Ranking — can a municipality be called 'best' or 'worst'?

Not generally. Ranking is only meaningful when the indicator has a clear direction. We colour such rows accordingly. Rows without a direction (e.g. 'share foreign-born') never show best/worst.

Why is the national mean sometimes above all my compared municipalities?

The national mean is the source's own national row, which weights large municipalities (Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö) heavily. Four small or mid-sized municipalities can all sit below the national mean without a computation error.

Comparisons

Comparisons — what do the numbers mean in practice?

Q: Why do both +2,700 SEK/person and +6 SEK bn appear on the same page?

Per-person and totals measure the same thing in different units. According to KI 117, table 1, +SEK 2,700 per person times 2,189,000 foreign-born is about +SEK 5.9 bn, which KI rounds to +SEK 6 bn (own calculation based on KI 117).

Billions can be hard to grasp. Here we put them in relation to GDP and to the number of employed according to the SCB Labour Force Survey as a reference frame — not as a distribution key.

Foreign-born (total)

+6 bn SEK / year

Share of GDP 2022 (SEK 5,816 bn): +0.1 %
Per employed person aged 15–74 (5,199 thousand, LFS 2022): +SEK 1,154 / year
Per person in the group: +SEK 2,700 / year
Per day (group level): +SEK 16m

Refugees (incl. family members)

−22 bn SEK / year

Share of GDP 2022 (SEK 5,816 bn): −0.38 %
Per employed person aged 15–74 (5,199 thousand, LFS 2022): −SEK 4,232 / year
Per person in the group: −SEK 27,500 / year
Per day (group level): −SEK 60m

Other foreign-born

+28 bn SEK / year

Share of GDP 2022 (SEK 5,816 bn): +0.48 %
Per employed person aged 15–74 (5,199 thousand, LFS 2022): +SEK 5,386 / year
Per person in the group: +SEK 19,800 / year
Per day (group level): +SEK 77m

Order of magnitude

Sweden's GDP 2022: about 5,816 bn SEK – the net contribution of the foreign-born is thus around 0.1 % of this.
General government expenditure 2022: about SEK 2,871 bn (Eurostat gov_10a_main) – the net contribution of the foreign-born corresponds to roughly 0.2 % of this total.
Reconciliation with per-person figures: +SEK 2,700 per person × 2,189,000 foreign-born ≈ +SEK 5.9 bn, which KI rounds to +SEK 6 bn (own calculation based on KI 117, table 1). See /arbete-avgor for the full method note.

The Nordics & the Netherlands

Similar calculations have been made in other countries with extensive welfare states and register data. The conclusions point in the same direction as Ruist and KI: refugee and non-Western immigration yields a negative public-finance net over the life cycle, while labour immigration from Western countries is close to zero or positive. The methods differ in detail, however — compare with caution.

Norges offentlige utredninger · 2017

NOU 2017:2 — Integrasjon og tillit (Brochmann II-utvalget)

Norwegian counterpart to Ruist. Estimates the lifetime net effect per refugee at around –NOK 10 million and documents over-representation among welfare recipients.

Read the source ↗

Ministry of Finance (Denmark) · Annual

Immigrants' net contribution to public finances

Annual reporting by region of origin. MENA/Africa: negative net. Western immigration: close to zero or positive.

Read the source ↗

van de Beek et al. (University of Amsterdam) · 2021

Borderless Welfare State — the costs of non-Western immigration

Estimates the net cost of non-Western immigration at around EUR 17 billion a year in a life-cycle perspective.

Read the source ↗

CBS — Statistics Netherlands · 2024

Asylum and integration 2024 — cohort study

Follows asylum migrants 2014–2023 with data on work, benefit dependency, health care, income, education, housing and crime. The best northern European cohort comparison.

Read the source ↗

Foged, Hasager, Peri, Arendt & Bolvig — IZA / Journal of Population Economics · 2020

Labor market effects of a work-first policy for refugees

Quasi-experimental evaluation of Denmark's 2016 reform: requirements for active job search and early workplace-based training markedly increased refugees' employment.

