Poverty is decreasing – but the gaps are increasing

The economic standard of the median Swede has increased every year since the 1990s, and continued to increase in 2021. In 2021 alone, the median value rose by 2.7 percent, which means the highest increase since 2015.

The increase in the economic standard in 2021 is mainly due to wage income rising more than the previous year, while labor market support remained at the same level after the sharp increase during the pandemic year 2020.

Biggest income gap in over 40 years

But at the same time as the economic standard is raised, the country's income gaps are increasing.

Statistics Sweden has measured the income statistics with the so-called Gini coefficient – ​​the most common key figure that describes income differences.

The higher the value of the gini coefficient - the more unevenly the income is distributed.

The highest possible value is one.

In 2021, Sweden landed at 0.333, which is the highest level since the measurements started. 

- This means that incomes in Sweden have not been this unequally distributed since at least 1975, says Johan Lindberg.