Demographic analysis: Internal migration in Sweden: Moving between municipalities 2014—2023
Temporary changes in cross-municipality migration during the pandemic
Statistical news from Statistics Sweden 2025-03-05 8.00
During the pandemic years 2020—2021, an unusually large number of people moved out of large cities while an unusually large number of people moved to small towns and commuting municipalities near medium-sized towns. Subsequently, the moving patterns have nearly returned to pre-pandemic norms.
A new report by Statistics Sweden demonstrates cross-municipality migration in Sweden in the period 2014—2023. It presents how the development of net internal migration varies over time across different groups of municipalities by age group, household type and occupation. This is the third in a series of reports covering internal migration, published by Statistics Sweden since 2022.
Notably strong negative net internal migration in large cities during the pandemic
Four of the nine municipality groups, such as large cities, have had negative net migration throughout the entire observation period. Three municipality groups, such as commuting municipalities near medium-sized towns, have had positive net migration.
– In the remaining two municipality groups, the net migration shifted from negative to positive. The change occurred during the pandemic years, 2020—2021, says Li Ma, demographer at Statistics Sweden.
The net migration for large cities was particularly negative during the pandemic years 2020—2021, especially among individuals aged 0–17 and 31–69, those living with partner and children, and those working as managers or in occupations that require higher education.
Interestingly, an unusually large positive net migration was observed in small towns and commuting municipalities near medium-sized cities during the pandemic, especially among those aged 0–17 years and 31–69 years, those living with partner and children, and those working as managers or in occupations that require higher education.
– The results reveal that when many people left large cities during the pandemic, many moved to less-populated municipalities that are closer to nature, says Li Ma, demographer at Statistics Sweden.
Many left university municipalities during the pandemic
Lund, Uppsala, Umeå, Linköping, Växjö, Luleå, Karlstad and Örebro are identified as university municipalities in the report. The net migration of these municipalities as a whole was considerably lower during 2020—2021 compared both to the periods before and after. The decline during the pandemic years can largely be explained by an unusually large number of young adults leaving university municipalities when on-campus teaching was cancelled.
The report also shows the differences in net internal migration per 1,000 for different municipalities between 2018—2019 and 2020—2021, as well as between 2020—2021 and 2022—2023, the migration flows between municipality groups in the period 2022—2023, as well as the most common destination and home municipalities for out-migrants and in-migrants in each municipality over the past 10 years.
Definitions and explanations
Net migration for a municipality is calculated as the difference between the number of people moving in and the number of people moving out of the municipality. A positive net migration indicates more people move in than out while a negative net migration indicates more people move out than in.
Information on population, internal migration and household type is collected from the Total Population Register (RTB). Information on occupation is collected from the database LISA and information on student status in the autumn is collected from the database STATIV. The municipality grouping used in this report is from Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (Kommungruppsindelning 2023 | SKR).
Publication
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