Read the source ↗

IRCC / Statistics Canada · Annual

Express Entry Year-End Report + Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB)

Canada's selection system (CRS points) is followed up with income and employment data through the IMDB. Shows why labour-driven immigration gives a positive fiscal outcome.

Read the source ↗

Australian Department of Home Affairs / Productivity Commission · 2023–2024

Review of the Migration System + Points Test review

Australia's ongoing reform of the points test to better select migrants who contribute to long-term prosperity. A useful contrast to Sweden's asylum-driven composition.

Read the source ↗

NOT included: Crime costs, municipal imbalance, second generation, dynamic wage and employment effects, housing segregation and growth effects. The direction of these effects is uncertain — see method box.

Reference values for GDP and the number of employed come from SCB (national accounts and the Labour Force Survey 2022, TAB6529: 5,199 thousand employed aged 15–74). The net contributions come from KI Specialstudie 117.

About the tool

Comparisons — reference frames and method

The tool places figures against GDP, the state budget and the number of employed. Reference frames are municipality, county and national. The purpose is to make 'X billion SEK' intelligible — not to build a distribution key.

Method & limitations

Reference levels: municipal, county, national. Which level is active is stated in each card's heading.
Ranking is computed as the municipality's place in the sorted list of all 290 municipalities. Ties share a rank.
The percentile is the share of municipalities below the value. Rank 29 of 290 ≈ the 90th percentile.
Small municipalities (< 10,000 inhabitants) show larger year-to-year statistical variation. This is noted in tooltips and in the table.
Ranking is only shown on indicators where it is meaningful. Ranking is never used as a quality judgement on indicators without a clear direction.
Amounts in SEK bn are compared to Sweden's GDP and public expenditure — not to any single agency's budget.

Primary sources

Agencies and research institutions behind this page

agencies/institutions

reports & studies

primary datasets

All primary sources

SCB
Statistiska centralbyrån — statistikdatabasen
Open source ↗
Kolada
Rådet för främjande av kommunala analyser — Kolada
Open source ↗
Migrationsverket
Migrationsverkets statistik — mottagna nyanlända
Open source ↗

Definitions

How the numbers are counted — and what they do not cover

Ranking & percentile: The ranking is the municipality's place in the sorted list of all 290 municipalities. The percentile is the share below the municipality — rank 29 of 290 ≈ the 90th percentile.Ties use shared ranking (e.g. two municipalities both at rank 10).
Median vs mean: The median is the middle value in a sorted series. The mean is the sum divided by the count and is much more sensitive to outliers. Incomes and wealth are therefore usually reported as medians.
Per capita / per 1,000 / per 100,000: Normalising an absolute number by population size, so municipalities of different sizes can be compared. Shootings, for example, are usually reported per 100,000 inhabitants.
Index (base = 100): An index compares change over time against a base year set to 100. An index value of 130 means +30 % relative to the base year. Used in the tool to compare series with different units on the same chart.

Frequently asked questions

Short answers to what is most often discussed

Per-person and totals measure the same thing in different units. According to KI 117, table 1, +SEK 2,700 per person times 2,189,000 foreign-born is about +SEK 5.9 bn, which KI rounds to +SEK 6 bn (own calculation based on KI 117).

Logical next steps if you want to understand the background

Order of magnitude

Sweden's GDP 2022: about 5,816 bn SEK – the net contribution of the foreign-born is thus around 0.1 % of this.

General government expenditure 2022: about SEK 2,871 bn (Eurostat gov_10a_main) – the net contribution of the foreign-born corresponds to roughly 0.2 % of this total.

Reconciliation with per-person figures: +SEK 2,700 per person × 2,189,000 foreign-born ≈ +SEK 5.9 bn, which KI rounds to +SEK 6 bn (own calculation based on KI 117, table 1). See /arbete-avgor for the full method note.

The Nordics & the Netherlands

Norges offentlige utredninger · 2017

NOU 2017:2 — Integrasjon og tillit (Brochmann II-utvalget)

Norwegian counterpart to Ruist. Estimates the lifetime net effect per refugee at around –NOK 10 million and documents over-representation among welfare recipients.

Read the source ↗

Ministry of Finance (Denmark) · Annual

Immigrants' net contribution to public finances

Annual reporting by region of origin. MENA/Africa: negative net. Western immigration: close to zero or positive.

