Benefit systems are measured in full-year persons, or full-year equivalents. This allows for comparability between 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, unemployment benefits, economic aid and introduction benefit.

The number of full-time equivalents rose sharply in the early 1990s; between 1990 and 1994, the number rose by almost 60 percent, but has steadily decreased since then. In 2019, the number had declined to almost the same level as in 1990. Between 2018 and 2019, the number decreased in all compensation forms except in unemployment benefits, where it increased by 11.2 percent.

Full-year persons with sickness or activity compensation, who account for about 32 percent of the total number of full-year persons, have decreased in number since 2006. In 2019, this number decreased by 5.9 percent and has thus decreased by 47.9 percent since 2006.

Since 2010, the number of full-year persons with sickness benefits increased steadily. This trend was broken in 2017, and in 2019 the number decreased for the third year in a row.

Introduction benefit was introduced in 2011 and the number increased sharply until 2017. However, in the last two years the number has decreased sharply, by 31 percent in 2019.

Major regional differences

The number of full-year persons differs in different parts of the country. In a grouping of municipalities by size and location, on average, the proportion was lowest in commuting municipalities near large cities, at 9.5 percent, and highest in rural municipalities, at 16.1 percent.