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Johansson out as most common Swedish name

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Johansson out as most common Swedish name

For years, Johansson has been the most common surname in Sweden, but fresh statistics reveal the storied name can no longer lay claim to the top spot.

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According to figures published on Wednesday, Andersson has knocked Johansson off the pedestal as Sweden's most common surname.

The switch between Andersson and Johansson was the only change in the top ten (see below), according to Statistics Sweden (Statistiska centralbyrån - SCB).

Last year, there were 296 more Johanssons than Anderssons, but now the Anderssons of Sweden have taken their first lead in 60 years, leaping ahead by 126 for a total of 251,621.

Around thirty percent of Sweden's population has a name ending in "son", however 17,000 people in Sweden lost their "son" through marriage, divorce, or legally changing their name.

In fact, the first 16 names on the list end in the "son" suffix, with Lindberg at 17th being the first surname to break the trend.

The figures were released by SCB together with new statistics on the most common first names of the Swedish population, which didn't see much of a change from previous years.

Anna, Eva, and Maria topped the list for the country's females, with the Annas coming in with an average age of 44 years old. Lars, Anders, and Mikael snagged the top three spaces for the males, with a 59-year-old Lars representing the average.

The top ten surnames in Sweden, with their position last year in parenthesis

1 (2) Andersson

2 (1) Johansson

3 (3) Karlsson

4 (4) Nilsson

5 (5) Eriksson

6 (6) Larsson

7 (7) Olsson

8 (8) Persson

9 (9) Svensson

10 (10) Gustafsson

The top ten given female names in Sweden

1 Anna 109,995

2 Eva 92,582

3 Maria 83,553

4 Karin 77,247

5 Kristina 59,149

6 Lena 58,881

7 Kerstin 57,061

8 Sara 52,130

9 Ingrid 51,058

10 Emma 48,281

The top ten given male names in Sweden

1 Lars 97,063

2 Anders 81,086

3 Mikael 79,272

4 Johan 76,295

5 Karl 76,176

6 Per 72,286

7 Erik 70,724

8 Jan 64,684

9 Peter 63,298

10 Thomas 60,525

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