Cost of Living in Sweden 2026: Rent, Food, Transport and Healthcare

Cost of living in Sweden in 2026

This page answers one question: what does it cost to live in Sweden as an expat? Every figure on it comes from an official source and is labelled with its subject and year: rents from Statistics Sweden (SCB), food and household costs from the Swedish Consumer Agency (Konsumentverket), fares from the public transport operators, and healthcare caps from 1177 and TLV. Where no official figure could be found, the page gives none.

Rent: the largest cost

SCB measures rents in rental flats (hyresrätter) from a sample of about 16,000 flats across Sweden. The figures below are monthly rents for 2026 in the municipalities of Stockholm, Gothenburg (Göteborg) and Malmö. They include heating and water. They do not include household electricity or paid parking spaces. SCB groups flats by number of rooms (rum), not bedrooms. The figures cover rents across the existing stock of rental flats; SCB measures rents in newly built flats in a separate survey.

Median monthly rent for a rental flat, 2026 (SCB)

Average monthly rent for a rental flat, 2026 (SCB)

Each figure is an estimate from a sample, with a margin of error: the Stockholm one-room median, for example, is SEK 6,686 ± 397. Within Stockholm, SCB's figures for the inner city (Inre staden) are higher: a median of SEK 7,255 for one room and SEK 9,916 for two rooms. Across the whole country, SCB's 2026 average rent is SEK 5,640 for one room, SEK 7,742 for two rooms and SEK 9,528 for three rooms (SCB).

Getting a rental flat takes time in Stockholm. Bostadsförmedlingen, the city's housing agency, let 20,861 homes in 2025. The average queue time for an ordinary rental flat, across all the homes it let in and outside Stockholm County, was 9.0 years; for homes in the City of Stockholm it was 12.4 years, and for the inner city 21 years (Bostadsförmedlingen, queue times). For other ways to find a home, see how to find an apartment in Sweden and what to check in a Swedish rental contract.

Food

Konsumentverket calculates each year what nutritious, varied food costs when cooked from its own 30-day menu. Its 2026 figures, per person per month (Konsumentverket):

The second column leaves out five lunches a week; Konsumentverket does not include what those lunches cost, so add your own figure. For two adults and two children aged 4–6 and 7–10, it puts food at about SEK 8,440 a month. Konsumentverket says these are estimates of a reasonable standard, not statistics on what households actually spend.

Other personal and household costs

Konsumentverket's 2026 figures also cover other everyday costs (table). For one adult aged 25–50:

Konsumentverket assumes a single person lives in a flat of two rooms and a kitchen, about 60 square metres, and already owns basic furniture; it spreads the cost of things like furniture over the years they last. Its figures cover about 40 percent of a household's costs. They leave out housing, transport, healthcare and dental care, childcare, eating out, holidays, education and gifts (Konsumentverket).

Example: monthly total for one person

The totals below add SCB's 2026 median rent for a two-room flat (the flat size Konsumentverket assumes for one person) to Konsumentverket's 2026 figures for one adult aged 25–50 who lives alone and cooks every meal at home. Konsumentverket's water and sewage line (SEK 220) is left out, because SCB's rents already include water.

What the total includes: rent with heating and water, food, clothes, leisure, a mobile phone and subscription, hygiene, household electricity, home equipment, media and home insurance.

What it does not include: public transport (see below), income tax, patient fees and medicines, dental care beyond one check-up a year, eating out, travel and holidays, childcare, and the cost of setting up a home from scratch.

Transport

SL, Västtrafik and Skånetrafiken are selling 30-day tickets at half price for part of 2026, because of state support for public transport. The end dates differ:

• Stockholm (SL): a 30-day ticket costs SEK 530 for adults and SEK 325 at the reduced price, which applies to, among others, pensioners over 65, people under 20 and full-time students with a student card that carries SL's logo. 2 December 2026 is the last day to buy and activate a 30-day ticket at this price; after that, 30-day tickets are sold at the ordinary price. SL's ticket pages, when we checked in October 2026, showed only the reduced price. If you subscribe to SL's monthly ticket (månadsbiljett), the lower price also applies to the December ticket. A 75-minute single ticket costs SEK 43 for adults and is not discounted (SL).
• Malmö (Skånetrafiken): a 30-day ticket for the "Liten zon och storstad" (small zone and large city) band (Malmö, Lund, Helsingborg) costs SEK 655 at the ordinary price, or SEK 327.50 if bought by 2 November 2026; a ticket bought on 2 November can be activated until 2 December (Skånetrafiken).
• Gothenburg (Västtrafik): 30-day tickets are on sale at half price until 2 December 2026. Prices depend on the zones you travel in; check them on Västtrafik's site.

Electricity

SCB's rents do not include household electricity. Konsumentverket's 2026 estimate for a one-person household is SEK 400 a month, covering lighting, fridge and freezer and home electronics but not heating or ventilation. For today's spot prices in Sweden, see the Nordic electricity prices tool.

Healthcare

Patient fees are set by each region, but national caps limit what you pay in any 12-month period (1177, TLV):

• Outpatient care: at most SEK 1,450 in visit fees over 12 months; a region may set a lower amount. Once you reach it you get a frikort and pay nothing for outpatient visits for the rest of that period.
• Prescription medicines: at most SEK 3,800 over 12 months for medicines covered by the high-cost protection, which includes most prescription medicines. You pay the full cost up to SEK 2,000 and a discounted price above that. TLV states the cap stays at SEK 3,800 in 2026.
• Hospital stays: at most SEK 130 per day, by law.

Example, Stockholm County: an outpatient visit costs SEK 275 for adults aged 18–84, whether at a vårdcentral or a specialist clinic; a visit to a närakut costs SEK 375 and to a hospital emergency department SEK 400. People aged 85 or over pay no outpatient fee (1177, Stockholm County). Other regions set their own fees.

Dental care is free up to and including the year you turn 19. After that, dental care has its own rules and cost protection, and you pay a larger share yourself. If you come from another EU or EEA country or Switzerland, a European Health Insurance Card gives you urgent, necessary care at the normal patient fee; without it you may have to pay the full cost. For registering with a clinic, see how to find a GP in Sweden and how Swedish healthcare works.

Childcare

In municipalities that apply the national maximum fee (maxtaxa), the highest preschool (förskola) fee from 1 July 2026 is (Skolverket):

• first child: 3% of the household's fee-basis income (avgiftsgrundande inkomst), at most SEK 1,547 a month
• second child: 2%, at most SEK 1,031 a month
• third child: 1%, at most SEK 516 a month

From 1 July 2026 the first SEK 10,000 of a household's monthly income is left out of its fee-basis income, and a household with an income below SEK 10,001 pays no fee.

Tax and take-home pay

This page does not restate tax rates. To see what a gross monthly salary leaves after tax, use the Sweden salary calculator, and read how the Swedish tax system works.

Sending money home

This page does not quote fees for any bank or transfer service. To compare what your recipient gets for the same amount in SEK, use the site's send-money tools, for example Sweden to India and Sweden to Poland, and see sending money home from Sweden.

How expensive is Sweden overall?

Eurostat compares price levels across Europe with the EU average set at 100. In 2025, Sweden's price level for household consumption was 121.0. Denmark was at 139.7, Norway at 128.6 and Finland at 120.8. For food and non-alcoholic beverages Sweden was at 109.9, and for restaurants and accommodation at 123.4 (Eurostat).