The western city of Gothenburg grew by more than 3,700 people in 2023, passing the 600,000 people milestone in May, according to number-crunchers Statistics Sweden’s latest figures.

Its population has grown by almost 13 percent in the past decade, a faster growth rate than Stockholm’s ten percent but not as fast as Sweden’s third biggest city, Malmö, at 15 percent.

Around 360,000 people live in Malmö, so it’s still not close to overtaking Gothenburg.

Gothenburg, a city known for its industrial port, seafood, football and a lot of men called Glenn, is celebrating its 400th anniversary this year (two years after its actual anniversary, with the festivities postponed due to the pandemic).

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Uppsala, Nacka and Malmö are the three municipalities that have grown the fastest in the past ten years.

The university town of Uppsala has grown by almost 19 percent since 2013, whereas Nacka – a popular commuter suburb for people working in Stockholm – has grown by almost 17 percent.

Nacka is also the municipality that’s seen the fastest population increase in the past two decades, with a 42 percent growth sending it from Sweden’s 21st biggest municipality to the 15th biggest.

Sundsvall on the east coast, some four hours north of Stockholm by car or train and home to Mid-Sweden University, is bottom of the growth table in the past two decades, at barely seven percent.

In May, Sweden also got a new smallest municipality, as Bjurholm passed Dorotea.

A total of 2,377 people were registered as living in Dorotea, a remote town some 200 kilometres west of Umeå, in May. Bjurholm, about 60 kilometres west of Umeå, had one more resident.