Every benefit system is measured in full-year persons, or full-year equivalents. This allows for comparability between the different types of benefits. The term full-year equivalent refers to the number of individuals who can be supported during an entire year on full benefits. For example, two persons who have both been unemployed full-time for six months amount to one full-year equivalent.

Statistics Sweden annually reports statistics on the number of full-year persons aged 20–64 who receive economic support in the form of social assistance or benefits, such as sickness benefits, sickness or activity compensation (formerly early retirement), unemployment benefits and economic aid.

The total number of full-year equivalents in 2014 decreased by 1.6 percent compared to 2013. The number with sickness or activity compensation has decreased since 2006. In 2014 the number decreased by 2.3 percent, to end at its lowest level since the reporting of full-year equivalents started in 1990. Since 2002 the number of full-year persons with sickness benefits decreased steadily. This trend was broken in 2011, and in 2014 the number of full-year persons with sickness benefits increased for the fourth year in a row, then by 12.3 percent. The other forms of benefits decreased in 2014.

The share of full-year equivalents in the working population (aged 20–64) was 14.8 percent in 1990. In 1994, this share peaked at 22.7 percent. In 2014, the share of full-year equivalents in the working population was 14.3 percent, which is the lowest share measured.