The majority of immigrants moving to Sweden in 2023 were Swedes returning to Sweden. Nearly 10,600 Swedes returned to their home country in 2023. The remaining top five countries of origin were India, Poland, Germany, and Syria. In total, 95,000 people immigrated to Sweden in 2023.

Syrians largest immigrant group

Of Sweden's foreign-born population, Syrians made up the largest group. Following the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, many people left the country in search of a better life in Europe, some of which landed in Sweden. In 2022, Sweden hosted the world's 7th largest group of Syrian refugees.

Immigration drives population increase in Sweden

Over the past decade, Sweden has seen a positive migration rate, with more people immigrating to the country than people leaving. This is one of the main reasons why the country's population has been increasing steadily over recent years.

Until 2016, Sweden had among the most generous asylum laws within the European Union. As a result, the immigration increased for several years, reaching 163,000 immigrants in 2016. During 2016, Sweden sharpened their asylum laws, and the number of immigrants started to decline. In 2020, also as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of immigrants in Sweden fell to 82,500, before increasing slightly again in 2021 and 2022. Over the last years, there was also a decline in the number of asylum grants in Sweden.

Large inflow of refugees

The so-called refugee crisis in the European Union that started in 2015 was characterized by a large inflow of refugees from non-European countries, mainly traversing the Mediterranean Sea in order to reach the European Union. In regards to the immigration trends to Sweden, one of the biggest groups in the last years consisted of Swedes returning to Sweden. Further countries that were among the top countries of origin in the latest years, were India, Syria, Germany, and Poland.

Decline in asylum grants in the European Union

Sweden is not the only country that sharpened the rules for asylum grants in 2016, it has been observed within the whole European Union. Since the end of 2016, there has been a significant decline in the number of accepted first instance asylum applications within the European Union.

Sweden experienced a positive migration flow since 2010. Many individuals are migrating to Sweden every year, and fewer individuals are emigrating. In 2023, more than 20,000 more people immigrated to Sweden than people emigrating from it. This has been a major contributing factor for Sweden's population growth, despite a declining fertility rate.

The immigrants 

A large group of immigrants were Swedes who once left their home country to settle in another country for at least 12 months, and then returned. This was the largest group of immigrants in 2022, followed by Indians.

The emigrants 

When it comes to people emigrating from Sweden, a high number leave for the Nordic countries Denmark and Norway, but people returning to the Untied Kingdom made up the largest group in 2022. A large group of individuals who emigrated from Sweden were born abroad, immigrated to Sweden and lived there for at least 12 months, before returning to their countries of birth.

Sweden was the Nordic country that received the highest number of immigrants from 2001 to 2021. In 2021, nearly ****** people immigrated to Sweden, but was overtaken by Denmark in 2022. Sweden was also the country in the region with the highest net migration over the last years. Iceland, which also has the smallest population of the five, had the lowest number of immigrants. Migration to Sweden As the Nordic country with the highest number of migrants, nearly ** percent of survey respondents consider immigration an important issue for Swedish society, more than other European countries. In 2023, most immigrants to Sweden were Swedes returning to the country, followed by India, Poland, and Germany. The need for migration in Nordic nations Migrants often fill in gaps within labor markets that local populations cannot fill. In Nordic nations, these gaps are becoming more apparent as fertility rates decrease. Over the past decade, crude birth rates have decreased in all Nordic countries. Meanwhile, those aged 70 years and older are becoming larger portions of Nordic societies. Declining birth rates combined with aging societies mean that labor markets will be challenged to have enough workers.

