Interactive glossary

Statistics Sweden's standard definition: a person has foreign background if born abroad or if both parents are born abroad. Persons with one foreign-born parent count as Swedish background.

All residents born outside Sweden regardless of citizenship or parents' origin. Distinct from foreign citizens (which measures citizenship, not country of birth).

Prohibition under the Instrument of Government Ch. 12 §2: a minister or the government may not decide how an administrative authority shall rule in an individual case involving public authority or application of law.

The Migration Agency's statistics on municipal reception cover newly arrived persons (who have received residence permits) received in a municipality and covered by the compensation ordinance (2010:1122). The measure includes both persons assigned under the Settlement Act and persons who settled on their own. A person appears in the statistics only the month after the municipality's first compensation is paid, i.e. roughly two months after reception.

According to RKA (Kolada): net cost = gross cost minus external and internal revenues. The deduction includes earmarked state grants and user fees, so net cost reflects how much funding the activity needs from tax and general state grants.

A primary source is the original document: an SCB table, a Brå report, a peer-reviewed article, an administrative decision. News articles and think tanks are secondary sources even when they cite primary sources.

The Radiotjänst licence fee was replaced in 2019 by an individual public service fee, collected via tax from people aged 18+ with taxable earned income: 1% of income, capped at SEK 1,184 for income year 2026 (SEK 1,249 for 2025).

Ratio of risk (suspicion, offence, mortality, unemployment) in one group to a reference group. A value of 2.5 means 2.5× the reference risk – not 250% higher.

No single official definition. The term is used for the time from population registration or residence permit until a given share of an arrival group is employed. The result depends on which employment measure and share is used. Example: in the Fiscal Policy Council's study 2016/1 (table A1), 49.3% of refugees registered in 2005 were employed seven years later.

The Swedish Police's classification of areas with low socio-economic status where criminals influence the local community. Three levels were used 2015–2023 (vulnerable, risk, particularly vulnerable); from the 2025 assessment two (other vulnerable, particularly vulnerable). Updated in the Lägesbild report.