Affluent Stockholm suburb named best place to live

The Stockholm suburb of Danderyd is the best municipality in which to live, according to a new ranking by the magazine Fokus.

• Theatre group woos kids with classic witchcraft (19 Nov 09)
• New Stockholm arena gets financial go-ahead (13 Nov 09)
• Apocalypse soon: Disasters abound at Stockholm Film Festival (10 Nov 09)

Lund and nearby Lomma in southern Sweden follow closely behind.

Ljusnarsberg municipality in the Bergslagen region of central Sweden ended up in last place.

The locations were judged on 30 different factors, such as suicide rates, tax levels, unemployment, teacher and population density, new companies, net worth, and number of divorces.

It is the third year the magazine has ranked which municipalities are the best places to live in Sweden.

Well-to-do Danderyd won first place this year, knocking down Lund from the top spot in last year’s ranking to second place this year.

Danderyd has the highest net worth, the most high school-aged students and the least number of people with low levels of education.

It also has the highest level of entrepreneurship, and the lowest level of unemployment.

“We have a clear focus on maintaining high standards in our core activities, and we are effective with our tax resources,” said Danderyd municipal commissioner Gunar Oom to the TT news agency.

The popular ski resort town of Åre in northwestern Sweden made a stunning jump in the rankings, improving from 51st place last year to a very respectable 5th place this year, thanks to strong growth, plenty of jobs, and a high number of staff in local schools and daycare centres.

Eighth-ranked Norsjö in northern Sweden made almost as big a jump, thanks to its efforts in schools and recreation, while at the same time achieving the fifth lowest level of social welfare payments in the country.

Last-ranked Ljusnarsberg featured the most divorces, difficult problems with poor health, a net worth among the lowest in the country, and a level of alcohol-related deaths among the highest.

According to the ranking, Haparanda, located in the far north on Sweden's border with Finland, is the second-worst place to live.

The municipality has the highest unemployment, the worst level of gender equity, and among the highest number of divorces in the country.