People born in Syria made up the largest group of Sweden's foreign-born population in 2023. Nearly ******* people born in Syria lived in Sweden as of 2023. Iraqis 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 research project Political Resocialization of Immigrants (PRI) examines political interest and participation among immigrants. The aim of the project was to study immigrant´s relations to community and politics; their living conditions; experiences of immigration to Sweden; factors possible to stimulate increasing political commitment; political attitudes and political behaviour; representatives and demands; information about the Swedish administrative and political system. More than 2 500 interviews were conducted in 1975-1976 with random samples of immigrants born in Finland, Yugoslavia, Poland and Turkey, and a comparison group of Swedish citizens in the 18-67 age group and domiciled in Stockholm municipality. Stratified samples drawn from among the respondents from the first-wave survey were reinterviewed in an election survey during the weeks following the municipal elections of September 1976, in which immigrants participated for the first time. The first-wave interview included questions on: time of moving to Sweden and Stockholm respectively; places of living; language spoken by the respondent, and language spoken by partner and children; newspaper read (Swedish and from native country) and news listened to (Swedish and from other countries); how the respondent would act in a situation when there is a risk of unemployment; circle of friends; organizational membership and activities; knowledge of who to address in Stockholm in different situations; contacts with authorities; important problems in society; interest in Swedish politics; participation in elections in native country and in Sweden; comparison of the personal situation in a number of areas at present and when living in native country; own situation compared with other immigrants and with Swedes respectively; present and earlier occupation; placement in a ´pyramid of society´ in native country and in Sweden; organizational activities of parents; religiosity, own and parents´. In connection with this interview the respondent had to fill in a questionnaire, in which she/he had to state if she/he agreed or not with a number of general statements and a number of statements concerning her/his own nationality. The election survey included questions about election programs in radio and television, study circles discussing the election, information pamphlets, political meetings, knowledge of candidates, voting, important issues in the election campaign, political parties with special interest in issues concerning immigrants, attempts to influence other people how to vote, comparison between Swedish political parties and parties in the native country, interest in election turn-out, and when the respondent decided to vote/not to vote.

Over the last decade, there were constantly more men than women immigrating to Sweden. From the peak in 2016 after the high number of refugees entering Europe in 2015, the number of both male and female immigrants decreased, reaching its lowest level in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, around ****** men and ****** women immigrated to Sweden. Of these, the largest number were Swedish citizens returning to the country.

SM.POP.NETM. Net migration is the net total of migrants during the period, that is, the number of immigrants minus the number of emigrants, including both citizens and noncitizens. The World Development Indicators (WDI) is the primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates.

The Swedish income panel was originally set up in the beginning of the 90s to make studies of how immigrants assimilate in the Swedish labour market possible. It consists of large samples of foreign-born and Swedish-born persons. Income information from registers is added for nearly 40 years. In addition income information relating to spouses is also available as well as for a subset of mothers and fathers. This makes it possible to construct measures of household income based on a relatively narrow definition. However, starting in 1998 there is also more information making it possible to include children over 18 and their incomes in the family. By matching with some different additional registers information has been added for people who have been unemployed or involved in labour market programmes during the 90s, on causes of deaths for people who have deceased since 1978 and on recent arrived immigrants from various origins. It has turned out that the data-base is quite useful for analysing research-questions other than originally motivating construction of the panel. The panel has been used for cross country comparisons of immigrants in the labour market and to analyse income mobility for different breakdowns of the population, and analyses the development in cohort income. There have been analyses of social assistance receipt among immigrants as well as studies of intergeneration mobility of income, the labour market situation of young immigrants and the second generation of immigrants. On-going work includes evaluation of labour market training programmes and studies of early retirement among immigrants. Planned work includes studies of the economic transition from child to adulthood during the 80s and 90s as well as studies of how frequent immigrant children are subject to measures under the Social Service Act and the Care of Youth Persons Act. The potentials of the Swedish Income Panel can be understood if one compares it with better known income-panels in other countries. For example SWIP covers more years and has a larger sample than the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). On the other hand, the fact that information is obtained from registers only makes this Swedish panel less rich in variables. There are striking parallels between the Gothenburg Income Panel and the labour market panel at the Centre for Labour Market and Social Research in Aarhus for the Danish population.

