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Moving to Sweden · Healthcare · Reviewed September 4, 2026

Healthcare in Sweden for foreigners

Sweden runs a universal public system. This page covers how a newly arrived American gets inside it, how long that takes, what to do about the period before it happens, and what private cover costs here against what you are used to paying at home.

System modelUniversal public system8 of 15 countries here
Typical private cover$58/mo$696 a year
US employer plan, for scale$777/moLocal cover is 93% cheaper
Rank on premium1 / 15Cheapest first, across every country we cover

General information, not medical advice. What you are entitled to depends on your permit category, your contribution record and your circumstances, and what you are covered for depends on the policy you actually buy. Confirm your position with Sweden's health authority and read the policy documents before you rely on them. For anything clinical, ask a doctor.

The system in brief

SystemTax-funded universal healthcare run by Sweden's 21 regions, not by the national government. You register with a vardcentral (primary care centre), which is the gatekeeper for specialists. Patient fees are small and capped: outpatient visits cost you at most SEK 1,450 (about $150) in any rolling 12-month period, after which you get a frikort and pay nothing; hospital inpatient stays are capped by law at SEK 130 (about $14) per day. Prescription drugs run on a separate ceiling, with a sliding discount that makes medicines free once you have paid SEK 3,800 (about $400) in 12 months. Dental care for adults is largely outside the system and paid separately.
Access for foreignersAccess follows population registration, not citizenship. Once the Migration Agency grants you a residence permit for a stay of one year or more, you register the move with Skatteverket, attend an in-person identity check at a service centre, and receive a personnummer. That number is what gets you into the healthcare system at resident patient fees, plus Forsakringskassan coverage for sick pay and parental leave. Until the personnummer arrives you can be billed at full cost, and permits for employment of one year or less now require you to hold comprehensive private health insurance covering urgent care, hospitalisation, emergency dental care and medical repatriation. Budget for private cover for the first few months in any case, because registration can take several weeks to a few months.
ModelUniversal public system
Typical private cover$58/mo
US employer plan, for scale$777/mo total premium

Care is delivered by Sweden's 21 regions and funded from the same municipal tax you already pay, so there is no separate premium. You register with a vardcentral, which handles routine care and referrals; specialists are generally reached through it rather than directly. Costs are trivial by US standards. A region may charge a visit fee, but your total outpatient charges cannot exceed SEK 1,450 in a rolling 12 months, after which a frikort makes further visits free. Inpatient hospital days are capped by law at SEK 130. Prescriptions run on a parallel ceiling: you pay in full up to SEK 2,000, then a sliding discount kicks in, and after SEK 3,800 in 12 months medicines are free.

The friction is access, not price. Sweden runs a statutory care guarantee, but non-urgent specialist and surgical waits are a long-standing political problem. That is why about 830,000 people, roughly 16 percent of everyone in work, carry a private health insurance policy, mainly to skip queues for specialists and elective procedures. Six in ten of those policies are paid by an employer. Insurance Sweden reported SEK 5.5 billion of premiums across those policies in 2025, an average of about SEK 550 a month, or $58.

The gap to plan for is arrival. Full access follows the personnummer, and permits for employment of a year or less require comprehensive private cover including repatriation. Buy expat health insurance for your first months regardless. Adult dental care sits mostly outside the system with a separate, weaker subsidy.

Universal does not mean immediate or unlimited. Waiting lists for elective procedures and specialist referrals are the usual trade-off, which is exactly the gap private cover is sold to close.

Getting covered, step by step

The order matters more than the paperwork. In a universal public system, entry is not granted by arriving; it is granted by a registration or a contribution, and everything before that is on you.

