Swedish Language Statistics 2026

How many people speak Swedish?

Swedish has an estimated 10 million speakers, almost all of them in Sweden, plus about 285,000 registered Swedish speakers in Finland. That places it among the world's 100 largest languages.

Sweden collects no official statistics on which languages its residents speak, so the speaker count is an estimate from the Institute for Language and Folklore. Finland and Åland, by contrast, register every resident's mother tongue.

• 10 million people speak Swedish, and it ranks among the 100 largest languages in the world by number of speakers.

  Source: Institutet för språk och folkminnen (Isof), Om svenska språket (updated 7 May 2025)

• 10,605,529 people were registered as living in Sweden at the end of 2025.

  Source: Statistics Sweden (SCB), Sveriges befolkning (data for 31 Dec 2025)

• 10,610,500 people were registered in Sweden at the end of June 2026, after growth of about 5,000 in the first half of the year, the lowest this century.

  Source: Statistics Sweden (SCB), Befolkningsstatistik första halvåret 2026 (21 Aug 2026)

• 284,611 people in Finland were registered with Swedish as their mother tongue at the end of 2025, 5.0% of the population of 5,652,881.

  Source: Statistics Finland, StatFin table 11ra, Key figures on population by region (data for 31 Dec 2025) · Isof rounds the Finland figure to just under 300,000.

• 26,117 residents of Åland had Swedish as their mother tongue at the end of 2024, just over 85% of the islands' population.

  Source: Ålands statistik- och utredningsbyrå (ÅSUB), Befolkningen 2024 (9 Oct 2025)

• About 200 different languages are spoken, written or signed in Sweden.

  Source: Institutet för språk och folkminnen (Isof), Språken i Sverige (updated 10 June 2026)

• 2009 is when Sweden's Language Act (Språklag 2009:600) made Swedish the principal language of Sweden and its official language in international contexts.

  Source: Sveriges riksdag, Språklag (2009:600) (28 May 2009)

• 5 national minority languages are recognised alongside Swedish under the Language Act: Finnish, Yiddish, Meänkieli, Romani Chib and Sami.

  Source: Sveriges riksdag, Språklag (2009:600) (28 May 2009)

• 24 official languages exist in the EU, and Swedish has been one of them since Sweden joined in 1995.

  Source: European Union, Languages of the EU (current page)

• 80% vs 23% of young Swedes (aged 16–25) find Norwegian easy to understand, compared with only 23% for Danish, in the Nordic Council of Ministers' survey of over 2,000 young Nordic residents.

  Source: Nordic Council of Ministers, Does the Nordic language community exist? (Nord 2021:004) (2021)

How many people are learning Swedish?

Around 115,000 adults studied Swedish for Immigrants (SFI) in Sweden in 2024, more than 27,000 students a year study Swedish at 197 universities abroad, and an estimated 25,000 more take evening courses outside Sweden. On Duolingo, Swedish is not in the global top ten, and since 2023 it is not even the most-studied language in Sweden.

• 115,000 people studied SFI (Swedish for Immigrants) in Sweden in 2024, 7% fewer than in 2023; the number has fallen every year since 2018.

  Source: Skolverket, Elever och studieresultat i kommunal vuxenutbildning 2024 (statistiknyhet) (11 June 2025)

• 27,000+ students a year study Swedish at 197 higher-education institutions in 35 countries outside Sweden, according to the Swedish Institute.

  Source: Swedish Institute (Svenska institutet), Swedish around the world (updated 17 Aug 2026) · The Institute's Swedish-language page gives a wider figure of just over 200 universities and over 30,000 students, which includes Sweden-studies courses.

• 25,000 people are estimated to study Swedish in evening courses and study circles outside Sweden, mainly in Germany.

  Source: Institutet för språk och folkminnen (Isof), Om svenska språket (updated 7 May 2025)

• 16 Swedish lecturers abroad are funded by the Swedish Institute to support Swedish teaching at foreign universities.

  Source: Swedish Institute (Svenska institutet), Så stödjer vi undervisningen i svenska (updated 13 Dec 2024)

• Not in the top 10 is where Swedish sits on Duolingo worldwide: the 2025 top ten is English, Spanish, French, Japanese, German, Korean, Italian, Chinese, Portuguese and Hindi.

