Just over 76,000 participated in choral singing under the auspices of the study associations in 2025. In total, around 608,000 participated in a couple of hundred different subjects around Sweden.
The number of ongoing employments increased by 0.8 percent compared to February previous year. During the same period, hours worked decreased by 1.2 percent, amounting to 630 million hours. The proportion of sickness absence was 2.6 percent. The total gross pay was 201 000 million SEK.
Swedish GDP increased by 1.9 percent in March, seasonally adjusted and compared with the previous month, according to the preliminary compilation of the GDP indicator. For the first quarter as a whole GDP decreased with 0.2 percent compared with the preceding quarter. Calendar adjusted GDP for March was 2.5 percent higher than in the corresponding month of the preceding year, while GDP for the quarter as a whole was 1.6 percent higher than in the first quarter of 2025.
The volume of retail trade increased by 3.1 percent in March 2026 compared with March 2025. Retail sales in durables increased by 3.0 percent while retail sales in consumables (excluding Systembolaget, the state-owned chain of liquor stores) increased by 3.1 percent. These figures are calendar and seasonally adjusted and calculated in constant prices.
The average interest rate on new agreements for housing loans to households increased to 2.74 percent in March 2026 compared with 2.66 percent in February. At the same time, the average interest rate on households’ new bank deposits rose to 0.47 percent in March, an increase of 0.01 percentage points.