Who can actually join in Sweden: Access follows population registration, not citizenship. Once the Migration Agency grants you a residence permit for a stay of one year or more, you register the move with Skatteverket, attend an in-person identity check at a service centre, and receive a personnummer. That number is what gets you into the healthcare system at resident patient fees, plus Forsakringskassan coverage for sick pay and parental leave. Until the personnummer arrives you can be billed at full cost, and permits for employment of one year or less now require you to hold comprehensive private health insurance covering urgent care, hospitalisation, emergency dental care and medical repatriation. Budget for private cover for the first few months in any case, because registration can take several weeks to a few months. Check the official rule →

  1. Weeks before you fly: buy a bridging policyMany residence permits require documented medical cover at the application stage, and every route leaves you outside the local system for a period after you land. A monthly international policy covers both. Buy it before you arrive so the start date is the day you travel, not the day you get around to it.
  2. Before you fly: collect your recordsGet a summary from your current doctor, a list of medications by generic name rather than US brand name, immunisation records, and copies of imaging or specialist reports for anything ongoing. Refill prescriptions to cover the first few months, and check the import rules for anything controlled.
  3. On arrival: register your address firstAddress registration is normally the prerequisite for everything else, health registration included, so it goes first in the queue. Take the lease and your permit paperwork with you.
  4. Then: get into the systemEntry is tied to lawful residence rather than to employment. You register your address, then register with the health service and are issued a patient or health number, usually along with a card. Funding comes from general taxation, so there is no separate premium to choose.
  5. Then: work out when cover actually startsCover typically begins once the registration is processed rather than the day you arrive, and the processing time is the whole of your exposure. Some systems also require a minimum period of residence, or a specific permit type, before non-emergency entitlement starts. Check the access rule above before assuming your permit is enough.
  6. Once registered: choose a doctor and use it onceRegister with a local doctor and book a routine appointment before you need one. It is how you learn the referral chain, the appointment system and the out-of-hours arrangement while the stakes are low.
  7. Finally: overlap, then cancel the bridgeKeep the bridging policy running for two or three weeks past the date your local cover is confirmed active. Cancelling on the same day is how people end up with a gap exactly as long as one administrative delay.

The gap between landing and being covered

There is almost always a period where you are living in Sweden and not yet inside its health system. Emergency treatment is generally available to anyone, but a bill can follow if you are not yet registered, and non-urgent care will normally be refused until you are.

How long it lasts depends on how quickly the registration in your case is processed, and that is the one variable you cannot control. Price the exposure rather than guessing at it. At Sweden's typical private premium of $58 a month, bridging cover costs:

Cost of holding bridging cover in Sweden, at $58 a month
If the gap runsTotal costReasonable when
1 month$58You are joining a local payroll and your employer handles the registration.
3 months$174The realistic default for most permit routes: registration, processing, then a card.
6 months$348Self-employed, or on a route where entitlement follows a residence period.
12 months$696You are staying on private cover by choice, or the permit requires it throughout.

Premiums vary with age, declared conditions and the excess you choose. Treat the figure above as a mid-market single-adult benchmark for planning, not a quote.

What private cover buys on top

Once you are inside the local system, private cover stops being a necessity and becomes a trade. What it typically adds:

  • Speed. Shorter waits for specialists, scans and elective procedures is the main thing being bought almost everywhere.
  • Choice of doctor and hospital, including consultants who are not taking public referrals.
  • Language. Access to English-speaking clinicians and English-language paperwork, which matters more in an emergency than it does on a good day.
  • The usual exclusions from public tiers: dental, optical, physiotherapy and some outpatient prescriptions.
  • Direct billing, so the hospital invoices the insurer instead of you, and repatriation or evacuation cover if you are far from major hospitals.

Before buying, read three things: the waiting period for pre-existing conditions, the annual limit, and whether the policy pays the provider directly or reimburses you afterwards. Those three decide what the policy is worth in the week you actually use it.

What it costs against a US plan

Employer-sponsored single coverage averaged about $777 a month in total premium, most of it paid by the employer, before deductibles and out-of-pocket costs. A comparable private policy in Sweden runs about $58 a month , roughly 93% less, and here it usually sits on top of a public entitlement rather than instead of one.

