Who can vote in the Swedish national election?
To vote in the Riksdag (parliamentary) elections, you must be a Swedish citizen, aged over 18 on the day of the election, and be or have been registered as living in Sweden.
The right to vote is awarded based on the Swedish population register (folkbokföringen) 30 days before election day, so note that you must have received your Swedish citizenship 30 days before the actual vote. If you receive your Swedish citizenship, say, two weeks before the election, you will not be able to vote, the Election Authority confirmed to The Local.
You're automatically added to the electoral roll if you have the right to vote. Voting cards were to be sent out to all eligible voters by August 26th at the latest – if you haven't received yours, you can order a new one from the Election Authority or your local municipality, but you don't actually need to bring the voting card when you vote (but do bring a valid ID).
Swedish citizens living abroad can also vote in parliamentary elections; they get this right automatically for their first ten years abroad and after that need to apply to the Swedish Tax Agency every ten years to remain on the electoral roll.
Swedes who are temporarily abroad over the date of the election can vote by post, in an embassy, or by proxy.
Who can vote in the Swedish regional and local elections?
You don't have to be a Swedish citizen to vote on a regional or local level.
If you're the citizen of an EU country, Iceland or Norway, you can vote in the regional and local elections where you live, as long as you're over the age of 18.
If you're a non-EU citizen, or stateless, you can vote in the regional and local elections where you currently live, if you've been formally registered as a resident in the Swedish population register for at least three years before election day.
The same rules apply if you're temporarily living abroad but are still a registered resident.
How many people can vote in the 2026 election?
Around 7.8 million people will be eligible to vote in the 2026 parliamentary election, according to preliminary figures from Statistics Sweden published last September. This is up 190,000 people from the 2022 election.
Just over 590,000 foreign citizens will be eligible to vote in the local and regional elections, around 10,000 fewer than in the 2022 election.
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