What do culture and sport cost, and who takes part?
Short answer: The state spends just over 17 billion kronor on culture, media, religious communities and leisure in 2026, of which 2.2 billion goes to sport. Municipalities spent 1,466 kronor per inhabitant on culture and 2,118 kronor on leisure in 2025. The share of adults who are members of at least one association has fallen from 78 percent in 2014 and 2015 to 69 percent in 2023. Among children aged 12 to 18, 46 percent play sport in a club in the families with the lowest income, against 68 percent in those with the highest.
More on the site: State budget shows all expenditure areas, Municipal finances the whole municipal budget, Public service and media media support and public service, Democracy elections and elected representatives, Family policy children's living conditions and Associations the associations in your municipality. Municipal culture spending is also a layer on the the map.
Adult education is the largest item, and it has shrunk.
Expenditure area 17 of the state budget covers culture, media, religious communities, sport and adult education. In fixed prices spending has been between 16 and 20 billion kronor a year since 2011, except during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, when crisis support lifted it to 25 and 28 billion. Adult education, that is the study associations and folk high schools, received 4.1 billion in 2025 against 5.8 billion in 2021. Support for sport is about 2.1 billion a year.
Outturn in millions of kronor, fixed 2025 prices adjusted with the consumer price index. Adult education is one appropriation up to and including 2023 and two from 2024, one for the study associations and one for the folk high schools; here they are added together. Regional culture is the grant to the regions' cultural activities under the cultural cooperation model. The whole budget, all expenditure areas, is on State budget.
Sports halls have pulled ahead of libraries.
Municipalities pay for most of the culture and leisure close to residents: libraries, arts schools, sports halls, swimming pools and grants to associations. In fixed prices the cost of leisure per inhabitant has risen by 31 percent since 2010, and for sports and leisure facilities by 49 percent. Culture has risen by 6 percent, while libraries cost 4 percent less. The differences between municipalities are large: culture cost 709 kronor per inhabitant in Färgelanda and 2,877 in Umeå in 2025.
Net cost in kronor per inhabitant, fixed 2025 prices: what the municipality pays after fees and grants. Culture includes libraries and the arts school, among other things, and leisure includes facilities, youth centres and grants to associations. Data is missing for 2012. A municipality can have a negative value in a year when income exceeded costs, for example when a facility was sold. The whole municipal budget is on Municipal finances.
Fewer visits than before the pandemic, as many loans.
Public libraries lent 5.0 books and other media per inhabitant in 2025 and had 4.6 physical visits per inhabitant. Visits fell to 2.9 during the pandemic in 2021 and have not returned to the 6.0 of 2019. Among children aged 12 to 18, 58 percent had been to a library in the past six months in 2023, more often in low-income families than in high-income ones, see the table further down.
Loans and physical visits to public libraries per inhabitant, from the National Library of Sweden's library statistics via Kolada. Loans count books, magazines, film and other media but not e-books. The series starts in 2019.
Visits are back at the level before the pandemic.
Museums had 30.0 million visits in 2025, one percent fewer than the year before. The record is 31.6 million in 2019. During the pandemic visits halved. A quarter of the visits in 2025 were by children and young people, and 6 percent were school visits. From 2024 to 2025 visits to state museums outside the central agencies rose by 14 percent, while municipal museums had 7 percent fewer.
Museum visits in millions, Swedish Agency for Cultural Policy Analysis, Museer 2025. Free admission for children and young people at state museums has applied since 2016.
Fewer are members, and even fewer are active.
Seven in ten adults are members of at least one association, but only one in four is active in any. Both shares have fallen since the middle of the 2010s. The difference between groups is large: in the fifth with the lowest income 46 percent are members, in the fifth with the highest 81 percent. Associations include trade unions, housing cooperatives, sport, culture and others.
| Aged 16 and over, percent | 2012/13 | 2014/15 | 2018/19 | 2023 |
|---|
| 2023, percent | Member of at least one association | Active in at least one association | Member of a sport or outdoor association | Member of a culture, music, dance or theatre association |
|---|
Statistics Sweden, Living Conditions Surveys (ULF/SILC), interviews with a sample of the population aged 16 and over. Income is disposable income per consumption unit in the household. Data on at least one association is missing for 2012 and 2013. The associations in your municipality are on Associations.
The state pays per training session.
The state local activity grant, LOK, goes to sports clubs for every participation session with children and young people. The Swedish Sports Confederation distributes it, and the number of sessions also decides how the federations share the rest of the state sport grant. In 2025, 10,291 clubs reported 65.4 million participation sessions, more than before the pandemic. The youngest increased most: among 7 to 12-year-olds there were 19 percent more sessions than in 2019, while those aged 21 to 25 had 3 percent fewer.
- The grant covers participants aged 7 to 25. From autumn 2025 6-year-olds are also counted, accounting for about one million sessions.
- A session must have at least three participants and one leader, and at most 20 participants per leader.
- Each participant counts at most five times a week between 10 and 25 years and three times between 7 and 9 years.
- The appropriation Support for sport is 2,153 million kronor in 2026 in the government's budget.
Participation sessions in millions. Swedish Sports Confederation, LOK grant report 2025 (preliminary figures, May 2026) and the regulations on the state local activity grant from 2023. Municipalities often have their own local activity grant on top of the state one.
