Sweden

Sweden regularly reports hate crime data to ODIHR. Sweden's criminal law contains a general penalty enhancement provision. Sweden includes defamation, hate speech and discrimination crimes in its data. Hate crime data are collected by the National Council for Crime Prevention and are based on information from the police and the prosecution authority. Since 2012, the number of hate crime cases is estimated based on a statistical sample of police reports. Since 2016, hate crime reports are published only every second year. Three different victimization surveys, used to measure unreported hate crime, are conducted regularly at one, two and three-year intervals, respectively.

SELECT YEAR

OFFICIAL DATA

Year	Hate crimes recorded by police	Prosecuted	Sentenced
2020	3150	334	Not available
2019	Not available	Not available	Not available
2018	5858	218	-
2017	Not available	Not available	Not available
2016	4862	257	Not available
2015	4859	255	Not available
2014	4258	279	Not available
2013	3943	161	Not available
2012	5518	344	Not available
2011	5493	347	Not available
2010	5139	440	Not available
2009	5797	450	Not available

About 2009 Data

Police figures include incidents related to defamation, hate speech and unlawful discrimination.

By bias motivation
By type of crime

Download official data

National developments

The government has included the issue of hate crimes as part of the compulsory human rights and equality training for all judges. The mandatory training course is arranged by the Swedish National Courts Administration and is taken by all those training to be judges. In addition, Sweden reported a new initiative that is aimed at improving the recording of hate crimes by police in Skåne County. As part of the initiative, special hate crimes officers will be trained and designated to follow up on cases. The development of joint guidelines with prosecutors and courts is envisaged in order to increase the number of cases prosecuted.