With the weak kronor, Sweden is not as expensive as it was, but it’s still among the more expensive countries in Europe.
On the plus side, the high prices are offset by relatively high salaries and a generous welfare system, which means families end up spending a much, much less on childcare or healthcare than you might have to pay in the US or UK.
In this article, we will look at some of the key factors that affect the quality of life you might have in Sweden, including earnings, housing costs and living costs.
Let’s start by looking at the earnings in Sweden.
According to Statistics Sweden (SCB), the median monthly salary in Sweden is 33,200 kronor (€3,045) and the mean monthly salary is a slightly higher 37,100 kronor.
The median salary is the monthly pay at which 50 percent of workers in Sweden earn less, and 50 percent earn more. As the mean tends to be dragged up by a relatively small number of people earning very large amounts, the median is a better guide to what ordinary people actually earn.
Foreigners coming to work in Sweden should generally expect to get paid above the median salary.
To give an example, a systems analyst or IT architect earns an average of 51,600 kronor a month, an IT support technician earns an average of 36,900 kronor a month, and an IT operations technician earns an average of 38,200 kronor.
Electrical engineers earn 50,900 kronor, mining engineers 48,700 kronor, and machine engineers 46,200 kronor.
Financial analysts and advisors earn an average of 68,200, and lawyers an average of 60,800 kronor. Journalists earn an average of 41,000 kronor.
So what about tax?
In Sweden, you pay state income tax at about 20 percent on any earnings above 540,700 kronor a year (or about 45,000 kronor a month).
This means that most people in Sweden only pay local income taxes, which vary between 29.98 percent in the lowest tax municipalities and 35.15 percent in the highest.
Taken together, this means Sweden has the second-highest tax take from income tax in the EU, raising 18.4 percent of GDP in income tax, compared to a sky-high 32.2 percent in Denmark, 21.2 percent from Norway, a slightly lower 16.7 percent in Finland and 15.9 percent in Belgium.
How much money do people earn in Sweden after tax?
Despite the high tax rate, people in Sweden still have a relatively high after tax income.
A two-earner couple with two children living in Sweden, each of which earn 100 percent of the average wage, take home an average of €74,105 after tax and social charges.
This is the ninth highest in the EU/EEA after Switzerland, Luxembourg, Iceland, Norway, The Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland and Austria.
A single person with no kids earning 100 percent of the average wage, meanwhile, takes home a slightly lower €35,484 after tax. This ranks the country eighth after Switzerland, Luxembourg, Iceland, Norway, The Netherlands, Denmark, and Ireland.
Cost of living
Housing
How much it costs to live in Sweden depends very much on where you decide to stay. In Stockholm, and to a lesser extent Gothenburg and Malmö, housing can be very costly.
According to statistics from Statista, the cost of buying a flat in Stockholm is the eighth highest in Europe, with apartments going for an average of €7,740 (83,947 kronor) per square metre at the start of 2022.
According to Statista, average prices in Gothenburg and Malmö are lower at €5,100 per m2 and €3,300 per m2 respectively.
Renting
According to Statistics Sweden, the average cost of renting an apartment in Sweden in 2022 varies from under 5,000 kronor a month up until around 10,000 kronor, depending on whether you have a one room apartment (plus kitchen and bathroom), a two-room, three-room, or four-room-plus.
One room: 4,575 kronor
Two room: 6,272 kronor
Three room: 7,753 kronor
Four or more room: 9,871 kronor
Obviously, there are significant variations in the rental price depending on the city. Here are the average rental prices for a three-room apartment:
Statistics Sweden has published statistics on how much people in the country paid on average for their housing in 2021, including rent, mortgage payments, fees to a cooperative or rental company, water, sewage and rubbish collection, or general upkeep and repairs.
These indicate that the median household in Sweden spent a total of 77,900 kronor on their house or apartment in 2021, while the mean or average household spent a slightly higher 95,700 kronor.
How much do you need to spend day-to-day?
The Swedish Consumer Agency (Consumer Agency) produces an excellent budgeting guide for people living in Sweden, which estimates the total spending per household, excluding rent/mortgage payments.
It estimates that if you prepare all your food at home, you need 3,420 kronor a month for each adult, 3,310 kronor for a teenager of between 14 and 17, about 2,190 kronor a month for a child of between 6-9 years old, and 1,510 kronor a month for a child of between 2 and 5 years old.
Clothes and shoes, a mobile phone, free time and toys, child insurance, and other child equipment come to between 1,960 kronor a person for a 4-6 year-old to 2,560 kronor a month for a 15-17 year-old. Adults of 26-49 years old should spend 2,250 a month on these things.
When it comes to shared parts of a household budget, like consumable goods such as toilet paper and groceries, as well as home equipment, media, electricity, water and sewage, and home insurance, it depends on where you live.
The agency estimates that these things will cost 6,770 kronor a month for a family of four living in a major city, and 3,710 a month for a single person living in a major city.
For those living in a town of 50,000 to 200,000 people it’s slightly cheaper: 6,600 kronor and 3,650 kronor respectively and for those living in the countryside it’s cheaper still, at 6,640 kronor and 3, 640 kronor.
Life is obviously cheaper if you don’t have a family to support. The agency estimates that a single person between the ages of 18 and 30 living in a major Swedish city will need to spend at least 6,060 kronor a month on food (if they eat at home), clothing and other household expenses.
Summing up
Taken together, this means that a family of two adults with two school-age children can expect living costs of at least 20,000 kronor a month, on top of their rent or mortgage.
If you add in housing costs of between about 100,000 to 136,000 a year, or 8,000-11,000 a month, then a family with two children needs to earn well over 30,000 kronor a month to make ends meet.
What this means is that the median or average wage is not enough to support a family in Sweden in a single-earner household. You need to either have two earners or one earner making well above the average wage to make things add up.
A single person living in one of Sweden’s three big cities will need to spend at least 6,060 kronor a month on top of their rent or mortgage.
If you add in mean housing costs of between 56,000 and 68,000 a year (5,000-6,000 kronor a month) that means a single person needs to earn at least 12,000 kronor a month to survive.
But to live a more glamorous sociable life, with visits to restaurants and bars, and the occasional holiday, you probably need double that.