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: 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 33.46. Malmö followed in second with a score of 4.78, 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.

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.

The population density in Sweden increased over the past 10 years, reaching 25.9 inhabitants per square kilometer in 2023. During that year, the population of Sweden reached 10.55 million.

Stockholm county had the highest population density

Sweden consists of 21 counties, administrative regions that primarily control public healthcare, public transport, and culture within the county. Among these, the most populated county is the capital region, Stockholm county, with a population density of 375 inhabitants per square kilometer in 2022. Stockholm county is followed by Skåne, with 129 inhabitants per square kilometer. The least populated county is Norrbotten, with only 2.6 inhabitants per square kilometer.

Land area of the Scandinavian countries

Though the population density in Sweden is increasing, the country still has a lot of surface area compared to its population. Of the Scandinavian countries, Sweden is the largest with a land area of over 447,000 square kilometers, but Norway is larger if the islands of Svalbard and Jan Mayen are taken into account.

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.

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

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 purpose of this project was to investigate what influence the development pattern in the cities and towns have for citizens' transportation needs, selection of transport and energy use for transportation. This issue is addressed through five empirical studies that cover different geographical levels: - A comprehensive study of 22 Nordic towns - An extensive, but not so in-depth study of the 97 largest cities in Sweden - A study of commuting areas around 15 Swedish cities - A study of households in 30 residential areas in Oslo - A survey of employees at six workplaces in Oslo.

This dataset includes data from the first study, a comprehensive study of 22 nordic towns.

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.

The GIS-based Time model of Gothenburg aims to map the process of urban development in Gothenburg since 1960 and in particular to document the changes in the spatial form of the city - streets, buildings and plots - through time. Major steps have in recent decades been taken when it comes to understanding how cities work. Essential is the change from understanding cities as locations to understanding them as flows (Batty 2013)1. In principle this means that we need to understand locations (or places) as defined by flows (or different forms of traffic), rather than locations only served by flows. This implies that we need to understand the built form and spatial structure of cities as a system, that by shaping flows creates a series of places with very specific relations to all other places in the city, which also give them very specific performative potentials. It also implies the rather fascinating notion that what happens in one place is dependent on its relation to all other places (Hillier 1996)2. Hence, to understand the individual place, we need a model of the city as a whole.

Extensive research in this direction has taken place in recent years, that has also spilled over to urban design practice, not least in Sweden, where the idea that to understand the part you need to understand the whole is starting to be established. With the GIS-based Time model for Gothenburg that we present here, we address the next challenge. Place is not only something defined by its spatial relation to all other places in its system, but also by its history, or its evolution over time. Since the built form of the city changes over time, often by cities growing but at times also by cities shrinking, the spatial relation between places changes over time. If cities tend to grow, and most often by extending their periphery, it means that most places get a more central location over time. If this is a general tendency, it does not mean that all places increase their centrality to an equal degree. Depending on the structure of the individual city’s spatial form, different places become more centrally located to different degrees as well as their relative distance to other places changes to different degrees. The even more fascinating notion then becomes apparent; places move over time! To capture, study and understand this, we need a "time model".

The GIS-based time model of Gothenburg consists of: • 12 GIS-layers of the street network, from 1960 to 2015, in 5-year intervals • 12 GIS-layers of the buildings from 1960 to 2015, in 5-year intervals - Please note that this dataset has been moved to a separate catalog post (https://doi.org/10.5878/t8s9-6y15) and unpublished due to licensing restrictions on its source dataset. • 12 GIS- layers of the plots from1960 to 2015, in 5-year intervals

In the GIS-based Time model, for every time-frame, the combination of the three fundamental components of spatial form, that is streets, plots and buildings, provides a consistent description of the built environment at that particular time. The evolution of three components can be studied individually, where one could for example analyze the changing patterns of street centrality over time by focusing on the street network; or, the densification processes by focusing on the buildings; or, the expansion of the city by way of occupying more buildable land, by focusing on plots. The combined snapshots of street centrality, density and land division can provide insightful observations about the spatial form of the city at each time-frame; for example, the patterns of spatial segregation, the distribution of urban density or the patterns of sprawl. The observation of how the interrelated layers of spatial form together evolved and transformed through time can provide a more complete image of the patterns of urban growth in the city.

The Time model was created following the principles of the model of spatial form of the city, as developed by the Spatial Morphology Group (SMoG) at Chalmers University of Technology, within the three-year research project ‘International Spatial Morphology Lab (SMoL)’.

The project is funded by Älvstranden Utveckling AB in the framework of a larger cooperation project called Fusion Point Gothenburg. The data is shared via SND to create a research infrastructure that is open to new study initiatives.

