Frequently asked questions about MapAndMove

From open sources such as SCB, Kolada, Lantmäteriet and OpenStreetMap. Every figure shows its year and source, and the full list is under sources and method.

As soon as the source publishes new data, usually once a year. The year shown with each figure tells you which year it refers to.

The municipality sometimes uses a different year or a different boundary. We use the same source for all 290 municipalities so that they can be compared.

Send us the link to the page and the correct source via contact. Error reports about data are prioritised.

That the municipality comes twelfth among Sweden's 290 municipalities on that particular measure. Every ranking shows which measure it is based on and whether high or low is best.

The source has not published it, or the sample is too small to report. In that case we show a dash rather than guess.

It is based on housing costs, municipal tax and other items from open sources. Each part is shown with its source and year on the page cost of living.

KPI stands for key performance indicator: a measure that can be compared between municipalities, such as the share of pupils eligible for upper secondary school. Note: in Swedish price statistics KPI instead means the consumer price index, which measures how prices change.

The mean is the sum divided by the number of values. The median is the value in the middle when everything is lined up in order. The median is not affected by a few very high values, so it gives a better picture of what a typical person has, for example in income.

That the number is divided by the population and scaled to 1,000 people. That way a small and a large municipality can be compared directly.

The value for Sweden as a whole, counted as one unit, not an average of the 290 municipalities. Large municipalities therefore weigh more than small ones.

If a share goes from 20 to 25 %, it has risen by 5 percentage points, but by 25 per cent. We write percentage points when comparing two shares.

An index compares against a base value, usually set to 100. Index 110 means 10 % above the base, index 90 means 10 % below.

That the figure has been recalculated as if all municipalities had the same age structure. That way differences in, for example, ill health show up without an older population skewing the result.

What is left to live on after tax, plus benefits such as child benefit and housing allowance.

The taxable income per resident in the municipality. It shows how large a tax base the municipality has to fund schools, healthcare and social care.

The municipal and regional tax rates combined. Church fees and burial fees are not included.

People moving in minus people moving out over a year. Positive net migration means more people moved in than out.

Amounts converted to the value of money in one and the same year, so that inflation does not show up as an increase. Current prices are the amounts as they were in that particular year.

Statistics Sweden's (SCB) definition: an area with at least 200 residents where the buildings are no more than 200 metres apart. A municipality can have many urban areas.

SCB's statistical areas within the municipalities. DeSO are small areas with between 700 and 2,700 residents, just over 6,000 across the country. RegSO are larger areas made up of several DeSO and resemble city districts.

R² (coefficient of determination) is a number between 0 and 1 that shows how much of the differences between municipalities on one measure is linked to another. R² 0.64 means that 64 % of the variation follows the relationship. Close to 0 means no clear relationship.

The correlation r runs from minus 1 to 1 and shows how closely two measures move together. 1 means they rise together, minus 1 that one falls when the other rises, 0 that they are unrelated. R² is r squared.

No. Two measures can move together because both depend on something else, such as the size of the municipality. The map shows relationships, not causes.

The trend line is the straight line that best fits a municipality's values over the years. The slope tells you how much the measure changes per year on average.

The distance between the actual value and the trend line. Large residuals mean the value jumps around a lot from year to year.

A measure of spread: how far from the mean the values typically lie. A small standard deviation means the municipalities are similar, a large one that they differ a lot.

How many standard deviations a value lies from the mean. z = 2 means unusually high, z = minus 2 unusually low, z = 0 right in the middle.

The share of municipalities with a lower value. A municipality at the 80th percentile is higher than 80 % of municipalities.

Quantiles split the municipalities into equally sized groups by value. Quartiles give four groups with a quarter in each, quintiles five groups. The median is the boundary in the middle.

The map divides the municipalities into quantile classes, with roughly the same number of municipalities in each colour. Where many municipalities sit close together the classes are narrow, where few are spread out they are wide.