  Source: Duolingo, 2025 Duolingo Language Report (Dec 2025)

• #2 is Swedish's rank among languages studied on Duolingo in Sweden since 2023, when Spanish overtook it for the first time since Duolingo began collecting data.

  Source: Duolingo, 2023 Duolingo Language Report (Dec 2023)

• 1 country had Swedish as its second-most-studied language on Duolingo in the 2024 report.

  Source: Duolingo, 2024 Duolingo Language Report (Dec 2024)

• 27% of all Duolingo users in Sweden were learning Swedish in 2016, which Duolingo attributed to immigration.

  Source: Duolingo, Which countries study which languages (5 May 2016) · Older data point, kept for the trend.

• 58.7 million daily active users used Duolingo in the second quarter of 2026, with 12.7 million paid subscribers and quarterly revenue of $298.5 million.

  Source: Duolingo, Inc., Q2 2026 Shareholder Letter (SEC filing) (5 Aug 2026)

How long does it take to learn Swedish?

The US Foreign Service Institute puts Swedish in its easiest category for English speakers: about 24 weeks of full-time study, or 552 to 690 class hours, to reach professional working proficiency. In Sweden's SFI system, a completed course takes 36 weeks on average, and students who start with little prior schooling typically need five years to reach the final course D.

• 24 weeks is the Foreign Service Institute's estimate for an English speaker to reach professional working proficiency in Swedish, a Category I language (24–30 weeks, or 552–690 class hours).

  Source: U.S. Department of State, Foreign Service Institute, Foreign Language Training (current page)

• 23 + 17 hours is a typical FSI week: 23 hours in class plus 17 hours of self-study, so 24 weeks corresponds to roughly 960 hours of total effort.

  Source: U.S. Department of State, Foreign Service Institute, Foreign Language Training (current page) · The 960-hour total is our multiplication, not an FSI figure.

• 6 levels make up the CEFR scale used for Swedish courses and tests, from A1 to C2, grouped as Basic, Independent and Proficient User.

  Source: Council of Europe, CEFR level descriptions (current page)

• 15 hours of teaching per week, averaged over four weeks, is the legal minimum an SFI programme must offer.

  Source: Skolverket, Rätt till sfi (current page)

• 36 weeks was the average length of an SFI course completed in 2024; course B on track 1 (for students with little schooling) took 59 weeks, while course D on track 3 took 24.

  Source: Skolverket, Elever och studieresultat i kommunal vuxenutbildning 2024 (PM) (11 June 2025)

• 5 years is how long half of the students who started on SFI track 1 course A needed before completing the final course D; students starting on 3C typically needed 2 years and on 3D 1 year.

  Source: Skolverket, Rapport 2024:3, Studieavbrott och genomströmning i sfi (2024)

• 525 hours was Sweden's statutory guideline for the full SFI programme under the 1994 ordinance, repealed in 2011; no hour guideline exists in the current rules.

  Source: Sveriges riksdag, Förordning (1994:895) om svenskundervisning för invandrare (repealed 2011) (9 June 1994) · Historical figure.

How well does SFI (Swedish for Immigrants) work?

Of SFI course participants who finished or dropped a course in 2024, 52% passed and 44% dropped out. Among students who started in 2018, 37% had not passed a single course five years later, and only 26% of men had reached the final course D.

SFI is free, municipally run Swedish tuition for adult immigrants, organised in three tracks (studieväg 1–3) and four courses (A–D). Skolverket publishes the annual statistics; the cohort figures come from its 2024 report on dropout and throughput.

• −22.4% is how much SFI enrolment fell between 2018 and 2022, to 123,500 students, of whom 62% were women.

  Source: Skolverket, Rapport 2024:3, Studieavbrott och genomströmning i sfi (2024)

• 64% of SFI students in 2024 were women, up from a low of 51% in 2016 and 2017.

  Source: Skolverket, Elever och studieresultat i kommunal vuxenutbildning 2024 (PM) (11 June 2025)

• 38 years was the average age of an SFI student in 2024; only 9% were under 25, 53% were 25–39 and 38% were over 39.

