Enviromental accounts-Matrial flow acounts year 2024
Slight increase in Domestic Extraction of Natural Resources in 2024
Statistical news from Statistics Sweden 2026-01-29 8.00
Domestic material extraction has begun to pick up again after declining over the past two years. In 2024, a total of 244 million tonnes of natural resources were extracted in Sweden, representing an increase of 1 percent since 2023. Domestic material consumption amounted to 22.8 tonnes per person in 2024 which is an increase of about 3 percent from previous year.
Domestic extraction
In 2024, 244 million tonnes of natural resources were extracted, a slight increase compared with 2023 when extraction amounted to 241 million tonnes. The rise was driven by somewhat higher volumes of biomass, non‑metallic minerals and fossil fuels, with the largest single increase coming from timber production. At the same time, GDP in constant prices grew by 1 percent between 2023 and 2024, but the development in the primary industries – including forestry – was considerably weaker than in the economy as a whole. This means that the increase in timber logging was not sufficient to support the industry’s real production, which was affected by both price fluctuations and developments in other sectors within the A01–A03 aggregate.
Non‑metallic minerals are by far the largest material category, with domestic extraction amounting to 96.5 million tonnes in 2024, of which 90 million tonnes consisted of sand and gravel. This is followed by the extraction of metal ores, totalling 80 million tonnes, where copper is the most important ore (34 million tonnes). Biomass extraction amounted to 67 million tonnes, the majority of which was timber (40 million tonnes).
The post‑pandemic recovery phase pushed production to record levels, but the energy crisis and the weaker economic climate in 2023–2024 reversed this trend. The downturn is not as abrupt as during the 2018 drought, but it illustrates how sensitive the statistics are to major external events.
Domestic extraction by material category, 1998–2024 (million of tonnes)
Domestic material consumption
Domestic material consumption is defined as domestic extraction plus imports minus exports. The domestic material consumption has increased by 3 percent compared to 2023, and increased by 33 percent since 1998, to a total of 242 million tonnes in 2024.
The domestic material consumption of biomass amounted to 64 million tonnes in 2024, an increase of 13.3 percent compared with the previous year. The consumption of non‑metallic minerals, primarily sand and gravel, was 99 million tonnes in 2024, an increase of 1.3 percent compared with 2023. Metal consumption totalled 59 million tonnes in 2024, a decrease of 1.4 percent from the previous year. In 2024, the consumption of “Other products” amounted to 1,8 million tonnes, and the consumption of “Waste” amounted to 2 million tonnes.
Resource productivity – which indicates how much economic value in millions of SEK is generated per million tonnes of material – declined by 10.9 percent for biomass when measured in constant prices. This means that the economy became noticeably more material‑intensive in this category over the period. For the business sector as a whole, the decrease was far more modest at 2.4 percent, highlighting the contrast: biomass exhibited a markedly weaker development than other material flows and thus contributed substantially to the overall deterioration in resource efficiency.
Domestic material consumption by material category, 1998–2024 (million of tonnes)
Definitions and explanations
The consumption of natural resources can be monitored in the system of economy-wide material flow accounts (EW-MFA), in the same way that GDP measures a country's performance in monetary terms. One of the main indicators of the EW-MFA is domestic material consumption (DMC), which measures the amount of material extracted in the country, plus imports minus exports.
Material flows are divided into the following main material categories: biomass, metals, non-metallic minerals (mainly sand and gravel), fossil fuels, other products and waste. These are further broken down into 40 subcategories.
The EW-MFA is used to measure the resource productivity of a country’s economy, and to analyse the relationship between resource consumption and GDP. For instance, the DMC indicator is used in the EU Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe.
Since 2013, the EW-MFA has been included in the EU regulation on environmental accounts, which means EU Member States are obliged to report statistics on their material flows to the EU.
Information on domestic extraction, imports and exports, and material consumption by material category is available in the Statistical Database. A file containing basic data and more figures is also available for download on the product page (link under “More about the results” at the top of this page).