The number of foreign-born in Sweden has almost doubled between 2000 and 2019. Photo: SVT GRAFIK

More foreign-born people live in Sweden than ever before, Statistics Sweden shows:

In 2018, the group grew by almost 80,000 people and at the turn of the year, the number of those born outside Sweden was almost 1,960,000 - about 19 percent of Sweden's population. Of these, 982 542 were men and 973 027 were women.

The number and proportion of those born abroad has increased throughout the 2000s. In 2000, there were 1,003,798 foreign-born in Sweden and they made up 11.3 percent of the population. At the end of 2018, it was 1,955,569, or 19.1 percent.

The five most common countries for foreign born in Sweden. Photo: SVT GRAPHIC

For a long time Finland is the most common country for foreign born in Sweden. Many of them immigrated from the 1940s onwards - they have now grown older and the Finnish-born group is steadily declining.

In recent years, a large number of people from Syria have immigrated to Sweden and Syria is now the most common country of birth among foreign born in Sweden.

In August 2019, there were for the first time more people born in Iraq than in Finland, Statistics Sweden reports for SVT News.

On August 31, there were in Sweden: 190,209 were born in Syria, 145,602 were born in Iraq and 145,487 were born in Finland.

The distribution between women and men among the foreign-born in Sweden. Photo: SVT GRAPHIC

Looking at the gender distribution among foreign-born from the fifteen most common birth countries in 2018, the largest proportion of women came from Thailand, 78 percent, and Finland 61 percent.

The largest proportion of men was found in Afghanistan, 65 percent and Syria, 56 percent.

Foreign born in the municipalities

Foreign born in Sweden's municipalities. Photo: SVT GRAPHIC

Botkyrka outside Stockholm, with its 42.1 percent, is the municipality that has the highest proportion of foreign-born. Second place is Haparanda in Norrbotten with 41.6 percent. Of these, 82 percent were born in Finland.

Södertälje is the proportion of foreign-born 40 percent and they are in third place.

The lowest proportion of foreign-born is in Piteå with 6.5 percent, Lekeberg with 6.8 percent and Öckerö municipality with 7 percent.

In Sweden's northernmost counties, as well as in Stockholm, Uppsala and Södermanland, Finland is the most common country of birth among foreign-born.

In Värmland, Norway dominates as a country of birth, in all other counties the most common country of birth is Syria.

The foreign-born is mainly looking for metropolitan regions. Photo: SVT GRAPHIC

Among foreign-born, it is generally more common to live in metropolitan areas than in other parts of the country. Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö have a larger proportion of foreign-born than the rest of the country.

In Stockholm, the foreign-born population was 25 percent of the total population. Even in Malmö, the figure is 25 percent, while it is 21 percent for Gothenburg.

In the rest of Sweden, the share of foreign-born persons is 16 percent.