During the past few weeks, as Sweden’s healthcare system tries to cope with the increase of COVID-19 cases, it has become ever more apparent that the Swedish health care system would not function without its many foreign-born doctors and nurses.

According to the most recent statistics from Statistics Sweden (updated on 5 March 2020), 34 per cent of all practising medical doctors and 12 per cent of all nurses in Sweden are immigrants. Sweden’s most common profession is personal care worker or assistant nurse (undersköterska). Of all 183,000 assistant nurses, 48,329 or 26 per cent were born abroad. The most common region of origin of assistant nurses was Asia, which includes the Middle East.

The numbers are taken from the table ‘Employees 16-64 years at national level by occupation (3-digit SSYK 2012), region of birth and sex. Year 2014 – 2018’.

See the statistics