2024-08-20 09:40:14
Population size is not affected by the number of people born and who die in a year, but the number of people migrating and emigrating.
Although the number of children born in the first half of this year is low – the lowest for 21 years, to be exact – that is not the only reason why population growth is lower than before.
To put the population growth of 1,600 people in the first half of this year into perspective, this number has been over 20,000 every year since 2006, and over 30,000 in 14 of those years. Between 2013 and 2019, the population growth exceeded 50,000, peaking in 2017 when the number reached almost 60,000.
You can see how small the size for 2024 is in the image below.
Population growth in the first half of each year between 2000 and 2024
Population growth in the first half of each year between 2000 and 2024. On the Y axis we have the number of people and the X axis is the year. Image: Statistics Sweden
So, how many people are leaving Sweden in 2024? Well, the answer is complicated. About 44,100 people are registered as leaving Sweden, but that is not exactly the same as the number of people leaving in a year.
The number of people who left in the first half of each year between 2000 and 2024
The number of people who emigrated in the first half of each year between 2000 and 2024. Image: Statistics Sweden
From 2023, the Swedish Tax Agency has been working to improve the resident register by checking to see if the people on it are actually still living in Sweden, and removing them from the register if they are not, so not everyone registered as leaving Sweden in the first half of 2024 actually left then, some may have already left.
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Most – but not all – of these people are registered as immigrants to an unknown country. The number of people registered as emigrating to an unknown country stands at 15,400 people, although not all of these people necessarily have outdated entries in the population register removed by the Swedish Tax Agency.
Even after removing this number, the number of people leaving Sweden is higher than ever, as you can see in the picture below.
“In the first half of 2024, 28,700 people have registered as immigrants to the listed country,” Statistics Sweden wrote in a statement. “Compared to the first half of 2023, it is an increase of 5,700 people, or 25 percent.”
Number of people who left in the first half of each year between 2000 and 2024, with “unknown country” excluded
Migration with an unknown destination country. Image: Statistics Sweden
Who left?
Among those registered as leaving, the most common country of origin is, perhaps unequivocally, Sweden, which represents more than a quarter of the total of 44,104: 11,199 people. The most common country of origin is India, with 2,837 Indians immigrating from Sweden in the first half of this year, followed by 1,968 people from Iraq, 1,804 from China and 1,762 from Syria.
Rounding out the top ten are Poland, Somalia, Germany, the US and Iran. This only records the country of origin of people moving from Sweden, not the country they migrated to, so it is not necessarily the case that those moving are returning to their countries of origin.
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And who came to Sweden?
In the first half of 2024, 41,400 people moved to Sweden, one percent (or 309 people) less than the same period in 2023. The largest groups here are people born in Sweden (5,200), Ukraine (4,700 ) and India (2,500). .
These figures refer to the date when people were registered in the Swedish population register, which may explain the large number of Ukrainian citizens – only 300 were recorded as moving to Sweden at the same time last year. Progress this year is possible due to the fact that Ukrainian citizens who arrived under the temporary protection order and those who have been in Sweden for at least two years are able to register in the resident register from June 2024.
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