A total of 3,707 offences where hate was the underlying motive were recorded by police. This figure includes 768 offences that fall outside of the OSCE definition of hate crime, which are not presented here.
The prosecution figures show the number of prosecuted hate crimes as of 31 May 2025, and relate to hate crimes reported in 2022.
The breakdown below presents records referring to bias motivations and may include offences that fall outside the OSCE hate crime definition. A number of offences involved more than one bias motivation.
In 2024, Sweden's Criminal Code was amended in chapter 16, section 8, which proscribes the offence of incitement against an ethnic group. When assessing whether the crime is serious, special consideration shall be given to whether the message had particularly threatening or offensive content and was disseminated to a large number of people in a manner that was likely to attract significant attention.
In 2024, the National Operations Department of the Swedish Police Authority developed a module on hate crimes within the "crimes against democracy" course for all community police officers. The focus is on the legal framework, as well as on hands-on practice like victim support, co-operation with civil society orgnaizations, specialist groups for investigation, and what to remember when filing reports.
The Unit against Hate Crime and Violent Extremism (GDB) in Region South, together with the crime report centre 11414, conducted a project aimed at increasing hate crime reporting. The project included the launch of a continuous hate crime training for operators and investigation leaders, to ensure that hate crime reports are properly handled. The Unit was also involved in a project in the Syd Region, where hate crime statistics are shared with the municipality on the school environment and violent extremism. There are plans to hold training sessions for police officers in the municipality on the topics of hate crime, gaming, and violent extremism.
The Swedish Crime Victim Authority conducted an awareness-raising project targeting victims and potential victims of hate crimes, within which a brochure is being created on the subject. Among other things, the brochure will contain general information on hate crimes, victims' rights, how a police report is filed, and what compensation a victim may be entitled to.
In 2024, the Agency for Youth and Civil Society Affairs (MUCF) carried out efforts to increase awareness among decision-makers and officials regarding the vulnerability of young Roma to anti-Gypsyism. MUCF also published the report 'It must not exist – on the vulnerability of young LGBTQI people to honour-related violence and oppression and conversion attempts', as well as organized MUCF's regional network meeting titled "Counteracting Threats and Hate in a Regional Context". The content of the network meeting was based on the government's proposal to give municipalities and regions responsibility for preventing full- and part-time politicians from being exposed to ill health or accidents as a result of threats and violence.
The Swedish Agency for Support for Faith Communities has conducted research on faith communities' vulnerability to hate crimes. The research report will come out in 2025. Training sessions with faith communities and their municipality are planned.
At the beginning of 2024, the National Agency for Education (Skolverket) was tasked by the Government with researching experiences of - and efforts to address - anti-Semitism in schools in Sweden. During 2024, Skolverket included awareness of honour-related violence and oppression as a part of various initiatives to promote democracy and human rights. The Agency also assigned higher education institutions to implement training and teacher training against honour-related violence and oppression, and revised the guidance materials for schools on the topic.
This category includes the following: (1) afrophobic hate crimes; (2) anti-Roma hate crimes; (3) anti-Saami hate crimes; and (4) other racist and xenophobic hate crimes.
This category was reported on under the racist and xenophobic hate crime category. Anti-Roma hate crimes were not broken down into crime categories owing to the low number of incidents reported and to protect the identities of those involved.
Offences under the anti-Christian hate crime category were not broken down by type of crime owing to the low number of incidents reported and to protect the identity of those involved.
Offences under this category were not broken down by type of crime owing to the wide variety of anti-religious bias motives and types of crime.
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published relevant recommendations in its "ECRI Report on Sweden (sixth monitoring cycle)".
The United Nations Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) published relevant recommendations in its "Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Sweden".
ODIHR recognizes Sweden's efforts to report hate crime information and statistics to ODIHR. However, based on the available information, it observes that Sweden has not reported data on hate crimes recorded by the judiciary to ODIHR. Otherwise, ODIHR observes that Sweden has met most of its OSCE commitments on hate crime.
ODIHR recalls that in Ministerial Council Decision 9/09, OSCE participating States committed to collecting reliable data and statistics in sufficient detail on hate crimes, and to reporting such data periodically to ODIHR. ODIHR stands ready to support Sweden in meeting the relevant commitments through the provision of its comprehensive resources and tailored assistance.
For 2024, ODIHR received reports of hate incidents in Sweden from the following civil society organizations:
- The Saami Council (Sámiráđđi)
- European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses
To learn more about these organizations, visit the Contributors page.
All incidents submitted by the above organizations have been analysed by ODIHR. Those that were broadly considered to be hate crimes within the OSCE definition (criminal offence committed with a bias motive) are listed in the tables below according to the bias motivation category. Some incidents involved multiple biases and may be listed in multiple categories.
ODIHR’s insightsFor 2024, ODIHR received reports of 12 incidents that took place in Sweden in the following bias motivation categories: anti-Christian, and racist and xenophobic. ODIHR observes that almost all incidents reported were anti-Christian and mainly involved property attacks targeting Jehovah’s Witnesses, including repeated vandalism and damage to Kingdom Halls and literature carts, as well as one attempted arson. ODIHR also noted an incident in which members of the Saami community were threatened following the killing of reindeer amid a dispute over land use. It should be noted that ODIHR did not receive any reporting related to anti-Roma, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, other religion or belief, anti-LGBTI, gender-based or disability hate incidents in Sweden. This indicates potential gaps in the information reported here. |
Please note that incidents reported here are based on voluntary civil society submissions and as such might not reflect the actual number of incidents or the most targeted communities in Sweden.
To address under-reporting, ODIHR encourages any civil society organizations or groups that monitor hate incidents in Sweden to report these to ODIHR at hatecrimereport@odihr.pl.
To export an Excel sheet with summaries of all incidents from Sweden click here and search by year and country.