Typical private cover in Sweden against the US employer-plan baseline
MeasureSwedenUnited States
Per month$58$777
Per year$696$9,324
Over three years$2,088$27,972
Difference per year$8,628 less in Sweden
Share of the average local net salary2%18%
What it buys youCover on top of, or ahead of, the universal public systemYour primary route to care

The two figures are not like for like, and the difference is the point. The US number is a total employer-sponsored premium for a single adult, most of it paid by an employer and invisible on a payslip, and it still sits in front of deductibles, copays and out-of-network billing. The Sweden figure is what an individual pays out of pocket for private cover in a market where a public tier exists underneath it. The salary-share row is the one to read if you are taking a local job rather than keeping a US one.

See how the rest of the budget compares in Sweden →

Private cover across every country we cover

Sweden ranks 1 of 15 on typical private premium, cheapest first, at $58 a month. The median across the dataset is $130, which puts Sweden 55% below it. The range runs from $58 in Sweden to $465 in Germany.

Typical monthly private cover for a single adult, cheapest first
CountryRankPer monthPer yearSystem model
Sweden · this page1$58$696Universal public system
Norway2$60$720Universal public system
Portugal3$75$900Universal public system
Spain4$90$1,080Universal public system
Canada5$95$1,140Universal public system
New Zealand6$95$1,140Universal public system
United Kingdom7$112$1,344Universal public system
Australia8$130$1,560Mixed public and private
Mexico9$150$1,800Mixed public and private
Japan10$160$1,920Social health insurance
Thailand11$180$2,160Mixed public and private
Netherlands12$182$2,184Social health insurance
Ireland13$184$2,208Mixed public and private
Italy14$200$2,400Universal public system
Germany15$465$5,580Social health insurance
United States (baseline)Not ranked$777$9,324Employer-sponsored premium

A cheap premium and a cheap system are different claims. A low figure in a mainly-private market often means a low ceiling on what the policy pays; a low figure alongside a universal public system usually means the policy is only buying speed.

What each funding model costs to sit on top of

Private premiums are not random across countries; they track what the public tier already does. Grouping every country in the dataset by funding model shows the pattern, and shows which group Sweden belongs to.

Typical private premium by healthcare funding model, across the 15 countries covered on this site
Funding modelCountriesMedian premiumRange
Universal public system · Sweden8$93/mo$58 to $200
Social health insurance3$182/mo$160 to $465
Mixed public and private4$165/mo$130 to $184

Read the median as what the market charges to top up that model, not as what healthcare costs in it. Where a public tier is broad, private cover is priced as an upgrade. Where there is no public tier to fall back on, the same monthly figure is buying your whole route to care.

The short list, before you fly

  • Check whether your Sweden permit requires proof of medical cover at application, and what minimum sum it has to cover.
  • Confirm the date your US plan ends, including whether it covers you at all once you are living abroad. Most employer plans do not.
  • Have the bridging policy active from the day you travel, not the day you land.
  • Carry medication in original labelled packaging with a copy of the prescription, and check the import rules for anything controlled.
  • Save the local emergency number and the nearest hospital to your address in your phone in the first week.
  • Ask your insurer, in writing, how pre-existing conditions are treated on the policy you are buying.

Proof of cover is a document requirement on most residence routes, so the insurance decision and the visa decision are the same decision. The Sweden residence routes and what each one asks for →

Health questions about Sweden

How soon do I get healthcare after I arrive?

Full access follows your personnummer, which Skatteverket assigns after you register a move intended to last at least a year and complete an in-person identity check. That can take weeks or months. Permits for employment of one year or less now require you to hold comprehensive private health insurance covering urgent care, hospitalisation, emergency dental care and repatriation. Buy interim private cover regardless. Once registered, outpatient charges are capped at SEK 1,450 a year.

Sources and review

The Sweden figures on this page, meaning the system description, foreigner access and typical private premium, come from the sources below and are reviewed alongside the rest of the Sweden dataset. The US premium is the KFF employer-survey figure held in our US baseline.

What these numbers are. The headline figures were re-derived from primary sources during review. Some category indices could not be matched to a published statistic and are reasoned estimates, marked as such in the list below. Where a source entry says a value is derived, estimated or crowd-sourced, that is exactly what it is: no international body publishes a like-for-like index for every category, and private insurance premiums are not published at all in most countries. Rent figures are national market averages, so a capital city will run above them. How the dataset is built.

