Three decades in numbers
Foreign-born(SCB)
- 1990
- 9 % (790,000)
- 2024
- 20.5 % (2.18 m)
Foreign background (UF+UU)(SCB)
- 1990
- 13 %
- 2024
- 27 % (2.87 m)
Share under 18 with foreign background(SCB)
- 1990
- approx. 15 %
- 2024
- approx. 33 %
Largest foreign-born group(SCB)
- 1990
- Finland
- 2024
- Syria
| Mått | 1990 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign-born(SCB) | 9 % (790,000) | 20.5 % (2.18 m) |
| Foreign background (UF+UU)(SCB) | 13 % | 27 % (2.87 m) |
| 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. In 2015 Sweden received ~163,000 asylum applications in a single year — the largest refugee wave in Swedish history — and the Migration Agency granted roughly 150,000 residence permits in 2016, equivalent to one of Sweden's larger cities.
SCB 2024: in 50 of 290 municipalities the share with a foreign background was above the national average; Botkyrka had the highest share (62 %).
Parallel societies emerge
The 2023 situation report from the Police lists 59 vulnerable areas where 550,000 Swedes live — more residents than Gothenburg. On average 71% of residents in these areas have a foreign background, and in individual areas up to 85%. Criminal networks have "significant influence on the local community". The concept did not exist in the 1990s. Together, the areas form a population larger than Sweden's second-largest city.
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.
Ruist's analysis suggests that it is not immigration itself that is the problem, but the speed, composition and failed integration that make the costs persist across generations.
Sources
Read the full investigation of how Sweden has changed.
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