1. Batty, M. (2013), The New Science of Cities, Cambridge: MIT Press.
2. Hillier, B., (1996), Space Is the Machine. Cambridge: University of Cambridge

12 GIS-layers of the street network in Gothenburg, from 1960 to 2015, in 5-year intervals. File format: shapefile (.shp), MapinfoTAB (.TAB). The coordinate system used is SWEREF 99TM, EPSG:3006.

See the attached Technical Documentation for the description and further details on the production of the datasets. See the attached Report for the description of the related research project.

SE：最大城市人口在12-01-2017达1,553,180.000人，相较于12-01-2016的1,523,953.000人有所增长。SE：最大城市人口数据按年更新，12-01-1960至12-01-2017期间平均值为1,058,018.000人，共58份观测结果。该数据的历史最高值出现于12-01-2017，达1,553,180.000人，而历史最低值则出现于12-01-1960，为804,595.000人。CEIC提供的SE：最大城市人口数据处于定期更新的状态，数据来源于World Bank，数据归类于全球数据库的瑞典 – 表 SE.世行.WDI：人口和城市化进程统计。

The number of people born outside of Sweden as a share of the Swedish population increased since 2010. That year, 1.38 million of the country's inhabitants were born outside of Sweden, whereas this number had increased to 2.17 million by 2023. In other words, foreign-born citizens made up around 20 percent of the population in Sweden in 2023. Of the 2.17 million people born outside of Sweden, the highest number came from Syria.

This survey deals with radio listening, with special emphasis given to local broadcastings, and especially the local radio channel City 103. This channel is owned by the Swedish Employers' Confederation and started in autumn 1988. Its major content is modern hit list music together with news, local information and slogans from the Swedish Employers' Confederation. Questions were also asked about newspaper reading, leisure-time activities and opinions on radio.

SE：最大城市人口占城市总人口的百分比在12-01-2017达17.703%，相较于12-01-2016的17.683%有所增长。SE：最大城市人口占城市总人口的百分比数据按年更新，12-01-1960至12-01-2017期间平均值为15.683%，共58份观测结果。该数据的历史最高值出现于12-01-2017，达17.703%，而历史最低值则出现于12-01-1981，为14.346%。CEIC提供的SE：最大城市人口占城市总人口的百分比数据处于定期更新的状态，数据来源于World Bank，数据归类于Global Database的瑞典 – 表 SE.世界银行：人口和城市化进程统计。

The total population in Sweden was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 0.4 million people (+3.76 percent). After the tenth consecutive increasing year, the total population is estimated to reach 11.04 million people and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the total population was continuously increasing over the past years.This indicator describes the total population in the country at hand. This total population of the country consists of all persons falling within the scope of the census.Find more key insights for the total population in countries like Iceland, Norway, and Denmark.

People born in Syria made up the largest group of Sweden's foreign-born population in 2023. Nearly 200,000 people born in Syria lived in Sweden as of 2023. Iraqi made up the second largest group of foreign-born citizens, followed by Sweden's neighboring country Finland. The total number of foreign-born citizens living in the Scandinavian country increased over the past 10 years.

Migration contributes to population growth

Sweden's positive net migration rate meant that it's population increased steadily since 2000. In 2022, over 100,000 people immigrated to Sweden, which was still significantly lower than the record year 2016.

Syrians fleeing civil war

The record number of refugees arriving in 2016 was driven by Syrians fleeing the Civil War in the country. Following the Arab spring and protests for democracy in 2011, fighting broke out between the Syrian national army and several armed factions. Several million people fled the country as a result, some of them seeking refuge in Sweden.

The lake Vänern covers an area of 5513 square kilometers and is the largest lake in Sweden. It is also the third largest lake in Europe, and the largest in the European Union. Through the centuries, it has been an important source of life for people in Sweden, with several towns and villages located at its shores. Sweden's second largest lake i Vättern with 1,884 square kilometers, followed by Mälaren, which is located next to the Capital Stockholm.

With 450,295 square kilometers, Sweden is the largest Nordic country by area size, followed by Finland and Norway. This makes it the fifth largest country in Europe. Meanwhile, Denmark is the smallest of the five Nordic countries with only 43,094 square kilometers, however, the Danish autonomous region of Greenland is significantly larger than any of the Nordic countries, and is almost double the size of the other five combined.

Population

Sweden is also the Nordic country with the largest population. 10.45 million people live in the country. Denmark, Finland, and Norway all have between five and six million inhabitants, whereas only 370,000 people live in Iceland. Meanwhile, Denmark has the highest population density of the five countries. Greenland is the most sparsely populated permanently-inhabited country in the world, followed by the regions of Svalbard and Jan Mayen.

Geography

The five Nordic countries vary geographically. While Denmark is mostly flat, its highest point only stretching around 170 meters above sea level, Norway's highest peak is nearly 2,500 meters high. Moreover, Finland is known for its many lakes and is often called the land of a thousand lakes, whereas Iceland is famous for its volcanoes.