  1. OECD, PPP detailed results 2024, price level indices for Sweden with United States = 100 (verified from this endpoint): household final consumption 81.2; food and non-alcoholic beverages 90.8; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels 64.2; transport 117; restaurants and accommodation 97. Every index on this page except utilities is one of these 2024 figures multiplied by 1.147, the ratio of the 2026 overall price level of 93.1 derived below to the OECD's 81.2 for 2024, which carries the stronger krona and Sweden's faster inflation since the 2024 annual average: housing 64.2 x 1.147 = 74 (rent_index_vs_us), transport 117 x 1.147 = 134, restaurants 97 x 1.147 = 111 (dining_index_vs_us). Groceries take a further cut for the fall in food VAT from 12 to 6 percent on 1 April 2026: 90.8 x 1.147 x 1.06/1.12 = 98. utilities_index_vs_us is deliberately not scaled this way; it is built bottom-up from Swedish and US monthly bills, see the derivation entry below. — accessed September 4, 2026
  2. World Bank, PPP conversion factor for private consumption, Sweden: 8.578 LCU per international dollar in 2024 and 8.889 in 2025. Divided by the World Bank official exchange rate of 10.568 SEK per USD for 2024 this reproduces the OECD price level of 81.2, which validates the series; the 2025 factor divided by the 4 September 2026 rate of 9.551 gives 93.1, reduced to about 92 for the 1 April 2026 cut in food VAT. This is the derivation behind col_index_vs_us. — accessed September 4, 2026
  3. European Central Bank euro reference rates, 4 September 2026: EUR/SEK 11.1005 and EUR/USD 1.1622, giving 9.5513 SEK per USD. All conversions in this profile use this rate. — accessed September 4, 2026
  4. Eurostat, comparative price level indices (prc_ppp_ind) - independent cross-check on Sweden and the United States relative to the EU27 — accessed September 4, 2026
  5. Statistics Sweden (SCB), Salary structures whole economy 2025, published 16 June 2026 (figures retrieved from SCB table TAB5709, all sectors, all occupations, both sexes): average monthly salary SEK 42,900, median SEK 38,300, 25th percentile SEK 32,000, 90th percentile SEK 61,700. The work permit threshold is 90 percent of the median (SEK 34,470) and the EU Blue Card threshold is 1.25 times the average (SEK 53,625). — accessed September 4, 2026
  6. OECD Taxing Wages 2025: net personal average tax rate for a single Swedish worker with no children at 100 percent of the average wage is 22.64 percent of gross earnings. Applied to the SCB average salary of SEK 42,900 this gives SEK 33,187 net a month, or $3,475. — accessed September 4, 2026
  7. Statistics Sweden (SCB), Rents for dwellings 2025 (figures retrieved from SCB table TAB4618, average annual rent per dwelling, all ownership categories): two-room apartments SEK 89,030 a year nationally (SEK 7,419 a month) and SEK 100,817 in Greater Stockholm (SEK 8,401 a month); three-room apartments SEK 108,968 nationally. These are regulated first-hand rents and normally include heating and water. — accessed September 4, 2026
  8. Statistics Sweden (SCB), Rents in newly constructed dwellings 2024 (figures retrieved from SCB table TAB6421): two-room apartments averaged SEK 11,522 a month in Greater Stockholm and SEK 9,875 nationally. Used for rent_1bed_center_usd because new-build and second-hand contracts, not queue-allocated first-hand contracts, are what a new arrival can actually rent. — accessed September 4, 2026
  9. Eurostat, electricity prices for household consumers (nrg_pc_204), consumption band DC (2500-4999 kWh), all taxes and levies included: Sweden EUR 0.2711 per kWh in 2025-S2, about 31.5 US cents at the ECB rate above. Used only as a cross-check on the SCB national price below; a unit price is not the basis of utilities_index_vs_us. — accessed September 4, 2026
  10. US Energy Information Administration, average price of electricity to ultimate customers, residential sector: 17.30 cents/kWh for calendar year 2025 and 17.45 to 18.83 cents across January-May 2026. Against the Swedish price this makes Swedish household electricity about 1.8 times the US level per kilowatt-hour, which is the figure quoted in watch_out_for. It is deliberately NOT the utilities index: a unit price says nothing about how much energy a Swedish dwelling uses, and Swedish rents normally bundle heating and water. See the utilities_index_vs_us derivation below. — accessed September 4, 2026
