Not since 2005 have there been so few children born in Sweden as last year, new figures from Statistics Norway (SCB) show.
A total of 104,734 children were born in 2022, the lowest figure in 17 years. Even so, our population grew last year.
Childbearing is declining across almost the entire country. In 20 out of 21 counties and 215 out of 290 municipalities, the number of newborns decreased last year. In Sweden as a whole, so few children have been born since 2005
Lowest since 1969
But at the county and municipal level, you have to go even further back in time to find similar figures. In Leksand, there have not been as few children born as last year since 1972, in Robertsfors not since 1969.
Statistics Norway’s statistics only extend to 1968, and in a number of municipalities the number of newborns has not been as few as in 2022 since the statistics began to be kept. It is about municipalities spread across the country, with everything from Sollefteå, Hudiksvall and Ånge to Västervik, Gislaved and Sölvesborg.
Downward trend
“It is difficult to say exactly which factors are behind the reduced number of children born in 2022. But we see that the number of children born per woman is decreasing among both Swedish-born and foreign-born women. The pattern with a reduced number of children born is the same in Norway and Denmark as well,” says Lena Lundkvist, demographer at Statistics Sweden in a press release.
In 2021, childbearing increased slightly. But the long-term trend has been downward since 2010.