Immigrants make up an increasingly high number of welfare workers
A new report by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) has shown that the number of employees in Swedish municipalities and regions has risen substantially over the past ten years.
Almost 300,000 of Sweden's municipal and regional employees were born outside of Sweden, with 22 percent of municipal employees coming from another country in 2024, compared to 13 percent in 2014. More than half (53 percent) of all vårdbiträden, a role which can be translated as care assistant, nursing assistant or orderly, are immigrants, as are 37 percent of undersköterskor (assistant nurses), 46 percent of dentists and 37 percent of specialist doctors.
The number of people of working age, defined as between 20 and 66, also rose by 500,000 over the past ten years, with many of those immigrants.
"The increase was made up of people born outside Sweden," Bodil Umegård, head of SALAR's data and analysis department. "If you just look at those born in Sweden then there was no increase."
She added that Sweden's more restrictive migration policy risked making it more difficult to find staff in welfare jobs.
"The fact is that there will be far fewer people from other countries coming to Sweden in the future, which means that it can also be more difficult to recruit people to welfare jobs," she added.
Swedish vocabulary: välfärden ‒ welfare
Rising power price gap between north and south
The difference in power prices paid by people in the north of Sweden and those in the south is rising, as are bottleneck fees which have doubled to over 24 billion this year, paid indirectly by users in southern Sweden.
Bottleneck fees occur when there is not enough capacity to transfer energy from one energy price zone (usually in the north of the country, where most of Sweden's energy is produced) to another (usually in the south).
In October 2024, Sweden and the rest of the Nordics brought in so-called "flow-based capacity calculation", an advanced method of determining cross-border power transfer limits by modeling the entire network's physical constraints.
The system is designed to maximise the flow of power from northern regions where it is cheap to the southern areas of the Nordics where it is more expensive, but according to a study by Tampere University in Finland, it has been doing the opposite.
Swedish vocabulary: flödesbaserad - flow-based
Swedish forecaster warns of heavy winds
The Swedish public weather forecaster SMHI has issued a yellow warning for heavy winds along a stretch of coast from north of Lysekil to south of Gothenburg, and between the lakes of Vänern and Vättern.
According to the forecaster, the winds could lead trees falling and blocking roads, affecting traffic in some areas.
Swedish vocabulary: nedfallna träd - fallen trees
More households expect property prices to rise
Nearly half of Swedish households, 45 percent, expect property prices to rise over the coming year, according to the monthly housing barometer from the Länsförsäkringar group of insurance companies.
That represents a 2 percent rise on the proportion recorded last month, with people in Småland most likely to expect rising prices and people in northern central Sweden most pessimistic. Only 6 percent of households expect prices to fall.
"When we sum up the housing year 2025, we see that the market has gone from stagnation to getting a fresher wind in its sails," said Marcus Svanberg, CEO of LF Fastighetsförmedling, in a press release. "After the turn of the year, we expect an increasingly hotter housing market as interest rates stabilize and household finances are strengthened by tax cuts."
Swedish vocabulary: stiltje - stagnation
Swedish Armed Forced blocks two wind farms
The Swedish Armed Forces have rejected the establishment of two wind farms off the coast of Kalmar, according to a report in the local Barometern newspaper.
The Armed Forces had previously raised no objections, but after the municipality expressed support for one of the wind farms, it reversed its position.
“The proposed wind power development would cause significant harm to national interests related to the military component of total defence, which is subject to secrecy,” the Armed Forces wrote in a statement to the County Administrative Board.
Municipal commissioner Johan Persson (S) said he had tried for a year to coordinate with the Armed Forces and is dissatisfied with how the matter has been handled.
“I feel that we could have put our energy into something else,” he told Barometern.
Swedish vocabulary: påtaglig - significant
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