  11. Statistics Sweden (SCB), Electricity prices for households by consumer category (table SSDHalvarElHus, EN0301A): in 2025H2 the total price including energy, grid charge, electricity tax and VAT was SEK 3.3923 per kWh in band DB (1,000-2,499 kWh a year, the band a Swedish apartment household falls in) and SEK 2.9920 per kWh in band DC (2,500-4,999 kWh). The DC figure reproduces the Eurostat price above at the ECB rate, which validates the series. Band DB is used for the household-electricity leg of utilities_index_vs_us. — accessed September 4, 2026
  12. Swedish Energy Agency (Energimyndigheten), official energy statistics for multi-dwelling buildings, table EN0101_2 (energy use for heating and hot water per heating method, MWh per apartment and kWh/m2): in 2025 multi-dwelling buildings used 123 kWh per square metre and 10 MWh per apartment for space heating and hot water, actual rather than temperature-corrected (the temperature-corrected figures are 128 kWh/m2 and 10 MWh). This is the heating consumption assumption behind utilities_index_vs_us, and it is measured national consumption, not an assumed basket. — accessed September 4, 2026
  13. Swedish Energy Markets Inspectorate (Energimarknadsinspektionen), Ekonomiska uppgifter - fjarrvarme, file 'Prisinformation per prisomrade', which every Swedish district heating company must report to the regulator. Recomputed directly from the published workbook: for the standard apartment-building customer taking 193 MWh a year, the median reported annual cost across the 436 price areas carrying a 2024 figure was SEK 218,418, or SEK 1.132 per kWh (SEK 194,580 in 2023, SEK 178,923 in 2022). The comparable single-family case, 15,000 kWh a year, had a 2024 median of SEK 18,976, or SEK 1.265 per kWh. Two caveats carried into the index: the regulator's file does not state its VAT treatment, and the level implies these are gross customer bills rather than net; and the median is unweighted across price areas, so small rural networks pull it above what a city customer pays. — accessed September 4, 2026
  14. Derivation of utilities_index_vs_us = 93, on the basis of a typical monthly household bill rather than a unit price. Swedish side, an average apartment: 10,000 kWh a year of district heating for space heating and hot water (Energimyndigheten, actual 2025, 10 MWh per apartment) at SEK 1.132 per kWh (Energimarknadsinspektionen 2024 median, 193 MWh case) = SEK 943 a month; 2,200 kWh a year of household electricity at SEK 3.3923 per kWh all taxes included (SCB 2025H2, band DB, 1,000-2,499 kWh a year) = SEK 622 a month; water, sewerage and refuse SEK 294 a month, scaled from Eurostat's 2025 HICP expenditure weights for Sweden, where CP044 (water supply and miscellaneous services relating to the dwelling) is 9.75 per mille against CP045 (electricity, gas and other fuels) at 51.95 per mille, a ratio of 18.8 percent. Swedish total SEK 1,859 a month, which is $195 at 9.5513 SEK per USD. US side, the reference basket of about $210 a month that this site uses for every country: household electricity about $149 (EIA Table 5.a, a US residential average of 863 kWh a month, repriced at the 2025 average residential price of 17.30 cents per kWh), plus residential natural gas about $43 (EIA, 4,844,636 million cubic feet delivered to residential customers in 2025 at $15.34 per thousand cubic feet, spread over the 143.1 million residential electricity customers in Table 5.a), plus a small allowance for water, sewerage and refuse, which in an apartment is commonly billed to the landlord in both countries. 195/210 = 93. Because Swedish first-hand rents normally bundle heating, water and refuse, about SEK 1,237 of that SEK 1,859 is already inside the rent figures on this page and must not be budgeted twice; the index is nonetheless the like-for-like total, so that it is comparable with countries where those bills arrive separately. Two legs are modelled rather than measured, which is why data_confidence is medium: the 2,200 kWh of household electricity is an assumption (SCB publishes prices by consumption band but not apartment consumption), and the water, sewerage and refuse allowance on both sides is an estimate, because no national statistics office on either side publishes an average household water and refuse bill. — accessed September 4, 2026
