The Swedish CPI is classified according to the product classification COICOP – Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose. COICOP is developed by the UN Statistical Commission and is used to categorize household consumption of goods and services by purpose. COICOP is also used by other statistical products at Statistics Sweden.

The previous version (COICIOP 1999) was used for the Swedish CPI during the years 2000-2025. The UN has now developed an updated version – COICOP 2018. As from January 2026 the Swedish CPI, and the EU-harmonized inflation measure HICP, are using COICOP 2018.

More information about COICOP can be found here (in Swedish):

Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP)

The updated version of the classification is available here:

Classification of Individual Consumtion According to Purpose 2018 (pdf)

Aggregates in the CPI

With the classification change, a new set of tables will be made available with the monthly CPI publication. Tables according to COICOP 1999, and the so called “Riksbankstabeller”, will not be updated after December 2025.

An overview of the indices that will be available is found here:

Swedish CPI Aggregates COICOP 2018 (xlsx) (updated 2026-02-16)

To see how the new aggregates corresponds to the old ones, see the following file:

CPI Product group to subclass correspondence key (xlsx) (updated 2026-02-16)

In addition to aggregates according to the COICOP classification, a number of special aggregates will also be published starting in 2026. For a detailed listing of which COICOP subgroups (and elementary product groups where applicable) are included in which special aggregates and inflation measures, see the following file:

Swedish CPI Special Aggregates COICOP 2018 (xlsx) (updated 2026-02-16)

Backcasted Series According to COICOP 2018

To help make the users' transition to the new index series easier, Statistics Sweden has published backcasted series according to the new classification for the period 1980-2025. These series have been created by reallocating and, in some cases, splitting the old product groups to fit the new classification. The calculation is based on the indices and weights used in the regular CPI calculation, but some model assumptions have been necessary.

For a detailed description of how the backcasting has been done, see the following document (in Swedish):

COICOP 2018 och nytt basår i KPI och relaterade inflationsmått (pdf)

The backcasted series are available in the same tables as are used for the regular monthly publication as from January 2026. This means that the data in these tables for the period 1980-2025 is backcasted and to some extent model assumptions has been made. From January 2026 onward the series are calculated according to the standard method used for the Swedish CPI.

Differences in Annual Change Between New and Existing Series

The new tables (with backcasted series for 1980-2025) include, among other variables, annual change. The annual change for total CPI is the general measure of inflation in Sweden. It is worth noting that the annual change for CPI in the backcasted series is not always exactly the same as the published inflation rate – there is a difference of 0.1 percentage points in some months. This is due to differences in rounding principles between the published CPI and the new backcasted series. For years before 2026, the inflation rate calculated on CPI 1980=100 remains the official inflation rate. From 2026 onwards, the inflation rate will be calculated on CPI 2020=100.

The Swedish CPI Index Construction

The index construction for the Swedish CPI is complex and consists of several linking elements. Access to all linking elements is necessary for some advanced users of the CPI, but for most users, this information is superfluous. Statistics Sweden has therefore chosen to divide the new tables into a simplified set and a detailed set. The simplified tables contain the variables most users are interested in, i.e., index figures, annual and monthly changes, and weights. The detailed tables contain variables useful only to advanced users.

The Swedish CPI underwent a methodological change in 2005, which means that the variables used in the calculation differ between the old and current methods.

For a description of the old method, see Appendix 3 in SOU 1999:124:

SOU 1999:124 (pdf)

For a description of the current method, see the following document (in Swedish):

Statistikens framställning: Konsumentprisindex (pdf)

For information about the transition between the previous and current method, see the following document (in Swedish):

Förbättrad KPI-konstruktion från januari 2005: Teknisk beskrivning (pdf).

For a description on the variables available in the statistical database, see CPI User Manual.

Impact analysis

Exactly how these changes will affect the inflation rate in 2026 is difficult to predict, as this depends on how prices for different product groups develop during the year. However, Statistics Sweden (SCB) has conducted an analysis of how the corresponding changes would have affected inflation estimates if they had been introduced a year earlier, i.e., already in January 2025. The analysis shows that the overall impact would have been relatively small; for all periods and inflation measures, the methodological effect in 2025 would have been less than one-tenth of a percentage point.

More information is available here (in Swedish): Effekt av klassifikations- och basårsbyte för KPI och relaterade mått (pdf)

“Riksbankstabeller” will no longer be available

In connection with the transition to COICOP 2018, the calculations of the “Riksbank Groups” will be terminated, which means that all the so-called “Riksbankstabeller” will be discontinued.

New reference year for CPI and CPIF

As from 2026, the reference year for both CPI and CPIF is 2020, replacing the current reference years of 1980 (for CPI) and 1987 (for CPIF). For more information regarding the change of reference year, see the following document:

New reference year for the Swedish CPI (pdf)

As from January 2026 the CPI series with reference year 1949 will no longer be produced.

More information

For more information regarding the change of classification and reference year, please see the following documents presented to the Swedish CPI Advisory Board in May 2025 and October 2025 (both in Swedish):

COICOP 2018 och nytt basår i KPI och relaterade inflationsmått (pdf)
COICOP 2018 och nytt basår uppdatering (pdf)