Riksdag, regional and municipal council elections will take place on 11 September 2022. With one year left before the election, Statistics Sweden is publishing preliminary statistics on the number of people who will be eligible to vote in the 2022 general elections.

Number of people eligible to vote continues to increase

The number of Swedish citizens entitled to vote in all elections is expected to increase by almost 180 000 people compared with the 2018 elections and amount to around 7.5 million people. In total, somewhat more women than men will be eligible to vote: 50.4 percent are women and 49.6 percent are men. In addition to longer life expectancy and more young first-time voters, new Swedish citizens also add to the increasing numbers of Swedish citizens eligible to vote in Sweden.

The number of first-time voters in the 2022 elections, that is, people who have reached voting age since the 2018 election, among Swedish citizens registered in the population is expected to amount to around 430 000 people. This means that there will be just over 40 000 more first-time voters than in the last election. Expressed as a proportion of eligible voters, the group of first-time voters will increase from 5.3 percent to 5.7 percent of the electorate. Despite this increase, the proportion of first-time voters is considerably smaller than in 2010, when the proportion exceeded 7 percent of the electorate. The size of the first-time voter group in each election depends on the size of the birth cohorts that reach voting age between the elections.

As in previous elections, there are somewhat more men among young eligible voters and there are somewhat more women among older voters. In the 2022 election, the reversal in proportions occurs in the age group 65-69 years, although the differences in this group are minor. In the 2018 election, the shift occurred in the age group 60-64 years. Underlying factors include the fact that although there are more male births than female births, life expectancy is longer for women. Differences related to migration also affect this pattern.

More foreign citizens

The number of foreign citizens who are eligible to vote in regional and municipal council elections is also expected to increase in the 2022 election and amount to 670 000 people, which is just over 130 000 more than in 2018. Since this forecast does not include data on how many of these will become Swedish citizens by the election date, this number is slightly overestimated. In the 2018 elections, the number of foreign citizens increased by around 80 000 compared with 2014. However, unlike among Swedish citizens, the proportion of young first-time voters among foreign citizens is expected to be somewhat smaller at 3.7 percent compared with 4.9 percent in the 2018 election. In terms of the distribution between the sexes among foreign citizens eligible to vote, men account for 54.9 percent and women account for 45.1 percent.