system. Up until November 2011, we have conducted roughly 80 interviews, 27 with the Clientele boys and 57 with the SiS Youth. The interviews have lasted around 90 minutes. The main bulk of the interviews have been conducted with two interviewers, some with only one. The interviews have been conducted at the university, the interview participants’ work places, libraries, coffee houses or in the interview participant’s home.

Purpose:

The main purpose of the project is to explore and understand the life course processes surrounding onset, persistence, desistance and intermittency of offending.

The Study’s Subject:

The German Statistical Office of the German Empire compiled a comparative representation of different countrie’s crime statistics. In this context the statistical office was faced with the problem of diverging methodologies and cla

This is a dataset showing the political boundaries in Sweden. each province has information about area and Population. This data was found online at: http://www.vdstech.com/map_data.htm

The dataset “Swedish Crime Fiction in Russian Translation: Editions, Corpus and Reviews” contains information about research data related to two different articles about Swedish crime fiction in Russia.