  Source: Skolverket, Elever och studieresultat i kommunal vuxenutbildning 2024 (PM) (11 June 2025)

• 11,400 SFI students in 2024 were born in Syria, the most common country of birth, followed by Afghanistan (6,550) and India (6,210).

  Source: Skolverket, Elever och studieresultat i kommunal vuxenutbildning 2024 (PM) (11 June 2025)

• 23% vs 40% of SFI students in 2024 had at most pre-upper-secondary schooling, while 40% had post-secondary education and 46% had at least three years of upper secondary.

  Source: Skolverket, Elever och studieresultat i kommunal vuxenutbildning 2024 (PM) (11 June 2025)

• 52% / 44% of SFI course participants who finished or left a course in 2024 passed it (52%) or dropped out (44%); 4% finished without a pass. Dropout peaked at 54% on courses 1C and 3C.

  Source: Skolverket, Elever och studieresultat i kommunal vuxenutbildning 2024 (statistiknyhet) (11 June 2025)

• 37% of students who started SFI in 2018 had not passed a single course by 2022; 41% of women but only 26% of men had passed the final course D within five years.

  Source: Skolverket, Rapport 2024:3, Studieavbrott och genomströmning i sfi (2024)

• 16% vs 43% of SFI students with at most three years of prior schooling completed course D within five years, against 43% of those with 13 or more years of schooling.

  Source: Skolverket, Rapport 2024:3, Studieavbrott och genomströmning i sfi (2024)

• 90% / 87% of participants passed the national SFI test for course B (90%) and for courses C and D (87%) in 2024.

  Source: Skolverket, Elever och studieresultat i kommunal vuxenutbildning 2024 (PM) (11 June 2025)

• 53.2% of working SFI teachers held a teaching licence with qualification to teach SFI in 2022/23, although 82.1% had a teaching degree.

  Source: Skolinspektionen, Rapport 2024:1, Granskning av sfi (28 Feb 2024)

• 33% of SFI course participants in 2024 studied with a contracted private provider rather than the municipality itself, compared with 48% across all adult education (komvux).

  Source: Skolverket, Elever och studieresultat i kommunal vuxenutbildning 2024 (PM) (11 June 2025)

• 51% of students who left SFI in 2021 with a pass in course D continued in other studies the following year, and 2% went on to higher education.

  Source: Skolverket, Etablering efter kommunal vuxenutbildning (30 Oct 2025)

• +5 percentage points higher employment after ten years in Sweden was found among SFI participants compared with similar non-participants, in IFAU's study of 155,000 immigrants who arrived 1994–2003; the effect was larger for women and the low-educated.

  Source: IFAU, Rapport 2010:10, Sfi och arbetsmarknaden (4 June 2010)

How many pupils study Swedish as a second language?

Just over 158,000 pupils in Swedish compulsory school, more than 14% of all pupils, follow the Swedish-as-a-second-language syllabus in 2025/26. Their pass rate in year 9 is 74%, the lowest of any subject, against 94% for pupils following the Swedish syllabus.

• 158,000 pupils in Swedish compulsory school study Swedish as a second language in 2025/26, more than 14% of all pupils, after nine consecutive years of growth; 53% are boys.

  Source: Skolverket, Elever och skolenheter i grundskolan läsåret 2025/26 (25 Mar 2026)

• 74.1% vs 93.6% of year 9 pupils passed Swedish as a second language in spring 2025 (74.1%), compared with 93.6% in Swedish, the lowest pass rate of any compulsory-school subject.

  Source: Skolverket, Slutbetyg i grundskolan våren 2025 (25 Sep 2025)

• 74% vs 94% of year 9 pupils following the second-language syllabus got a passing grade on the spring 2025 national test in Swedish (74%), against 94% of pupils following the Swedish syllabus; in year 6 the figures were 74% and 93%.

  Source: Skolverket, Nationella prov i årskurs 6 och 9 våren 2025 (26 Nov 2025)

Who moves to Sweden and needs to learn Swedish?

2.2 million people living in Sweden were born abroad, just over 20% of the population. Immigration is falling fast: 89,400 people moved to Sweden in 2025, down 23% in a year, and since 6 June 2026 Swedish citizenship requires proven knowledge of Swedish.