BackgroundRefugees are at higher risk of some psychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and psychosis, compared with other non-refugee migrants and the majority population. However, it is unclear whether this also applies to substance use disorders, which we investigated in a national register cohort study in Sweden. We also investigated whether risk varied by region of origin, age at migration, time in Sweden, and diagnosis of PTSD.Methods and findingsUsing linked Swedish register data, we followed a cohort born between 1984 and 1997 from their 14th birthday or arrival in Sweden, if later, until an International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10), diagnosis of substance use disorder (codes F10.X–19.X), emigration, death, or end of follow-up (31 December 2016). Refugee and non-refugee migrants were restricted to those from regions with at least 1,000 refugees in the Swedish registers. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to estimate unadjusted and adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) in refugee and non-refugee migrants, compared with Swedish-born individuals, for all substance use disorders (F10.X–19.X), alcohol use disorders (F10.X), cannabis use disorders (F12.X), and polydrug use disorders (F19.X). In adjusted analyses, we controlled for age, sex, birth year, family income, family employment status, population density, and PTSD diagnosis. Our sample of 1,241,901 participants included 17,783 (1.4%) refugee and 104,250 (8.4%) non-refugee migrants. Refugees' regions of origin were represented in proportions ranging from 6.0% (Eastern Europe and Russia) to 41.4% (Middle East and North Africa); proportions of non-refugee migrants' regions of origin ranged from 11.8% (sub-Saharan Africa) to 33.7% (Middle East and North Africa). These groups were more economically disadvantaged at cohort entry (p < 0.001) than the Swedish-born population. Refugee (aHR: 0.52; 95% CI 0.46–0.60) and non-refugee (aHR: 0.46; 95% CI 0.43–0.49) migrants had similarly lower rates of all substance use disorders compared with Swedish-born individuals (crude incidence: 290.2 cases per 100,000 person-years; 95% CI 287.3–293.1). Rates of substance use disorders in migrants converged to the Swedish-born rate over time, indicated by both earlier age at migration and longer time in Sweden. We observed similar patterns for alcohol and polydrug use disorders, separately, although differences in cannabis use were less marked; findings did not differ substantially by migrants’ region of origin. Finally, while a PTSD diagnosis was over 5 times more common in refugees than the Swedish-born population, it was more strongly associated with increased rates of substance use disorders in the Swedish-born population (aHR: 7.36; 95% CI 6.79–7.96) than non-refugee migrants (HR: 4.88; 95% CI 3.71–6.41; likelihood ratio test [LRT]: p = 0.01). The main limitations of our study were possible non-differential or differential under-ascertainment (by migrant status) of those only seen via primary care and that our findings may not generalize to undocumented migrants, who were not part of this study.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that lower rates of substance use disorders in migrants and refugees may reflect prevalent behaviors with respect to substance use in migrants’ countries of origin, although this effect appeared to diminish over time in Sweden, with rates converging towards the substantial burden of substance use morbidity we observed in the Swedish-born population.

The Swedish income panel was originally set up in the beginning of the 90s to make studies of how immigrants assimilate in the Swedish labour market possible. It consists of large samples of foreign-born and Swedish-born persons. Income information from registers is added for nearly 40 years. In addition income information relating to spouses is also available as well as for a subset of mothers and fathers. This makes it possible to construct measures of household income based on a relatively narrow definition. However, starting in 1998 there is also more information making it possible to include children over 18 and their incomes in the family. By matching with some different additional registers information has been added for people who have been unemployed or involved in labour market programmes during the 90s, on causes of deaths for people who have deceased since 1978 and on recent arrived immigrants from various origins. It has turned out that the data-base is quite useful for analysing research-questions other than originally motivating construction of the panel. The panel has been used for cross country comparisons of immigrants in the labour market and to analyse income mobility for different breakdowns of the population, and analyses the development in cohort income. There have been analyses of social assistance receipt among immigrants as well as studies of intergeneration mobility of income, the labour market situation of young immigrants and the second generation of immigrants. On-going work includes evaluation of labour market training programmes and studies of early retirement among immigrants. Planned work includes studies of the economic transition from child to adulthood during the 80s and 90s as well as studies of how frequent immigrant children are subject to measures under the Social Service Act and the Care of Youth Persons Act. The potentials of the Swedish Income Panel can be understood if one compares it with better known income-panels in other countries. For example SWIP covers more years and has a larger sample than the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). On the other hand, the fact that information is obtained from registers only makes this Swedish panel less rich in variables. There are striking parallels between the Gothenburg Income Panel and the labour market panel at the Centre for Labour Market and Social Research in Aarhus for the Danish population.