Read the source ↗

van de Beek et al. (University of Amsterdam) · 2021

Borderless Welfare State — the costs of non-Western immigration

Estimates the net cost of non-Western immigration at around EUR 17 billion a year in a life-cycle perspective.

Read the source ↗

CBS — Statistics Netherlands · 2024

Asylum and integration 2024 — cohort study

Follows asylum migrants 2014–2023 with data on work, benefit dependency, health care, income, education, housing and crime. The best northern European cohort comparison.

Read the source ↗

Foged, Hasager, Peri, Arendt & Bolvig — IZA / Journal of Population Economics · 2020

Labor market effects of a work-first policy for refugees

Quasi-experimental evaluation of Denmark's 2016 reform: requirements for active job search and early workplace-based training markedly increased refugees' employment.

Read the source ↗

IRCC / Statistics Canada · Annual

Express Entry Year-End Report + Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB)

Canada's selection system (CRS points) is followed up with income and employment data through the IMDB. Shows why labour-driven immigration gives a positive fiscal outcome.

Read the source ↗

Australian Department of Home Affairs / Productivity Commission · 2023–2024

Review of the Migration System + Points Test review

Australia's ongoing reform of the points test to better select migrants who contribute to long-term prosperity. A useful contrast to Sweden's asylum-driven composition.

Read the source ↗

Comparisons — reference frames and method

Method & limitations

Reference levels: municipal, county, national. Which level is active is stated in each card's heading.
Ranking is computed as the municipality's place in the sorted list of all 290 municipalities. Ties share a rank.
The percentile is the share of municipalities below the value. Rank 29 of 290 ≈ the 90th percentile.
Small municipalities (< 10,000 inhabitants) show larger year-to-year statistical variation. This is noted in tooltips and in the table.
Ranking is only shown on indicators where it is meaningful. Ranking is never used as a quality judgement on indicators without a clear direction.
Amounts in SEK bn are compared to Sweden's GDP and public expenditure — not to any single agency's budget.

Primary sources

Agencies and research institutions behind this page

agencies/institutions

reports & studies

primary datasets

All primary sources

SCB
Statistiska centralbyrån — statistikdatabasen
Open source ↗
Kolada
Rådet för främjande av kommunala analyser — Kolada
Open source ↗
Migrationsverket
Migrationsverkets statistik — mottagna nyanlända
Open source ↗

Definitions

How the numbers are counted — and what they do not cover

Ranking & percentile: The ranking is the municipality's place in the sorted list of all 290 municipalities. The percentile is the share below the municipality — rank 29 of 290 ≈ the 90th percentile.Ties use shared ranking (e.g. two municipalities both at rank 10).
Median vs mean: The median is the middle value in a sorted series. The mean is the sum divided by the count and is much more sensitive to outliers. Incomes and wealth are therefore usually reported as medians.
Per capita / per 1,000 / per 100,000: Normalising an absolute number by population size, so municipalities of different sizes can be compared. Shootings, for example, are usually reported per 100,000 inhabitants.
Index (base = 100): An index compares change over time against a base year set to 100. An index value of 130 means +30 % relative to the base year. Used in the tool to compare series with different units on the same chart.

Frequently asked questions

Short answers to what is most often discussed

Comparisons — what do the numbers mean in practice?

Order of magnitude

The Nordics & the Netherlands

Comparisons — reference frames and method

Method & limitations

Primary sources

All primary sources

Definitions

Frequently asked questions

Compare municipalities

Compare trends

Comparisons — what do the numbers mean in practice?

Order of magnitude

The Nordics & the Netherlands

Comparisons — reference frames and method

Method & limitations

Primary sources

All primary sources

Definitions

Frequently asked questions

Order of magnitude

The Nordics & the Netherlands

Comparisons — reference frames and method

Method & limitations

Primary sources

All primary sources

Definitions

Frequently asked questions

Related topics

Compare municipalities

Compare trends

Order of magnitude

The Nordics & the Netherlands

Comparisons — reference frames and method

Method & limitations

Primary sources

All primary sources

Definitions

Frequently asked questions

Related topics