• 2,210,638 people living in Sweden in 2025 were born abroad, just over 20% of the population.

  Source: Statistics Sweden (SCB), Utrikes födda i Sverige (data for 2025, updated 24 Feb 2026)

• +17,800 people (0.2%) was Sweden's population growth in 2025, the lowest in 25 years.

  Source: Statistics Sweden (SCB), Befolkningsstatistik år 2025 (24 Feb 2026)

• 89,400 people immigrated to Sweden in 2025, down 23% from 2024, while 77,500 emigrated, leaving net immigration of about 11,900.

  Source: Statistics Sweden (SCB), Befolkningsstatistik år 2025 (24 Feb 2026)

• 194,606 Sweden residents were born in Syria, the most common foreign country of birth at the end of 2025, followed by Iraq (141,451), Finland (122,462), Poland (98,311) and Iran (87,292).

  Source: Statistics Sweden (SCB), Statistikdatabasen: Folkmängden efter födelseland, år 2025 (data for 31 Dec 2025)

• 88,938 first-time residence permits were granted in 2025: 25,211 for family ties, 22,958 for work, 16,382 for studies, 12,810 for protection and 10,935 for EU/EEA cases.

  Source: Migrationsverket, Färre beviljade uppehållstillstånd 2025 (9 Jan 2026)

• About 11,100 work permits were granted in 2025 to workers from outside the EU/EEA; IT architects and systems developers (2,181) were the largest occupational group.

  Source: Migrationsverket, Statistik: Arbete (data for 2025)

• 6,735 first-time asylum applications were lodged in Sweden in 2025, down from 9,645 in 2024.

  Source: Migrationsverket, Statistik: Asyl (Inkomna ansökningar om asyl 2025) (data for 2025)

• 38,767 people were granted Swedish citizenship in 2025, down from 65,591 in 2024, after the Migration Agency introduced extra security checks.

  Source: Migrationsverket, Färre beviljade uppehållstillstånd 2025 (9 Jan 2026)

• 6 June 2026 is when Sweden's new citizenship rules took effect: applicants must show sufficient knowledge of Swedish and of Swedish society, and the standard residence requirement rose from five to eight years.

  Source: Government Offices of Sweden (Regeringen), Prop. 2025/26:175, Skärpta krav för svenskt medborgarskap (13 Mar 2026)

• B1 / A2 were the CEFR levels proposed by the government inquiry for the citizenship language test (B1 reading and listening, A2 speaking and writing); the adopted law describes the requirement as a 'functional level' of reading and listening comprehension.

  Source: Sveriges riksdag, Prop. 2025/26:175, Skärpta krav för svenskt medborgarskap (Riksdag decision 29 Apr 2026) · The CEFR levels come from SOU 2021:2; the bill itself does not name a level.

• Shelved is the status of the proposed A2-level Swedish test for permanent residence: with permanent permits being phased out from 12 July 2026, the government judged the earlier inquiry's requirements no longer fit for purpose.

  Source: Sveriges riksdag, Betänkande 2025/26:SfU30, Utmönstring av permanent uppehållstillstånd (4 June 2026)

How good is English in Sweden?

Very good. 90% of Swedes say they can hold a conversation in English, against 47% across the EU, and Sweden ranks 8th of 123 countries in the 2025 EF English Proficiency Index. That is exactly why learners find it hard to practise Swedish: Swedes switch to English readily.

• 90% of Swedes say they speak English well enough to hold a conversation, compared with 47% across the EU27, and up 4 points since 2012.

  Source: European Commission, Special Eurobarometer 540, Europeans and their languages, Sweden factsheet (May 2024, fieldwork Sep–Oct 2023)

• 97% of Swedes can hold a conversation in at least one language other than their mother tongue; only 3% speak no other language, against 39% across the EU27.

  Source: European Commission, Special Eurobarometer 540, Europeans and their languages, annex tables (May 2024, fieldwork Sep–Oct 2023)

• 86% of Swedes spoke English as a foreign language in the previous Eurobarometer edition in 2012, when 91% spoke at least one foreign language.