From 2012 to 2023, there were constantly more men than women applying for asylum in Sweden. The number peaked in 2015 following the high influx of refugees to Europe that year, but then fell rapidly in 2016. In 2023 there were ***** men and ***** women applying for asylum in Sweden. Of the former, the highest number came from Afghanistan, whereas the highest number among the latter came from Syria.

Files with term lists, delivered by e-mail directly from the Swedish Migration Agency.

One Swedish-English term list that constitutes the greater part of this material, plus two smaller monolingually Swedish term lists with explanations to each term. The former was delivered directly to us by the agency (via e-mail) and the two latter were downloaded from their website.

The Swedish income panel was originally set up in the beginning of the 90s to make studies of how immigrants assimilate in the Swedish labour market possible. It consists of large samples of foreign-born and Swedish-born persons. Income information from registers is added for nearly 40 years. In addition income information relating to spouses is also available as well as for a subset of mothers and fathers. This makes it possible to construct measures of household income based on a relatively narrow definition. However, starting in 1998 there is also more information making it possible to include children over 18 and their incomes in the family. By matching with some different additional registers information has been added for people who have been unemployed or involved in labour market programmes during the 90s, on causes of deaths for people who have deceased since 1978 and on recent arrived immigrants from various origins. It has turned out that the data-base is quite useful for analysing research-questions other than originally motivating construction of the panel. The panel has been used for cross country comparisons of immigrants in the labour market and to analyse income mobility for different breakdowns of the population, and analyses the development in cohort income. There have been analyses of social assistance receipt among immigrants as well as studies of intergeneration mobility of income, the labour market situation of young immigrants and the second generation of immigrants. On-going work includes evaluation of labour market training programmes and studies of early retirement among immigrants. Planned work includes studies of the economic transition from child to adulthood during the 80s and 90s as well as studies of how frequent immigrant children are subject to measures under the Social Service Act and the Care of Youth Persons Act. The potentials of the Swedish Income Panel can be understood if one compares it with better known income-panels in other countries. For example SWIP covers more years and has a larger sample than the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). On the other hand, the fact that information is obtained from registers only makes this Swedish panel less rich in variables. There are striking parallels between the Gothenburg Income Panel and the labour market panel at the Centre for Labour Market and Social Research in Aarhus for the Danish population.

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 Swedish income panel was originally set up in the beginning of the 90s to make studies of how immigrants assimilate in the Swedish labour market possible. It consists of large samples of foreign-born and Swedish-born persons. Income information from registers is added for nearly 40 years. In addition income information relating to spouses is also available as well as for a subset of mothers and fathers. This makes it possible to construct measures of household income based on a relatively narrow definition. However, starting in 1998 there is also more information making it possible to include children over 18 and their incomes in the family. By matching with some different additional registers information has been added for people who have been unemployed or involved in labour market programmes during the 90s, on causes of deaths for people who have deceased since 1978 and on recent arrived immigrants from various origins. It has turned out that the data-base is quite useful for analysing research-questions other than originally motivating construction of the panel. The panel has been used for cross country comparisons of immigrants in the labour market and to analyse income mobility for different breakdowns of the population, and analyses the development in cohort income. There have been analyses of social assistance receipt among immigrants as well as studies of intergeneration mobility of income, the labour market situation of young immigrants and the second generation of immigrants. On-going work includes evaluation of labour market training programmes and studies of early retirement among immigrants. Planned work includes studies of the economic transition from child to adulthood during the 80s and 90s as well as studies of how frequent immigrant children are subject to measures under the Social Service Act and the Care of Youth Persons Act. The potentials of the Swedish Income Panel can be understood if one compares it with better known income-panels in other countries. For example SWIP covers more years and has a larger sample than the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). On the other hand, the fact that information is obtained from registers only makes this Swedish panel less rich in variables. There are striking parallels between the Gothenburg Income Panel and the labour market panel at the Centre for Labour Market and Social Research in Aarhus for the Danish population.

