Crisis preparedness: civil defence, shelters and households
Short answer: In 2025 the state paid out 8.2 billion kronor for societal crisis preparedness, more than twice as much as in 2003 in fixed prices. Sweden has about 64,000 civil defence shelters with room for just under two thirds of the population, but they are located where the risks were judged greatest and 18 municipalities have none at all. In September 2026 half of those asked said they would manage a week without help from society. In 2024 the power grid had an average of 63 minutes of outages per customer, and 6,456 customers were without power for more than a day.
More on the site: Defence on the total defence decision, the new agency and the brochure, Defence on the stocks of medicines and fuel, Agriculture and food preparedness on the emergency food stocks and self-sufficiency, Water on drinking water and The electricity price on the electricity market.
What the state spends on societal crisis preparedness.
In the central government budget, crisis preparedness belongs to expenditure area 6, Defence and societal crisis preparedness. The chart shows the civil part of the area: appropriations to the Swedish Civil Defence Agency (MSB before 2026), the crisis preparedness appropriation that the agency passes on to municipalities, regions and other agencies, the Coast Guard, the Rakel radio system, measures against landslides, SOS Alarm, the Psychological Defence Agency and the Accident Investigation Authority. Much of civil defence is also paid for through other expenditure areas, such as health care, energy and food, and is not shown here.
A package up to 2028
In September 2025 the government presented a new package for civil defence, following an agreement with the Sweden Democrats: 3 billion kronor in 2026, 4.2 billion in 2027 and 4.6 billion in 2028. Counting all expenditure areas, the government says appropriations for civil defence will go from about 2.7 billion in 2022 to about 19.4 billion in 2028.
More for the municipalities
The municipalities received 649 million kronor in 2024 for their work on crisis preparedness and civil defence. In 2026, 400 million in investment support for local supply preparedness and 490 million for municipalities of particular importance to total defence come on top of that.
Swedish Agency for Public Management (formerly the Financial Management Authority), annual outturn of the central government budget, expenditure area 6 area 2 Societal crisis preparedness. Before 2003 the appropriations were organised differently and cannot be compared. Fixed prices calculated with the consumer price index. More on the whole budget on State budget.
Civil defence shelters per municipality.
Shelters were built from the 1940s in basements, garages and rock caverns, mostly in places where the state judged an attack to be most likely. They must be possible to make ready within 48 hours in a state of heightened alert. The table counts every shelter in the Swedish Civil Defence Agency's register and compares the places with the number of people living in the municipality. Few places does not mean residents lack protection, but there are no reserved places.
Few new ones since 2002
Since 2002 only a small number of new shelters have been built. Risk areas where shelters are required now exist in 128 of 290 municipalities.
Defects in their condition
According to MSB's statistics, nearly a third of the shelters had outstanding defects in 2020.
A new law
In February 2026 the government proposed a new law on shelters and protected spaces. Simpler protected spaces are to provide 1.5 million more places, and the county administrative boards are to take over supervision. Since the 2024 budget, 100 million kronor has gone to upgrading shelters.
Swedish Civil Defence Agency, shelter register (open data), and Statistics Sweden population on 31 December via Kolada. Shelters are assigned by their location within municipal borders. The places refer to the shelters as registered, not whether they can be used today.
How well households would manage a week on their own.
The Swedish Civil Defence Agency advises everyone to be able to manage a week without help: food that can be eaten without electricity, heating, a way to get news, and water, 3 to 5 litres per adult per day. The brochure In case of crisis or war, sent to every household in November 2024, is covered on Defence.
After the brochure
In February 2025, 64 percent had read the brochure, and 43 percent said they already had preparedness for at least a week. 63 percent planned to strengthen their preparedness. 39 percent felt worried when they received it, compared with 24 percent when the previous one was sent out in 2018.
Autumn 2026
In September 2026 half said they would manage at least a week without help from society, but 59 percent found it hard to keep enough preparedness at home. The agency is making 2027 a year of preparedness.
