The population living in Sweden‘s urban areas and localities has ‘increased steadily’ over the past two decades, Statistics Sweden has said.
This growth is due to both the expansion of urban boundaries and to increased residential density within already developed areas, it noted, adding that urban areas and localities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants have shown greater variation in population trends.
Statistical localities
Statistics Sweden updates the extent of statistical localities every five years, with an additional mid-period update starting in 2018. Each edition of localities reflects conditions for a specific reference year, allowing annual population figures to be tracked within seven different editions from 2000 onwards.
‘This means that population figures are reported annually within seven different editions of locality boundaries, each reflecting conditions in a specific year,’ it noted. ‘Combined with information on the land area of the localities, the data provides an indication of whether these areas are becoming more densely or more sparsely populated.’
Urban areas
In 2005, the population in Sweden’s urban areas ranged between 7.6 and 7.8 million, depending on the edition of localities used. By 2025, this number had increased to 8.6 million as per the 2000 edition and 9.3 million as per the 2023 edition.
Population density, measured as inhabitants per square kilometre, has risen in all editions during the twenty-year period. In older editions, the increase reflects additional residents in established housing areas or the construction of new housing. Lower density figures in more recent editions are partly due to the inclusion of undeveloped areas at the beginning of the time series. A methodological change in 2015 also contributes to differences in population density between editions.
Urban areas with more than 10,000 residents account for the majority of population growth. In the 2025 edition, over 70% of the population in urban areas lived in such localities. These larger urban areas show consistent population increases across all editions. Read more here.