  Source: European Commission, Special Eurobarometer 386, Europeans and their Languages (June 2012)

• #8 of 123 is Sweden's rank in the EF English Proficiency Index 2025, with a score of 609 against a global average of 488, in the 'very high proficiency' band.

  Source: EF Education First, EF English Proficiency Index 2025, Sweden (19 Nov 2025)

• 7 countries score above Sweden in EF EPI 2025, all of them European: the Netherlands (624), Croatia (617), Austria (616), Germany (615), Norway (613), Portugal (612) and Denmark (611).

  Source: EF Education First, EF English Proficiency Index 2025 (19 Nov 2025)

• 51.0% of Swedish adults aged 25–64 rate their best foreign language as 'proficient', one of only three EU countries above 50%, and 95.8% know at least one foreign language.

  Source: Eurostat, Foreign language skills statistics (Adult Education Survey 2022) (data for 2022)

Does Swedish matter for getting a job in Sweden?

Yes. Unemployment among foreign-born residents was 16.4% in 2025 against 6.2% for the Swedish-born, employment rises steeply with years in Sweden, and nearly one in four Swedish companies names lack of Swedish among applicants as a recruitment obstacle. The OECD finds the employment gap largely disappears once literacy in Swedish is accounted for.

• 16.4% vs 6.2% was the 2025 unemployment rate among foreign-born (16.4%) and Swedish-born (6.2%) residents aged 15–74.

  Source: Statistics Sweden (SCB), Arbetskraftsundersökningarna (AKU) 2025 (24 Feb 2026)

• 66.3% vs 69.9% was the 2025 employment rate among foreign-born (66.3%) and Swedish-born (69.9%) residents aged 15–74.

  Source: Statistics Sweden (SCB), Arbetskraftsundersökningarna (AKU) 2025 (24 Feb 2026) · The 15–74 band includes pensioners; the 20–64 gap below is wider.

• 1,269,000 foreign-born people were employed in Sweden in 2025, about 24% of all 5,263,000 employed residents aged 15–74.

  Source: Statistics Sweden (SCB), Arbetskraftsundersökningarna (AKU) 2025 (24 Feb 2026) · The share is our division of SCB's two counts.

• 85.2% vs 68.7% of Swedish-born and foreign-born women aged 20–64 were employed in June 2026; for men the figures were 84.9% and 73.7%.

  Source: Statistics Sweden (SCB), Befolkningens arbetsmarknadsstatus, juni 2026 (28 Aug 2026)

• 46.8% → 74.9% is how employment among foreign-born residents aged 20–64 rose with time in Sweden in 2024: 46.8% after 0–1 years, 60.5% after 2–3, 67.7% after 4–9 and 74.9% after 10 or more, against 84.2% for the Swedish-born.

  Source: Statistics Sweden (SCB), Statistikdatabasen: Integration – andel sysselsatta efter vistelsetid (data for 2024)

• 5.6% → 65.8% is the employment path of refugees and their relatives received by municipalities in 2013: 5.6% in the year of arrival, 37.6% after three years, 51.5% after five and 65.8% after ten.

  Source: Statistics Sweden (SCB), Statistikdatabasen: Kommunmottagna flyktingar, andel sysselsatta efter år efter mottagning (2013 cohort followed to 2023)

• About 10 percentage points higher probability of having a job, and a similar rise in annual income, is associated with speaking or writing Swedish 'well' rather than 'poorly', according to research summarised by IFAU.

  Source: IFAU, Rapport 2010:10, Sfi och arbetsmarknaden (4 June 2010) · Correlation, not a causal estimate.

• 23% of Swedish companies cite applicants' lack of Swedish language skills as an obstacle to recruitment; in the bus industry the share is 57%.

  Source: Svenskt Näringsliv, Rekryteringsenkäten 2025/2026 (Mar 2026) · Employer survey of 5,032 companies, not an official statistic.

• −83 points below the native-born is where immigrants to Sweden from outside Europe and North America scored in literacy in PIAAC 2023, more than one and a half proficiency levels; the OECD finds the foreign/native employment gap is largely explained by literacy differences.

  Source: OECD, OECD Economic Surveys: Sweden 2025 (June 2025) · PIAAC tests literacy in Swedish, so this partly measures Swedish-language skill.