  15. Skatteverket, Belopp och procent inkomstar 2026: average municipal tax 32.38 percent, state income tax 20 percent above a skiktgrans of SEK 643,000 taxable income (brytpunkt SEK 660,400), giving a top marginal rate of 52.38 percent; VAT 25 percent standard, 12 percent hotels and restaurants, 6 percent on food from 1 April 2026, books and passenger transport — accessed September 4, 2026
  16. Skatteverket, Liability for taxation: unlimited tax liability for those domiciled in Sweden, staying six consecutive months, or retaining significant connections after leaving — accessed September 4, 2026
  17. Skatteverket, Moving to Sweden - citizen of a non-EU/EEA country: population registration requires a valid residence permit card and an intended stay of at least one year; a personal identity number is assigned on first registration — accessed September 4, 2026
  18. Taxation of Research Workers Board (Forskarskattenamnden), Remuneration rate: the 2026 price base amount is SEK 59,200, so work beginning in 2026 qualifies for expert tax relief on remuneration alone at a monthly salary of at least SEK 88,801; relief runs for seven years and exempts 25 percent of salary — accessed September 4, 2026
  19. Swedish Migration Agency, Work permit for employees: salary requirement SEK 34,470 following the SCB median published 16 June 2026, fee SEK 2,200 for the employee and SEK 1,500 per adult family member, permit up to two years, comprehensive health insurance required for employment of one year or less — accessed September 4, 2026
  20. Swedish Migration Agency, EU Blue Cards: salary threshold SEK 53,625 a month since 15 July 2026, fee SEK 2,000 for the employee, SEK 1,500 per adult family member and SEK 750 per child, first permit nine months to four years — accessed September 4, 2026
  21. Swedish Migration Agency, Self-employed people: SEK 200,000 of own funds required, plus SEK 100,000 for an accompanying spouse and SEK 50,000 per child; fee SEK 2,000; permit a maximum of two years — accessed September 4, 2026
  22. Swedish Migration Agency, Residence permit for higher education studies: funds of SEK 10,656 a month required for 2026 applications, plus SEK 4,440 for a spouse and SEK 2,664 per child; fee SEK 1,500 for adults and SEK 750 for children — accessed September 4, 2026
  23. Swedish Migration Agency, Live with a partner: fee SEK 2,000 for adults and SEK 1,000 for children under 18, permit up to two years, maintenance requirement on the sponsor in Sweden with an exemption for Swedish citizens in well-established relationships — accessed September 4, 2026
  24. Swedish Migration Agency, Visiting Sweden for more than 90 days: a visitor's residence permit costs SEK 1,500 for adults and SEK 750 for children, is valid for one visit only, and does not give the right to work or settle in Sweden — accessed September 4, 2026
  25. Swedish Migration Agency, Extending a work permit: a work permit holder who has worked in Sweden for four of the past seven years can apply for a permanent residence permit alongside the extension; family members qualify after three years; the 2026 self-support buffer for a single adult is SEK 6,243 a month — accessed September 4, 2026
  26. Swedish Migration Agency, Permanent residence permit: confirms permanent residence permits are still granted to work, self-employment, family and doctoral permit holders, subject to financial maintenance and good conduct requirements, and have no expiry date — accessed September 4, 2026
  27. Swedish Migration Agency, Citizenship for adults: new rules in force from 6 June 2026, with a main rule of eight years of habitual residence, seven for the spouse or partner of a Swedish citizen where the couple has lived together for five years, plus self-support, good conduct, and Swedish language and civics requirements — accessed September 4, 2026
  28. 1177 (Swedish national healthcare guide), High-cost protection for outpatient care: patient fees for outpatient visits total at most SEK 1,450 over any twelve-month period, after which a frikort makes further visits free — accessed September 4, 2026
