One in five young Swedes still live with their parents

The number of young people aged 18-34 who live at home with their parents doubled in Sweden in just one year after the economic crisis brought with it high interest rates and a slow property market, according to new statistics by European number-crunching agency Eurostat. 

The proportion of young people living with their parents had been on a downward curve since 2019, but between 2022 and 2023 it increased from 12.5 to 21.9 percent – more than its Nordic neighbours Finland (16.3 percent – the lowest in the EU) and Denmark (16.9 percent). 

The proportion of young people living with their parents is still lower in Sweden than the rest of the EU, where the average is 49.6 percent.

Croatia is top of the table, with 76.9 percent of its 18-34-year-old population living with their parents.

Swedish vocabulary: young – ung

Stockholm Bypass to open four years ahead of schedule

One leg of the E4 Stockholm Bypass – a massive infrastructure project to build a motorway link which can take cars past the city in a tunnel – is set to open four years ahead of schedule, the Swedish Transport Administration announced. 

A total of 3.5 kilometres of the bypass will open between Häggvik and Hjulsta, north of the city, in the autumn of 2026.

According to the Transport Administration, it will contribute to shorter journey times for drivers and ease the pressure on nearby roads.

The rest of the Stockholm Bypass is scheduled to open to traffic in 2030.

Swedish vocabulary: a bypass – en förbifart

Catholic school told to make prayer attendance non-compulsory

A Catholic school in Lund, southern Sweden, has been criticised by Sweden’s schools watchdog, reports regional newspaper Sydsvenskan.

The school, Sankt Thomas, organises a monthly gathering with prayers and the singing of hymns, led by a deacon. According to the school’s rules, students are not required to pray, but attendance is compulsory unless they can present a signed note from their legal guardians.

But the Schools Inspectorate argues that, according to Swedish law, confessional elements must be kept separate from the teaching.

It has now ordered the school to notify parents and students that attendance during prayer is voluntary.

Swedish vocabulary: a prayer – en bön

Swedish work permits granted to top international talent drop 20 percent

Sweden approved 20 percent fewer work permits for highly qualified workers in January-May 2024 compared to the same period last year.

That includes both first-time applications and extensions, but the decrease can be seen in both categories, according to the Migration Agency’s statistics, reported by The Local.

Sweden defines highly qualified workers as people in managerial positions, occupations with a requirement for higher education qualifications or equivalent, and occupations that require advanced higher education qualifications.

The number of first-time work permits handed to these groups of applicants fell from 4,583 in the first five months of 2023 to 3,415 in the same period of 2024.

In the same category, a total of 6,209 permits were renewed in the first five months of 2024, down almost a fifth from 7,626 in the same period last year.

Swedish vocabulary: a work permit – ett arbetstillstånd

Wife of imprisoned academic ‘disappointed’ after meeting Swedish foreign minister

The wife of an Iranian-Swedish academic on death row in Iran since 2017 said on Tuesday she was “very disappointed” after meeting Sweden’s foreign minister to pressure him to secure her spouse’s release.

Ahmadreza Djalali, a professor of medicine who holds dual citizenship, was arrested in Iran in 2016 and sentenced to death on espionage charges, accusations his family say are utterly baseless.

The doctor, who remains under threat of execution, began a hunger strike on June 26th.

“They told me they are following the case,” AFP quoted his spouse, Vida Mehrannia, as saying after she and her daughter met Foreign Minister Tobias Billström.

“They didn’t clarify anything,” she said. “I’m very disappointed.”

On June 15th, Tehran freed two Swedes, Johan Floderus, an EU diplomat who had been held in Iran since April 2022, and Saeed Azizi, who was arrested in November 2023, in exchange for Hamid Noury, 63, a former Iranian prisons official serving a life sentence in Sweden.

But Djalali, who was granted Swedish nationality while in jail, was left out of the swap.

Swedish vocabulary: disappointed – besviken