• 205–293 vs 272–324 points was the middle-half reading score range of foreign-born adults in Sweden in PIAAC 2023, against 272–324 for the Swedish-born; those resident 11 or more years scored clearly higher than more recent arrivals.

  Source: Statistics Sweden (SCB), Färdigheter och arbete bland utrikes födda (PIAAC 2023) (2026)

How much time do Swedes spend on their phones?

85% of Swedish internet users are on social media every day, and about a third of the population spends an hour or more on it on an average day. Teenagers average six to seven hours of free-time screen use daily, two to three times the Public Health Agency's recommended maximum.

We include these because they answer the question every Swedish learner eventually asks: where is the time going to come from? Swescroll exists to convert some of this time into vocabulary practice.

• 85% of Swedish internet users aged 8 and over use social media every day, and 92% at least weekly.

  Source: Internetstiftelsen, Svenskarna och internet 2025, Sociala medier (29 Sep 2025)

• 49% / 47% / 31% / 25% / 14% of Swedish internet users use Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok respectively every day in 2025.

  Source: Internetstiftelsen, Svenskarna och internet 2025, Sociala medier (29 Sep 2025)

• 14% of Swedish internet users aged 8 and over use TikTok daily, and 22% used it in the past year.

  Source: Internetstiftelsen, Tiktok i Sverige (Svenskarna och internet 2025) (29 Sep 2025)

• 53% of Swedes born in the 2000s use TikTok daily: 7 in 10 women in that age group, against 4 in 10 men.

  Source: Internetstiftelsen, Tiktok i Sverige (Svenskarna och internet 2025) (29 Sep 2025)

• 79% of Swedes born in the 2000s use Snapchat every day.

  Source: Internetstiftelsen, Svenskarna och internet 2025, Sociala medier (29 Sep 2025)

• 84% of Swedes aged 9–85 used social media on an average day in 2025; among 15–24-year-olds the figure was 97%.

  Source: Nordicom, University of Gothenburg, Mediebarometern 2025 (5 May 2026)

• 34% of Swedes spent an hour or more on social media on an average day in 2025: 17% more than two hours and 17% between one and two hours, while 22% spent 30–60 minutes and 28% up to 30 minutes.

  Source: Nordicom, University of Gothenburg, Mediebarometern 2025 (5 May 2026) · The 34% is the sum of the two top bands.

• 52% vs 46% of Swedes aged 9–85 watched YouTube on an average day in 2025, overtaking scheduled TV (46%) for the first time.

  Source: Nordicom, University of Gothenburg, Mediebarometern 2025 (5 May 2026)

• Max 2–3 hours of daily screen time is the Public Health Agency's recommendation for 13–18-year-olds; the limits are 1–2 hours for ages 6–12, 1 hour for ages 2–5 and none under age 2.

  Source: Folkhälsomyndigheten, Rekommendationer för barns och ungas digitala medieanvändning (2 Sep 2024)

• 6 h 10 min per day is the average free-time screen use of Swedish 13–16-year-olds across mobile, tablet and computer; 17–18-year-olds average 7 hours and 9–12-year-olds 3 hours 43 minutes.

  Source: Mediemyndigheten, Ungar & medier 2025 (2025, survey data 2024)

• +10 percentage points more 17–18-year-olds (and 5 points more 13–16-year-olds) said they spend too much time on social media in 2024 than in 2022; those who feel they overuse average 2.5–3 hours a day.

  Source: Mediemyndigheten, Ungar & medier 2025 (2025, survey data 2024)

• 37% of Swedish parents argue with their 8–19-year-old about screen time; 92% have heard of the Public Health Agency's recommendations but only one in four say the recommendations changed anything.

  Source: Internetstiftelsen, Barnen och internet 2025, Skärmtid (2025)

• 15 minutes a day is the study time Duolingo optimises its product for, stating that 5 minutes a day is too little to reach goals quickly.

  Source: Duolingo, Understanding Duolingo's Time Spent Learning Well metric (13 June 2024)

• 2.4× more likely to use the app the next day are Duolingo learners who reach a 7-day streak.

  Source: Duolingo, Improving the streak (19 Nov 2020)