Voter turnout in the Swedish elections for the European Parliament amounted to 45.5 percent. This was an increase compared to the election in 2004 when 37.9 percent of the population voted. Consequently, the downward trend for Swedish voter participation in European Parliament elections was broken for the first time. This year’s voter turnout was the highest since Sweden became a member of the union. Voter participation for the European Parliament also increased in Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Poland.

Low voter turnout in new EU member states

In total however, voter participation in the EU was down from 45.5 percent in 2004 to 43.0 percent in this year's election. Voter participation at the EU level has gradually dropped ever since the first election for the European Parliament. A contributing factor to the decrease in this year's election is the low voter turnout in new EU member states. This year's European Parliament election is the first election where Sweden exceeded the EU average.

First-time voters

The number of first-time voters who had the possibility to vote has increased compared to the 2004 election. At that time the number was about 500 000 voters, while in this year's election, about 600 000 voters were first time voters. The percentage of first-time voters was 8.4 percent of all persons eligible to vote.

Election participation

Danderyd was the municipality with the highest voter turnout, or 64.4 percent. Only 25 of 290 municipalities exceeded an election participation of 50 percent. Haparanda had the lowest voter turnout, with only 28.6 percent who submitted their vote.

Strongholds and weak spots

The most important stronghold of the Moderate party was Danderyd, where the party received 47.4 percent of the votes. The strongest support was from the Danderyd 15 election district, with 63.9 percent. The weakest support for the Moderates was in Vilhelmina, where 3.6 percent voted for the party. The Social Democrats received the most support in Pajala municipality, with 53.4 percent of the votes. However, the strongest election district was Herrgården in Malmö, where 78.3 percent of eligible voters supported the party with their votes. Social Democrats were weakest in Danderyd, where they received 4.3 percent of the votes. The Pirate Party was strongest in Orsa municipality, where they received 10.2 percent of the votes. However, their strongest support came from Ryd 5 in Linköping, where 37.9 percent of the votes went to the party. Ydre gave the least support to the Pirate party, with 3.6 percent of the votes going to the party.