Who applies for citizenship? The 2025 numbers and what they mean for your waiting time
About 38 800 citizenships were granted in 2025 versus 65 600 the year before. Sweden’s largest foreign-born groups, the role of Arabic, and why queues may grow as requirements tighten.
In 2025 about 38 800 Swedish citizenships were granted. That is a sharp drop from 65 600 the year before, in 2024. The decline therefore happened before the new knowledge requirements came into force on 6 June 2026, and is due to a combination of fewer applications and longer processing.
Who lives in Sweden with a foreign background? The largest foreign-born groups in 2025 were people born in Syria (194 606), Iraq (141 451), Finland (122 462), Poland (98 311), Iran (87 292), Afghanistan (68 819), Somalia (65 960), India (61 298) and China (40 338). Arabic is thus the second most spoken mother tongue in the country after Swedish.
For anyone waiting for a decision the numbers mean two things. First, the pressure on Migrationsverket is high, since many who arrived in 2015–2016 now meet the residence requirement. Second, everyone aged 16–67 will need to show both language and civics knowledge, which may mean more cases need supplementing before a decision.
Since 15 August 2026 it is Migrationsverket that decides whether you must sit the civics citizenship test at UHR. The test has about 60 multiple-choice questions in 90 minutes, Swedish only, and costs 2 000 kr per sitting from 2027. Anyone with passing grades in the right courses skips the test — the fastest way to avoid an extra wait.
The B1-level reading and listening test must be available by 1 October 2027; the A2-level speaking and writing parts have no date yet. How Migrationsverket handles applications submitted before the tests are available is something the authority will announce. Current processing times are always published on migrationsverket.se.
Our advice: prepare for the knowledge requirements now, wherever you are in the queue. With Arabic, Persian, Somali, Polish and Chinese among the most common languages of applicants, we have built the exercises so you can read the explanations in your own language but practise in real Swedish — it is the Swedish that counts on test day.