The trend is based on the municipality's percentile year by year, over at least five years. The 15 % with the steepest rise are Improved and the 15 % with the steepest fall Declined. Varied are the 25 % that jump around their trend line the most. The rest are Stable strong, middle or weak. It is a ranking between municipalities, not an absolute verdict.

A range that, with a given certainty, usually 95 %, contains the true value when the figure is based on a sample. The narrower the range, the more reliable the figure.

That a difference or relationship is probably not down to chance. A common threshold is p below 0.05, meaning less than a 5 % risk of seeing the result by chance. Significant does not mean the difference is large.

With few residents, a handful of events is enough to shift a share by many percentage points. Look at several years or at the trend rather than a single year.

Nominal is the amount as it was in that particular year. Real is the amount adjusted for inflation, so you can see whether something has actually become more expensive. House prices and rents can be shown both ways.

How much a value swings over time. High volatility means the ranking jumps a lot between years, low means it stays put.

They share the rank. If two municipalities have the same value at places 10 and 11, both end up at 10.5, so the order is not decided by something arbitrary like the municipality code.

Otherwise a few extreme values would squeeze all the other municipalities into the same colour. So the scale is clipped at percentiles, and values outside get the end colour.

A scale with a neutral middle and two different colours in each direction, for example for a population that is growing or shrinking. The middle is often zero or the national average.

A value that lies far from all the others, often in a very small or very unusual municipality. Outliers can be entirely correct but easily pull an average off course.

An average where some values count more than others, usually by population. The national average is in practice weighted: Stockholm weighs more than Bjurholm.

A scale where each step is a multiplication, for example 10, 100, 1,000. It is used when values span several orders of magnitude, such as population.

A census counts everyone, like the population register. A sample asks some people and scales up to the whole population, which gives a margin of error.

People who are part of a sample but do not respond. High non-response can skew a figure if those who don't respond differ from those who do.

A value calculated where no measurement exists, based on similar places or nearby years. On the map, estimated values are drawn differently from measured ones, for example dashed.

Almost everything is shown as the source published it. Our own calculations are always based on the sources' figures and are labelled: the composite measures Composite and Breadth, Overall trend and Consistently stable places.

The municipality's average ranking across several aspects of a topic, from 0 to 100, where high is good. Each aspect is first converted to a percentile per year, so that kronor, percentages and ratios can be combined.

In how many of the aspects the municipality is in the country's top third. A municipality that is best at half and worst at the rest gets a middling Composite but low Breadth. That is why both are shown.

Only measures with a clear better direction, and only one measure per aspect so the same thing is not counted twice. Measures such as equalisation grants have no good or bad direction and are therefore not included.

A single verdict per municipality for the whole time series: Improved, Declined, Varied, or Stable strong, middle or weak. It is based on the municipality's percentile year by year, see Statistical terms above.

A layer that colours areas by how steady they have been compared with the rest of the country from 2011 to 2024. It measures stability, not whether the area has got better or worse.

No. Future population is SCB's official projection to 2070, and the occupational forecasts come from Arbetsförmedlingen (the Swedish Public Employment Service). We don't project anything ourselves.

A projection calculates what happens if the assumptions about births, deaths and migration hold. It is a scenario, not a prediction, and the legend says so.

Prices tend to revert towards an average within a few years. A straight trend line would therefore often point the wrong way exactly where it is needed.

Arbetsförmedlingen makes its assessment per county, not per municipality. The map shows the county's value in every municipality and labels it as a county value.

No. Some layers contain estimated values where no measurement exists, for example heavy traffic on roads without a counting point. These are drawn dashed so you can tell.

Every layer has a footnote on source and method, and the full description is under sources and method.

CC0. Composite, Breadth, Overall trend and Consistently stable places may be used freely, with no attribution required. The source data they are based on follows its own source's licence.

Open Layers in the map menu and choose one or more layers. The legend shows what the colours mean.

Yes. Choose Compare and add up to four municipalities, and the figures are shown side by side.

Yes, the site is built for mobile, tablet and desktop.

