Where does Sweden stand in the world?
Short answer: Near the top in most things that measure society: 2 of 173 in democracy, 6 of 193 in human development (HDI) and 3 of 172 in gender equality. The economy as a whole has slipped from 12th in the world in 1960 to 25th, but per person Sweden remains among the 20 richest. See every measure year by year, against the other Nordic countries and the EU, with the governments in the background.
Research as a share of GDP, patents and the European Innovation Scoreboard are on Research and innovation. Exports as a share of GDP and the trading partners are on Trade, exports and imports. Trust in other people compared with other countries and happiness over time are on Trust and quality of life.
Sweden's place, measure by measure.
Percentile 100 = best in the world that year, 0 = worst; the scale starts at the lowest value shown. Grey bands = the governments, see the table below. Dashed line marked new source = the series is spliced there; point at a year before the line to see what changed. Click a chart to enlarge it.
Economy
Welfare
Gender equality
Democracy and government
Climate
Rankings where only Sweden's place may be shown
Sweden's EU contribution and its exports to the EU are on Sweden in the EU.
Their rank when they took office and when they left.
| Prime minister | Parties | Period | At start | At end | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tage Erlander | S | 1946–1969 | |||
| Olof Palme | S | 1969–1976 | |||
| Thorbjörn Fälldin | C, M, FP | 1976–1978 | |||
| Ola Ullsten | FP | 1978–1979 | |||
| Thorbjörn Fälldin | C, M, FP (1981–1982 C, FP) | 1979–1982 | |||
| Olof Palme | S | 1982–1986 | |||
| Ingvar Carlsson | S | 1986–1991 | |||
| Carl Bildt | M, FP, C, KD | 1991–1994 | |||
| Ingvar Carlsson | S | 1994–1996 | |||
| Göran Persson | S | 1996–2006 | |||
| Fredrik Reinfeldt | M, FP, C, KD | 2006–2014 | |||
| Stefan Löfven | S, MP (2021 S only) | 2014–2021 | |||
| Magdalena Andersson | S | 2021–2022 | |||
| Ulf Kristersson | M, KD, L | 2022– |
At start = the year the government took office, at end = the year it left (or the nearest year within the period with data). The change is counted in percentile, so that more countries in the survey does not look like a collapse. Governments shorter than a year often get the same year for both.
What happened around it.
- 1973 The oil crisis: the oil price quadruples and growth slows across the western world.
- 1991–1993 The financial crisis: the banks are rescued, unemployment goes from 3 to 10 percent.
- 1995 Sweden joins the EU.
- 2003 Referendum: no to the euro.
- 2008 The global financial crisis.
- 2015 163,000 asylum seekers in one year, the most per person in the EU.
- 2020 The pandemic.
- 2022 Russia invades Ukraine, energy crisis and high inflation.
- 2024 Sweden joins NATO.
Sweden when you were born, and now.
Rank in the year you were born, or the first year the measure exists, against the latest year.
The countries most like Sweden.
Closest in percentile on six measures at once: GDP per person in purchasing power, life expectancy, democracy, carbon dioxide per person, growth and unemployment.
Near the top, but schools are falling behind.
Sweden is still among the world’s top ten countries in most major comparisons. In the UN’s Human Development Index Sweden shares fifth place, in the World Happiness Report 2026 Sweden comes fifth, and in V-Dem’s democracy index for 2025 only Denmark ranks higher. The gaps at the top are small. Often only a few thousandths or a couple of points separate second and sixth place.
The trend is more mixed. In Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index Sweden scores 80 out of 100 points 2025, the same as the year before, and ranks behind Denmark, Finland and Norway. School results have gone up and down. Swedish 15-year-olds fell in PISA until 2012, recovered in 2015 and 2018, and by 2022 were back at 2012 levels. In PISA 2025 they recorded their lowest results so far in maths and reading and are now level with the OECD average.
The economy hasn’t fallen behind all its neighbours. According to the World Bank, GDP per capita in constant prices grew by about 14 per cent in Sweden between 2010 and 2025. That is faster than in Norway and Finland, but slower than in Denmark and Iceland. Productivity, however, has grown markedly more slowly since the financial crisis than in the years before, something Sweden shares with many other rich countries.
The Nordic countries in five international comparisons
| Country | Human development 2023, rank (value) | Corruption index 2025, score out of 100 | PISA 2025, maths | Happiness 2023 to 2025, rank | Democracy 2025, rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sweden | 5, shared (0.959) | 80 | 464 | 5 | 2 |
| Norway | 2, shared (0.970) | 81 | 452 | 6 | 3 |
| Denmark | 4 (0.962) | 89 | 470 | 3 | 1 |
| Finland | 12 (0.948) | 88 | 469 | 1 | 8 |
| Iceland | 1 (0.972) | 77 | 450 | 2 | 25 |
Sources: UNDP Human Development Report 2025 (data for 2023), Transparency International CPI 2025, OECD PISA 2025 via the University of Jyväskylä and Skolverket (OECD average 463), World Happiness Report 2026 (average for 2023 to 2025) and V-Dem Democracy Report 2026 (liberal democracy, data for 2025). The scores say more than the rankings. At the top the differences are often smaller than the margin of error: Sweden, Denmark and Finland are statistically at the same level in PISA maths, and Iceland, Denmark and Costa Rica could be anywhere between rank 2 and 4 in the happiness survey. Each index also measures something of its own in its own way.