Food and water
In a survey commissioned by ICA the same month, 67 percent answered that they would manage less than a week on the food and water at home.
The surveys ask different questions and cannot be compared directly. ICA's is a company's own survey.
When the power goes out.
Without electricity most things stop: heating, water pumps, payments and the mobile network. That is why the grid has its own requirements on how long an outage may last, and the state has a plan for who gets power first if there is not enough. Drinking water and who supplies it are covered on Water.
Outages in 2024
In 2024 an electricity customer had on average 63 minutes of unplanned outages and about one outage during the year. In rural areas it was 72 minutes in the local grid, in urban areas 16. 6,456 customers were without power for more than a day in a row, compared with 3,824 the year before. The storm years 2005, 2007 and 2011 stand out with far more outage minutes than all other years.
At most one day
Under the Electricity Act an outage may not last longer than 24 hours, and after 12 hours the customer is entitled to outage compensation. If there is not enough electricity, grid companies can disconnect parts of the grid. The Styrel planning then decides which essential services get priority. It has never had to be used for real.
Electricity Act (1997:857) chapter 4 section 20, Swedish Energy Agency
Petrol stations and district heating
The Swedish Energy Agency has asked the government for support so that more petrol stations get backup power and can take payment offline, and so that district heating, which heats the homes of about 4.5 million people, can withstand an outage. Oil stocks are covered on Defence.
Swedish Energy Agency's request on state support for energy preparedness measures, 11 June 2025
The municipalities' risk and vulnerability analyses.
By law, every municipality must go through which extraordinary events could affect it, such as long power outages, floods or contaminated drinking water, and gather this in a risk and vulnerability analysis. Based on it, the municipality draws up a plan for handling such events, once every term of office. The state pays for the work through an agreement between the state and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions.
New rules on the way
The Swedish Civil Defence Agency replaced the old regulations on the analyses in June 2026, and a new law is expected to replace the current one in 2027. The government's proposal in July 2026 means the analyses must also cover heightened alert, municipalities must arrange assembly points and aim to manage two weeks on their own resources. The proposal is estimated to cost about 5.4 billion kronor from 2026 to 2029.
Act (2006:544) chapter 2 section 1, MCFFS 2026:9, Government, 5 July 2026
The parties' positions on civil defence.
The table summarises the parties' positions in the Riksdag decision on total defence 2025 to 2030 in December 2024. All parties support a build-up; the differences concern how it should be governed.
| Party | Route | Source |
|---|---|---|
| The government (M, KD, L) and SD | Support the bill and the new goals for civil defence, without reservations. The package for 2026 to 2028 came about through an agreement between the government and SD. | Report 2024/25:FöU2, government 16 September 2025 |
| Social Democrats | Want a state rescue services agency and a review of the Civil Protection Act. | Report 2024/25:FöU2, reservations 42 and 43 |
| Centre Party | Want civil planning frameworks, functional requirements for essential services and a separate preparedness sector. | Report 2024/25:FöU2, reservation 41 |
| Left Party and Green Party | Want to keep the previous goals for civil defence and put the protection of the civilian population first. | Report 2024/25:FöU2, reservation 40 |
Committee on Defence report 2024/25:FöU2, Riksdag decision 17 December 2024. All 45 reservations came from S, V, C and MP. The parties' positions on military defence are covered on Defence.
Where the figures come from.
- Appropriations: Swedish Agency for Public Management (formerly the Financial Management Authority), annual outturn of the central government budget, and Statistics Sweden's consumer price index.
- Shelters: Swedish Civil Defence Agency, shelter register, open data. Population: Statistics Sweden via Kolada.
- Households: MSB and the Swedish Civil Defence Agency (Norstat), ICA Gruppen (Verian).
- Power outages: Energy Markets Inspectorate, Delivery reliability in Sweden's electricity grids 2024. Styrel and the request: Swedish Energy Agency.
- Laws, proposals and the parties: government press releases, the Swedish Civil Defence Agency's regulations and the Riksdag's open data.
The series were retrieved in October 2026.