According to new data released by Statistics Sweden, the proportion of people in Sweden with a permanently low economic standard has considerably increased in recent years. In 2019, just over 15% of the population had a low economic standard. Of these, two thirds had a permanently low economic standard. 

The proportion of people with a permanently low economic standard varies greatly between different groups. Among children under the age of 10 the proportion is around 14%, and among those over 80 years it rises to 22%. For those aged 45 – 60, the proportion is around 7%.

The data show, however, that a low economic standard is most common among people who have immigrated to Sweden. Within this group around 20% have a low economic standard, while among people born in Sweden the equivalent figure stands at 7%.

There are large differences within this group of foreign-born people, according to region of birth. Almost every third person born in Africa was found to have a permanently low economic standard, and among people born in Asia the proportion was every fourth. For people born in Europe, the proportion was about 15%. The differences between people born in the Nordic countries and in the rest of Europe are small.

Economic integration is shown to increase over time. It is generally less common, with a permanently low economic standard, among foreign-born people who have lived in Sweden for a long time than among people who have lived in the country for a shorter time. Of people who have lived in Sweden for more than 20 years and were born in Africa or Asia, 18% have a permanently low income.

Strikingly, a low economic standard is common among children who are migrants to the country. More than 40% of foreign-born children living in Sweden were found to have a permanently low economic standard, compared with 6% of children born in Sweden to two Swedish-born parents.

One important reason that immigrants suffer from a lower economic standard is that they have a lower rate of employment. Employed people rarely have a permanently low economic standard. The proportion of people with a low economic standard among those in employment was 2%, for example, while more than one in four among those classified as non-employed (e.g. students, the unemployed and the sick), had a permanently low financial standard.

Statistics Sweden defines having a "persistently low economic standard" as living in a household that has a disposable income per consumption unit that is less than 60% of the median value for all during the reference year, and for at least two of the three previous years. The definition used is the same used by Eurostat. 

Learn more on these statistics here.