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These graphs reveal how much people earn where you live in Sweden

Want to know how much Swedish residents earn? Let's take an in-depth look at the stats.

These graphs reveal how much people earn where you live in Sweden
The graphs also show the income gap between women and men. Photo: Martina Holmberg/TT

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Last year your average Swedish resident earned 287,064 kronor (median annual income), according to preliminary statistics by Sweden’s national number-crunching agency Statistics Sweden.

That’s just below, for example, $30,000, £24,000, 27,000 euros or 2.055 million Indian rupees according to the exchange rate at the time of writing.

But incomes vary a lot depending on where in Sweden you live, and there is a big gap between wealthy residents in Stockholm suburb Danderyd with a median income of 383,988 kronor and rural municipalities such as Eda, close to the Norwegian border, where the median income only racks up to 224,614 kronor.

Let’s take a closer look at the stats in this graph, which is based on the median income of residents aged 20 or older, who were listed in the Swedish national population register (folkbokförda) on December 31st.

If you want to compare women’s and men’s incomes, keep scrolling down.

Men are still earning far more than women, but the income gap is slowly shrinking. Last year, for example, the median earned income for women was 77 percent of men’s median income, a slight increase from a 72 percent share in 1999, according to preliminary figures presented by Statistics Sweden in September.

If we take a look at the graph below, we see that women in fairly affluent areas such as Stockholm suburbs Danderyd, Täby and Nacka earn the most. But again, there is a big gap between them and women in more rural areas, with Perstorp, Ljusnarsberg and Markaryd at the bottom of the income table.

In general, women’s incomes have been rising at a faster rate than that of men in the past couple of decades, with women’s incomes gaining on men’s incomes in 268 out of 290 municipalities.

So what about the other 22 municipalities? We’ll get to that. Keep reading.

The towns where men’s incomes have been rising faster than women’s in the past couple of decades mainly fall into two categories. In the first category we see places that have experienced a booming economy in particularly male-dominated industries, such as the mining hubs of Kiruna and Gällivare. In the second category are areas where the overall income level is low, which tends to affect women more than men, for example in troubled Stockholm suburbs where unemployment is high.

But, again, we see Danderyd at the top of the table, and at the bottom Haparanda on the Finnish border.

Vocabulary

income – inkomst

earn – tjäna

salary – lön

money – pengar

work – arbeta or jobba (slightly more informal)

We’re aiming to help our readers improve their Swedish by translating vocabulary from some of our news stories. Did you find it useful? Do you have any suggestions? Let us know.

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How to avoid falling victim to tax scams in Sweden

Sweden's tax agency, Skatteverket, warns of an increase in scams when it's time for Swedish tax-payers to declare their taxes.

How to avoid falling victim to tax scams in Sweden

Anyone who earned more than 22,208 kronor last year received their tax returns digitally last week, marking the start of tax season.

That also means an expected peak in tax-related scams, Skatteverket warns.

Most of the scams are so-called phishing scams, meaning attempts to steal the victims’ personal information. Fraudsters may for example email a person, pretending to represent Skatteverket, and ask them for, among other things, their banking details.

“We’re seeing these in all channels. They use fake emails, SMS, letters and in some cases even phone calls. It is particularly common in tax declaration times – just when we’re about to send out the tax returns, the e-service opens and it’s possible to declare – but above all when it’s time for tax rebates,” Jan Janowski, a Skatteverket expert, told Swedish news agency TT.

A scam email might for example state that you’re entitled to a tax rebate and that you should click a link to receive it. Don’t click any links, open any attachments or reply to the message. Skatteverket advises that you immediately delete the email or text message.

Another common scam is that you receive a text message claiming to be from Skatteverket, telling you that you owe them money and you need to log in to calculate the amount. The website you’re urged to log in via does not belong to Skatteverket. Don’t click the link.

The agency stresses that it never asks people for their banking details. The exception is that you may be asked for your bank account information if you log into Skatteverket’s website to declare your taxes, but that always first requires you to log into the site.

To receive your tax rebate, you need to inform Skatteverket of your bank account number. You do this not by clicking a link in an email or SMS, but by logging into their website using a digital ID, for example BankID, and submitting your details. Only do this on your own initiative. If someone calls you and asks you to log in with your BankID during the phone call, don’t do it. That’s another common scam.

Skatteverket will also never call you to ask for your bank account or credit card number.

It will be possible to declare your taxes from March 19th. You’ll receive any tax rebate you’re owed by mid-April or early June, depending on when you submit your tax return. These are the dates when fraudsters are likely to attempt the most scams.

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