Three decades in numbers
| Mått | 1990 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign-born(SCB) | 9 % (790,000) | 20.5 % (2.18 m) |
| Foreign background (UF+UU)(SCB) | 13 % | 27 % |
| Share under 18 with foreign background(SCB) | approx. 15 % | approx. 33 % |
| Largest foreign-born group(SCB) | Finland | Syria |
After 2012 the inflow is driven mainly by asylum and family reunification from the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The Migration Agency granted 163,000 residence permits in 2016 — a single year equivalent to the population of Malmö.
Parallel societies emerge
The 2023 situation report from the Police lists 59 vulnerable areas where 550,000 Swedes live. In the most vulnerable areas 85–95% of residents have a foreign background and criminal networks have "significant influence on the local community". The concept did not exist in the 1990s. Together, the areas form Sweden's fourth-largest "city" — larger than Uppsala municipality.
What the change looks like going forward
SCB's 2024 population projection assumes continued immigration around historical averages. Under central assumptions, the share with foreign background grows to around 33% by 2040. In the three largest urban municipalities, the majority of children under 18 already have a foreign background.
It is not immigration itself that is the problem — it is the speed, the composition and the failed integration that make the costs persist across generations.
Sources
Read the full investigation of how Sweden has changed.
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