Parents' income shows most among girls.
56 percent of children aged 12 to 18 play sport in an association or club. Boys do so more often than girls, and the gap is largest where the family has a low income or the parents little education: there 37 percent of girls play sport against 61 percent of boys whose parents have compulsory schooling only. Museums are visited more often by children of parents with higher education, libraries more often by children in low-income families.
| Aged 12 to 18, 2023, percent | Play sport in a club, girls | Play sport in a club, boys | Exercise until out of breath every week | Have visited a museum | Have been to a library |
|---|
Statistics Sweden, Children's leisure and cultural visits 2023, the child survey within ULF/SILC. The bar shows the share who play sport in an association or club. Museum and library refer to the past six months. Income is the family's disposable income, in fifths. More about children's living conditions is on Family policy.
The grant has fallen by a third.
Study associations run study circles, courses and cultural programmes and receive state grants through the Swedish National Council of Adult Education. In the budget for 2024 the government proposed cutting the grant by 250 million kronor in 2024, 350 million in 2025 and 500 million in 2026. For 2026 the appropriation is 1,496 million kronor, 145 million less than in 2025. The grants and the control of how they are used have been debated for several years.
| What | The facts |
|---|---|
| The appropriation for study associations | 1,641 million kronor in 2025 and 1,496 million in 2026 in the government's budget. |
| Study associations' income for adult education | 4,146 million kronor in 2022, 3,557 million in 2023 and 3,183 million in 2024 in fixed prices, according to the National Council of Adult Education. The income comes from the state, the regions, the municipalities and participant fees. |
| Study associations' participant hours in culture | 1.4 hours per inhabitant in 2025 against 4.4 hours in 2018, see the table of municipalities. |
| Ibn Rushd | In December 2023 the National Council of Adult Education demanded repayment of 146,900 kronor after a review found shortcomings against the basic conditions. In September 2024 the council decided that the association would receive no state grant for 2025 to 2027. The association has decided to wind up its activities. |
The budget bill for 2024 and the Committee on Cultural Affairs reports 2024/25:KrU1 and 2025/26:KrU1, the National Council of Adult Education, Studieförbundens ekonomi 2024, and the council's decisions on Ibn Rushd.
What the parties wanted to spend on culture and sport in 2026.
In the Committee on Cultural Affairs the governing parties and the Sweden Democrats backed the government's budget proposal for expenditure area 17. The Social Democrats, the Left Party, the Centre Party and the Green Party had their own budgets and set out their proposals in special statements. The table shows the difference from the government's proposal.
| Party | In brief | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Moderates, Christian Democrats, Liberals and Sweden Democrats | The government's proposal: 17,337 million kronor for the whole expenditure area, 2,153 million for sport, 145 million less for study associations and 75 million more for folk high schools | Riksdag, 2025/26:KrU1 |
| Social Democrats | 749 million kronor more, including 350 million more for study associations and 100 million each for sport, the arts school and regional culture | 2025/26:KrU1, motion 2025/26:3459 |
| Left Party | 2,458 million kronor more, including 500 million for study associations, 380 million for folk high schools, 425 million for sport and free admission for adults at state museums | 2025/26:KrU1, motion 2025/26:3170 |
| Centre Party | 769 million kronor more, including 500 million for study associations and 225 million for sport | 2025/26:KrU1, motion 2025/26:3747 |
| Green Party | 2,405 million kronor more, including 500 million for study associations, 100 million for folk high schools, 130 million for sport and 200 million for the arts school | 2025/26:KrU1, motion 2025/26:3520 |
Summarised from the Committee on Cultural Affairs report 2025/26:KrU1 of 27 November 2025. The amounts apply to 2026 and are changes from the government's proposal. More about each party on The parties.
Municipality by municipality.
Cost per inhabitant for culture and leisure, libraries and study associations in 2025. Sorted by name.
| Municipality | Culture, SEK per inh. | Leisure, SEK per inh. | Facilities, SEK per inh. | Libraries, SEK per inh. | Arts school, SEK per inh. | Loans per inh. | Library visits per inh. | Participant hours in culture per inh. |
|---|
Net cost 2025. Participant hours refer to study associations' cultural programmes and study circles in culture.
Where the figures come from.
- Source: Kolada. Municipal net costs for culture, leisure, facilities, libraries and arts school, library loans and visits, and study associations' participant hours per municipality 2010 to 2025.
- Source: Swedish Agency for Public Management, state budget outturn per appropriation 1997 to 2025, the same data as State budget.
- Source: Statistics Sweden, associations and Statistics Sweden, children's leisure and cultural visits, the Living Conditions Surveys.
- Source: Swedish Agency for Cultural Policy Analysis, Museer 2025.
- Source: Swedish Sports Confederation, LOK grant 2025 and the regulations on the state local activity grant.
- Source: National Council of Adult Education, Studieförbundens ekonomi 2024, the decision on Ibn Rushd 2023, the board minutes of 4 September 2024 and Ibn Rushd's announcement of winding up.
- Source: Committee on Cultural Affairs report 2024/25:KrU1 and 2025/26:KrU1.
- Not included: how many go to the theatre, concerts and cinema, because we have not found an annual series we can check.
Nothing is estimated by us. Museum visits and LOK support are copied from the reports.