Every benefit system is measured in full-year persons, or full-year equivalents. This allows for comparability between the different types of benefits. The term full-year equivalent refers to the number of individuals who can be supported during an entire year on full benefits. For example, two persons who have both been unemployed full-time for six months amount to one full-year equivalent.

Statistics Sweden annually reports statistics on the number of full-year persons aged 20-64 who receive economic support in the form of social assistance or benefits, such as sickness benefits, sickness or activity compensation (formerly early retirement), unemployment benefits and economic aid.

The number of full-time equivalents rose sharply in the early 1990s. The number rose by almost 60 percent between 1990 and 1994.Except for a few years, the number steadily increased until 2011. Since then the number has been largely at the same level.

The number of full-year persons with sickness or activity compensation, which accounts for about 36 percent of the total number of full-year persons, has decreased since 2006. In 2015 the number decreased by 1.7 percent, to the lowest level since the reporting of full-year equivalents started in 1990.

Since 2002 the number of full-year persons with sickness benefits decreased steadily. This trend was broken in 2011, and in 2015 the number of full-year persons with sickness benefits increased for the fifth year in a row, at that time by 11.9 percent.

The number of full-year persons in labour market programmes increased slightly, while the number of full-year persons with unemployment benefits and economic aid decreased in 2015.

The share of full-year equivalents declines

The share of full-year equivalents in the working population (aged 20-64) was 14.8 percent in 1990. In 1994, this share peaked at 22.6 percent. In 2015, the share of full-year equivalents in the working population was 14.3 percent, which is the lowest share measured.

Major differences among the sexes

Of the full-year equivalents, 53.6 percent are women and 46.4 percent are men. Women are in the majority regarding sickness benefit and sickness or activity compensation, while the number of men is higher regarding unemployment benefits and labour market programmes. However, the number of full-time equivalents with economic aid is evenly divided among the sexes.