Yes. Tap the compass and choose 3D to see the terrain in perspective.

Every layer has its own legend. The colour scales are chosen so that they can be read even with colour blindness.

The first visit downloads map data. After that it is stored in your browser's cache and loads much faster.

Over a hundred, grouped into themes: population and economy, housing, nature and environment, geology, climate and natural hazards, infrastructure, traffic and energy, services such as schools and healthcare, and elections and society. Under Layers you can see them all and search by name.

An area layer colours municipalities or areas by a value. A point layer shows individual things, such as schools or charging stations. A line layer shows roads, power lines or trails. A raster layer is a continuous image, such as soil depth or air quality, where every cell has its own value.

Yes. Points and lines are drawn on top of areas, so you can for example see schools on top of house prices. Two area layers at once are hard to read, though, so the one you chose last is shown on top.

Under Active layers. There you can turn a layer off with the cross and see the legend for each one.

The legend shows what the colours mean in the active layer, with unit and year. Click a colour in the legend to highlight the municipalities that fall into it.

Grey means the value is missing, usually because the source has not published the figure or it is suppressed for confidentiality because the area is small. Grey never means zero.

Yes, in layers that have a time series. Drag the year slider and the map is redrawn for that year. The number of years varies between sources.

The municipality is the administrative boundary. An urban area is a continuous built-up area with at least 200 residents. Smaller areas such as RegSO and DeSO are SCB's statistical areas within the municipality, with fewer measures but more detail.

More detail is drawn in the closer you get: first counties and municipalities, then urban areas, districts, buildings and finally individual points. Otherwise all of Sweden would drown in dots.

A card opens with the name, the value in the layer you are looking at, and links to the place's own page with more figures.

Yes, under Map style. There you can choose between light and dark maps, terrain and aerial photos, among others.

Yes, in the tools menu you can measure distances and draw your own areas. What you draw is saved in your browser.

Yes. Export gives you an image of the view with source and year in the caption, so it is ready to use straight away.

Every layer is updated when the source publishes new data. The latest update and year are shown in the legend and under sources and method.

Let us know via contact. Many of the layers were added after suggestions from users.

No. Everything on the site can be used without an account. What you save stays in your browser.

Tap Share. The link takes the recipient to the same place, layers and zoom as you see.

Under Saved in the header. The list is in the browser where you saved it.

It stays until you clear your browser data. If you want it on several devices, share the link with yourself.

Tap Share and send the link to yourself, for example by email or in a chat. Open it on your phone or another computer and you'll get the same view.

The place, zoom, map style, active layers, year and what you are comparing. It is all in the link itself, so it works without an account.

Anything personal: saved places, stars, visited places, drawn areas and notes. These stay in the browser where you created them.

Syncing would need an account that stores your data with us. We have chosen not to collect anything about you, so everything stays locally in your browser.

No. Each browser has its own storage. This also applies to private browsing, where everything disappears when the window is closed.

Yes. Save the view with the bookmark and you'll find it under Saved. To reach it from another device, share the link with yourself or bookmark it in your browser.

Yes, the recipient sees the same view as you. Anything you've saved personally is not visible to them, though.

All 21 counties and 290 municipalities, the urban areas and, in the larger cities, districts and smaller areas too.

Take the quiz, and you'll get suggestions based on what matters to you, such as house prices, nature or commuting.

Open the municipality's page. Every figure there is shown next to the county and national figures, and you can add neighbours in Compare.

Yes. Change the language in the menu and the map and pages follow.

No, the site is free. It is funded by sponsors and labelled ads, which never affect figures or rankings.

Only what you send us yourself. Visitor statistics are anonymous and use no cookies. Read more in the privacy policy.

Yes. Our own analyses are CC0 and may be used completely freely. The source data follows its own licence, usually CC0 or CC BY, which requires the original source to be credited. The licence for each layer is listed under sources and method.

Subscribe to the newsletter, which comes out once a month. All changes are also listed under updates.

A small team in Sweden. Read more under about the project.