An extensive literature links the rise of populist radical right (PRR) parties to immigration. We argue that another demographic trend is also significant: Emigration. The departure of citizens due to internal and international emigration is a major phenomenon affecting elections via two complementary mechanisms. Emigration alters the composition of electorates, but also changes the preferences of the left behind. Empirically, we establish a positive correlation between PRR vote shares and net-migration loss at the subnational level across Europe. A more fine-grained panel analysis of precincts in Sweden demonstrates that the departure of citizens raises PRR vote shares in places of emigration and that the Social Democrats are the principal losers from emigration. Elite interviews and newspaper analyses explore how emigration produces material and psychological grievances on which populists capitalize and that established parties do not effectively address. Emigration and the frustrations it generates emerge as important sources of populist success.

The highest number of people emigrating from Sweden in 2023 moved to the United Kingdom, the total number amounting to 5,000. The Germany was the second most common country for emigration, while neighboring Denmark came in third. The destination country of 16,000 emigrants was unknown.

The Swedish income panel was originally set up in the beginning of the 90s to make studies of how immigrants assimilate in the Swedish labour market possible. It consists of large samples of foreign-born and Swedish-born persons. Income information from registers is added for nearly 40 years. In addition income information relating to spouses is also available as well as for a subset of mothers and fathers. This makes it possible to construct measures of household income based on a relatively narrow definition. However, starting in 1998 there is also more information making it possible to include children over 18 and their incomes in the family. By matching with some different additional registers information has been added for people who have been unemployed or involved in labour market programmes during the 90s, on causes of deaths for people who have deceased since 1978 and on recent arrived immigrants from various origins. It has turned out that the data-base is quite useful for analysing research-questions other than originally motivating construction of the panel. The panel has been used for cross country comparisons of immigrants in the labour market and to analyse income mobility for different breakdowns of the population, and analyses the development in cohort income. There have been analyses of social assistance receipt among immigrants as well as studies of intergeneration mobility of income, the labour market situation of young immigrants and the second generation of immigrants. On-going work includes evaluation of labour market training programmes and studies of early retirement among immigrants. Planned work includes studies of the economic transition from child to adulthood during the 80s and 90s as well as studies of how frequent immigrant children are subject to measures under the Social Service Act and the Care of Youth Persons Act. The potentials of the Swedish Income Panel can be understood if one compares it with better known income-panels in other countries. For example SWIP covers more years and has a larger sample than the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). On the other hand, the fact that information is obtained from registers only makes this Swedish panel less rich in variables. There are striking parallels between the Gothenburg Income Panel and the labour market panel at the Centre for Labour Market and Social Research in Aarhus for the Danish population.

The Swedish income panel was originally set up in the beginning of the 90s to make studies of how immigrants assimilate in the Swedish labour market possible. It consists of large samples of foreign-born and Swedish-born persons. Income information from registers is added for nearly 40 years. In addition income information relating to spouses is also available as well as for a subset of mothers and fathers. This makes it possible to construct measures of household income based on a relatively narrow definition. However, starting in 1998 there is also more information making it possible to include children over 18 and their incomes in the family. By matching with some different additional registers information has been added for people who have been unemployed or involved in labour market programmes during the 90s, on causes of deaths for people who have deceased since 1978 and on recent arrived immigrants from various origins. It has turned out that the data-base is quite useful for analysing research-questions other than originally motivating construction of the panel. The panel has been used for cross country comparisons of immigrants in the labour market and to analyse income mobility for different breakdowns of the population, and analyses the development in cohort income. There have been analyses of social assistance receipt among immigrants as well as studies of intergeneration mobility of income, the labour market situation of young immigrants and the second generation of immigrants. On-going work includes evaluation of labour market training programmes and studies of early retirement among immigrants. Planned work includes studies of the economic transition from child to adulthood during the 80s and 90s as well as studies of how frequent immigrant children are subject to measures under the Social Service Act and the Care of Youth Persons Act. The potentials of the Swedish Income Panel can be understood if one compares it with better known income-panels in other countries. For example SWIP covers more years and has a larger sample than the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). On the other hand, the fact that information is obtained from registers only makes this Swedish panel less rich in variables. There are striking parallels between the Gothenburg Income Panel and the labour market panel at the Centre for Labour Market and Social Research in Aarhus for the Danish population.