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LIVING IN SWEDEN

The documents you need to prove you are a resident in Sweden

These are the documents you need if you're asked to show proof that you are a resident of Sweden.

Published: 31 August 2020 12:10 CEST
Updated: 18 August 2022 16:41 CEST
The documents you need to prove you are a resident in Sweden
You might call Sweden home, but how can you prove it? Photo: Tina Axelsson/imagebank.sweden.se

Occasionally you may be required to prove that you are legally resident in Sweden, rather than a visitor.

Personal number

The simplest way to prove your identity is if you have a Swedish social security number, called a personnummer. This is issued to everyone who is registered in the Swedish population register, including non-citizens, and it’s a code you’ll use for everything from supermarket loyalty cards to bank accounts to contact with authorities.

To prove you have a personnummer, you can download or print out your personbevis, an extract from the population register, from Skatteverket’s website.

There are different kinds of certificates you can download depending on who you need to prove your residence to, and this can be done instantly as long as you are in the register. If you need it to be stamped and signed, you’ll have to order it to be posted to you which will take longer. 

Once you have a personnummer, you can also apply for a Swedish ID card if you choose to.

This is also done in person at Skatteverket, and requires paying a fee of 400 kronor. The process generally takes a few weeks following your appointment. 

Without a personnummer: Non-Europeans

If you move to Sweden from outside the EU, there’s a lot of official paperwork required.

Before arriving in Sweden for a stay of more than three months you will either need a permit – a visitor’s residence permit for trips of over three months, a work permit if you’re moving for work or a residence permit if you’re moving for family, studies or research. These need to be arranged before you travel to Sweden, and you’ll receive a residence permit card if you are granted a residence permit, which can then be used to show that you’re a resident of Sweden.

File photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT

Without a personnummer: EU citizens

As an EU citizen, freedom of movement means you have the right to travel, live and work in any EU country, so it’s rare that you’d need to prove which country you’re a resident of. In most cases, your EU passport will be enough to show you have the right to live in Sweden.

But in situations where it is necessary, it is harder if you don’t have a personnummer – which may be the case if you’re very new, or don’t meet the criteria for long-term right of residence, for example if you move as a jobseeker.

If you need to show that you’re a resident of Sweden, you could use other forms of documentation, such as rental contracts, utility bills, or an employment contract.

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For members

LIVING IN SWEDEN

IN NUMBERS: Almost one in three Swedes can cycle to work in 15 minutes

Almost 1.2 million Swedes - around a third of the country’s working population - have a commute of less than 15 minutes by bike, new statistics reveal.

Published: 2 April 2024 12:51 CEST
IN NUMBERS: Almost one in three Swedes can cycle to work in 15 minutes

Sweden is a long, narrow country with large distances between its towns and cities. Despite this, 87 percent of the country’s population lives in towns or cities, which make up just 1.6 percent of the country’s surface area.

“Almost 1.2 million of employed people in the country are able to cycle to work within 15 minutes, measured by looking at the distance between their home and workplace. That’s a third of people who are employed,” Statistics Sweden analyst Fredrik Andersson wrote in a comment.

What’s a 15-minute city?

It’s a simple idea which originated in Paris in 2015 with Colombian city planner Carlos Moreno, and has been strongly championed by the French capital’s mayor Anne Hidalgo.

The idea is simple – that anyone living in an undeniably urban environment, like Paris, should have all their daily needs – shopping, education, health, leisure, even work – within an easily reachable 15-minute walk or cycle ride.  

That would mean that each neighbourhood would have amenities like a food shop, a health centre, sports facilities, schools and nurseries and an option to socialise like a bar, café or restaurant. 

“Unnecessary transport times have accelerated our lives, shortened our days to the detriment of family, leisure and the environment,” Moreno argues.

Effectively, the idea is of a return to life before cars became ubiquitous, when people genuinely lived locally.

Varies based on region

In Sweden, figures vary depending on region, and the areas where a higher proportion of the population could commute to work by bike in 15 minutes or less, according to Statistics Sweden’s figures, were most likely to be in smaller municipalities with a population of 100,000 or less. Six in ten of those with a sub-15 minute commute live in municipalities like these.

“At the top we have Kiruna municipality in Norrbotten, where 66 percent of employed people can cycle to work in 15 minutes,” Statistics Sweden analyst Stefan Svanström wrote. “After that comes Fagersta in Västmanland, with 64 percent, then Arvidsjaur in Norrbotten, also with 64 percent.”

Most of the municipalities with short commutes have small populations, as well as a small number of towns with large distances between them. This means that most people living in these areas work in the same town they live in, which is usually compact, so it doesn’t take long to cycle to different parts of town.

This particular set of statistics only looked at the distance from home to work, so things like closeness to food shops, doctors or schools were not taken into consideration, although in practice these amenities are also likely to be situated in municipalities’ central towns, too.

When looking at the country’s four largest municipalities – Malmö, Uppsala, Stockholm and Gothenburg, Malmö had the largest percentage of people who were able to cycle to work within 15 minutes: 43 percent, followed by Uppsala on 37 percent, Stockholm on 30 and Gothenburg on 28.

“In commuter towns like Ale and Härryda outside of Gothenburg, as well as Lomma outside Malmö and Knivsta between Uppsala and Stockholm, only around one in ten working people are able to cycle to work in under 15 minutes. That’s the lowest percentage in the country,” Andersson said.

Why more women than men?

The figures also varied depending on gender – 56 percent of women lived less than a 15 minute cycle ride from their workplace, compared to 44 percent of men.

Some of the most common professions in the country are in healthcare, education and retail, which are more often placed in central areas of municipalities, as well as being areas with a larger proportion of female employees.

“As a result of this, there are more women than men who can cycle to work in under 15 minutes in most municipalities,” Svanström said.

“The largest difference in percent is between Norsjö in Västerbotten, where 53 percent of women can cycle in 15 minutes, while men are on 36 percent,” he added.

In 172 of Sweden’s 290 municipalities, there were areas where more than half of employed people could cycle to work within 15 minutes. Areas where three quarters or more of the employed population could get to work in 15 minutes were most likely to be in the central towns of smaller municipalities with populations below 50,000.

The only municipality with a population of 100,000 or more which had areas where more than three quarters of the population could cycle to work in 15 minutes or less was Umeå, with these areas found in central parts of the city.

In Stockholm, the areas where the highest percentage of workers had a commute of 15 minutes or less by bike were parts of the Oscars kyrka area (73 percent) and Engelbrekts kyrka area (72 percent), both in Östermalm.

Statistics Sweden have made their data available here, so you can check out the figures for the area where you live broken down by region, municipality, “demographic statistic area” and gender.

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