  29. 1177, Patient fees: the fee for inpatient hospital care is capped by law at SEK 130 per day — accessed September 4, 2026
  30. 1177, Prescription medicine costs: you pay full price up to SEK 2,000 in a twelve-month period, then a sliding discount of 25, 75 and 90 percent applies in bands, and medicines are free once you have paid SEK 3,800 — accessed September 4, 2026
  31. Insurance Sweden (Svensk Forsakring), Vardforsakring statistics: about 830,000 people held private health insurance at the end of 2025, roughly 16 percent of employed people aged 15-74, with about 60 percent employer-paid; premium income was close to SEK 5.5 billion, which averages SEK 552 a month per policy, or about $58. This is the basis for typical_private_insurance_usd_month. — accessed September 4, 2026
  32. IRS, Sweden - tax treaty documents: income tax treaty signed 1994 and protocol signed 2005 — accessed September 4, 2026
  33. IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32, section 3.39: the foreign earned income exclusion under section 911(b)(2)(D)(i) for tax years beginning in 2026 is $132,900 — accessed September 4, 2026
  34. Riksdagen, Lag (2004:1192) om konvention mellan Sverige och Amerikas forenta stater om social trygghet - the US-Sweden social security (totalization) convention signed 27 May 1985 and supplemented 22 June 2004 — accessed September 4, 2026
  35. Statistics Sweden (SCB), Population statistics: Sweden's population was 10,610,483 in June 2026, per the key figures published with the January-June 2026 statistical news on 21 August 2026 — accessed September 4, 2026
  36. US Energy Information Administration, Electric Sales, Revenue, and Average Price, Table 5.a (Residential average monthly bill by Census Division and State), 2024 data released 7 October 2025: 143,144,185 US residential customers, average monthly consumption 863.3 kWh, average price 16.48 cents/kWh, average monthly bill $142.26. Repriced at the 2025 average residential price of 17.30 cents/kWh this is about $149 a month, the electricity leg of the US side of utilities_index_vs_us. — accessed September 4, 2026
  37. US Energy Information Administration, Natural Gas Prices: price of natural gas delivered to US residential consumers, $15.34 per thousand cubic feet in 2025 and $14.50 in 2024. Used with residential volumes for the gas leg of the US side of utilities_index_vs_us. — accessed September 4, 2026
  38. US Energy Information Administration, Natural Gas Consumption by End Use: 4,844,636 million cubic feet delivered to US residential consumers in 2025 (4,389,004 in 2024). At $15.34 per thousand cubic feet this is about $74 billion, or about $43 a month spread across the 143.1 million US residential electricity customers, which is the gas leg of the US side of utilities_index_vs_us. — accessed September 4, 2026

Nathan Brooks · Editor, Your New Country

Nathan builds and maintains the Your New Country dataset, reconciling figures from the OECD, Eurostat, the World Bank and national statistics offices, and reading each country’s immigration and tax guidance at the source before it is published.

  • Reads each country’s immigration, tax and health guidance in the original official source rather than in secondary coverage
  • Reconciles every published figure against OECD, Eurostat, World Bank and national statistics releases on a quarterly cycle
  • Publishes the derivation and the access date beside each number, and marks estimates as estimates

Data reviewed September 4, 2026 · source confidence: medium ·methodology

Your New Country publishes reference information, not medical advice and not a statement of your entitlement. Eligibility and cover are decided by Sweden's health authority and by your insurer, not by this page. Confirm both before you travel. Sweden health authority →

Keep going on Sweden

Cost of livingCategory-by-category price levels, rent and a worked monthly budget.Visas & residencyEvery route a US citizen can actually use, with costs and official links.TaxesResidency triggers, the US filing obligation, treaties and FEIE.US vs SwedenEvery figure on this site, side by side against the US baseline.

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