Stockholm County

Just over two and a half million people live in Stockholm County, more than in any other county in Sweden, and it also has the country's youngest population. This is where you find the largest job market, the highest incomes and the highest share of people with a long university education. But the county is not one single place. It is an inner city, a ring of suburban municipalities strung along the commuter trains, the metro and the Roslagsbanan line, and an archipelago and countryside to the north, south and east where everyday life looks completely different. Where in the county you end up decides almost everything.

Rich on average, very uneven in the detail

Incomes are well above the national average, but the gap between municipalities is wide, from just over SEK 330,000 in Botkyrka to just over SEK 510,000 in Danderyd. Täby, Nacka, Ekerö, Vaxholm and Nykvarn are also among the well-off, places where few people live on a low economic standard. In Danderyd almost two in three adults have a long post-secondary education, in Norrtälje and Nynäshamn it is roughly one in five.

Unemployment follows the same pattern. It is under three per cent in Vaxholm and Ekerö but close to nine in Södertälje. Södertälje and Botkyrka also have some of the lowest incomes, and it is there, together with Stockholm, Huddinge, Haninge, Sigtuna and a string of other municipalities, that the police lists of vulnerable areas are found. Södertälje has six, among them Hovsjö, Ronna and Geneta. In northern Botkyrka, Fittja, Alby and Hallunda are on the list, and in Stockholm, among others, Rinkeby, Tensta and Husby. The reputation is often harsher than everyday life for the people who live there, but the differences from the nearby streets of detached houses are real, in incomes, schools and safety. Stockholm has the highest crime rate in the county, but reported crimes are counted where they happen and are inflated by shopping and visitors.

Commuter trains, metro and buses

The county is held together by its rail lines, and journey time often decides where people choose to live. Solna and Sundbyberg, with metro, commuter trains and the cross-town light rail, lie a quarter of an hour or less from the city centre, and in Solna almost nine in ten of those who work there come from another municipality. Danderyd also draws in plenty of commuters, partly to the hospital, and Sigtuna has Arlanda, the country's largest workplace.

Huddinge, Täby, Nacka and Sollentuna are to a large extent municipalities you travel out of to work. Huddinge has no metro, and everyday life becomes fragile when the commuter trains are cancelled. In Täby you can feel cut off if you live far from the Roslagsbanan line, and in Nacka a great deal depends on buses crowding towards Slussen while waiting for the metro, which is planned for around 2030. Further out, it is bus or car. From Norrtälje the bus to Stockholm takes around an hour, and only about one in seven people who work in the municipality come from outside. Nynäshamn sits where the commuter line ends, and anyone working in the city centre should count on at least an hour door to door.

Where it is growing and where it is most expensive

Nykvarn and Järfälla have grown the most since 2021, and Haninge, Upplands-Bro, Upplands Väsby, Sigtuna, Täby and Sundbyberg are also well above the national average. In Järfälla, Haninge and Upplands-Bro, families with children get more square metres for their money. In Vaxholm, Danderyd and Ekerö the population has instead fallen slightly. In Ekerö rental flats are in short supply, and young people find it hard to stay when they leave home.

It shows in the ages. Sundbyberg and Upplands-Bro have an average age under 39, while Norrtälje is over 46 and Vaxholm just over 45. The housing market is the county's big downside. A first-hand rental contract in Stockholm means queueing for ten to fifteen years, and in Sollentuna those at the front of the queue have waited more than a decade even for the smallest one-room flats. It gets cheaper in Sigtuna, Upplands Väsby, Norrtälje and Nynäshamn, where the rental queue is gentler or detached houses are affordable, but the price is a longer commute.

The archipelago and the nature are what make many people stay. Värmdö, Vaxholm, Österåker and Haninge have islands with ferries, small village shops and jetties, but out there the range of services thins out and ferry timetables and the seasons rule everyday life. Tyresta National Park lies to the south, lakes and nature reserves are found in almost every municipality, and palaces in several. Anyone who wants both big-city amenities and nature close by can find it here, provided the housing can be had and the commute can be endured.