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Has Sweden grown more slowly than its neighbours?
Yes and no. Between 2010 and 2025, GDP per person grew by about 14 percent in Sweden, against about 21 in Denmark, 19 in Iceland, 12 in Norway and 3 in Finland. The Productivity Commission notes that productivity has grown much more slowly since the financial crisis than in the years before. The main causes are probably global, but the commission also points to Swedish factors such as the regulatory burden, the housing market and welfare fraud.
World Bank, World Development Indicators. Produktivitetskommissionen (Productivity Commission) (2025), SOU 2025:96 Fler möjligheter till ökat välstånd (More opportunities for greater prosperity).
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Why did Sweden fall in PISA?
No single reform explains the decline. IFAU reviewed the school reforms of the 1990s and found that results began to fall before municipalisation, school choice and independent schools could reasonably have affected pupils, and that the decline is visible already in the middle years of compulsory school. School choice and independent schools seem to have raised the average slightly but also increased the sorting of pupils. The National Agency for Education notes that part of the rise in 2015 and 2018 may be because pupils were more motivated to try hard on the test.
Holmlund et al. (2014), IFAU report 2014:25. Skolverket (2023), PISA 2022.
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How did Sweden get to low corruption?
The researchers examined trials of officials for misconduct in office between 1720 and 1850. They conclude that it wasn’t the wars themselves that produced an honest administration, but the defeat against Russia in 1809 and the new constitution and new government that followed.
Teorell and Rothstein (2015), Scandinavian Political Studies.
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Why are the Nordic countries so happy?
Researchers point to the welfare state, well functioning public institutions, high trust between people and a strong sense of being in control of one's own life. The weather, and the fact that the countries are small or homogeneous, explain little, and it is unclear whether small income gaps matter at all.
Martela, Greve, Rothstein and Saari (2020), World Happiness Report 2020.
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Does high trust make countries richer?
There is evidence for it. One study measured trust among descendants of immigrants in the US, since it reflects trust in their ancestors’ home countries. It found that trust had a large effect on growth around the world during the 1900th century. The method has been criticised: with more reliable rounds of survey data, the link between inherited trust and trust in the home country becomes considerably weaker.
Algan and Cahuc (2010), American Economic Review. Müller, Torgler and Uslaner (2012), Economics Bulletin.
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How reliable are country rankings?
Read them with care. Indices that combine many measures involve many choices made by whoever builds the index, and it is often unclear what a ranking means and whether it holds up under different weights. That is why the World Happiness Report also gives a range of possible ranks for each country, not just one position.
Ravallion (2012), World Bank Research Observer. World Happiness Report 2026, chapter 2.
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Is Swedish democracy still among the world's best?
Yes. Denmark, Sweden and Norway have the highest scores in V-Dem’s liberal democracy index 2025. Sweden and Norway have the same score, 0.85, against 0.88 for Denmark, and the difference is smaller than the uncertainty in the measure. Finland comes eighth and Iceland twenty-fifth.
V-Dem Institute (2026), Democracy Report 2026.
Where the figures come from.
- World Bank, World Development Indicators (GDP, growth, unemployment, Gini, life expectancy), Worldwide Governance Indicators (rule of law, government effectiveness) and EdStats (PISA). CC BY 4.0.
- Our World in Data, which processes V-Dem (liberal democracy, CC BY-SA 4.0), UNDP (HDI and gender inequality index, CC BY 3.0 IGO), Transparency International (corruption) and Global Carbon Budget (carbon dioxide). CC BY 4.0.
- Further back: Maddison Project Database 2023 (GDP and growth before 1990, CC BY 4.0), Our World in Data's historical life expectancy (Riley, Clio Infra, Human Mortality Database and the UN, before 1960) and the World Bank's national unemployment rates (before 1991). Each splice is a dashed line in the chart.
- Sweden's rank only, read from each report: WEF Global Gender Gap, WIPO Global Innovation Index, EIGE, Reporters Without Borders, World Happiness Report, Brand Finance Global Soft Power Index and Anholt-Ipsos Nation Brands Index.
- The governments: regeringen.se and riksdagen.se.
Rank is counted among the countries with a value that year (World Bank countries, no regions). A year counts only when at least 25 countries have a value. EU, median = the middle rank among the EU's 27 current members.