Sweden General election 2022 — Results

At a glance

Sweden's general election of 11 September 2022 delivered a knife-edge victory to the right and a historic breakthrough for the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna), who became the largest party of the right and the second-largest in the country. The right-wing bloc — Moderates, Sweden Democrats, Christian Democrats and Liberals — won 176 of the 349 seats to 173 for the left, a majority of just three seats. The Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterna) of Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson actually increased their vote to 30.33%, their best result since 2002, but it was not enough: their bloc fell short, and Andersson — who in November 2021 had become Sweden's first woman prime minister — resigned. Turnout was 84.21%.

How the vote works

As in every Riksdag election, the 349 members were chosen for a four-year term by party-list proportional representation using the modified Sainte-Laguë method across 29 constituencies, with 39 nationwide adjustment seats ensuring proportionality and a 4% national threshold for representation. Regional and municipal councils were elected on the same day. The Election Authority (Valmyndigheten) administers the vote, and an absolute majority requires 175 of the 349 seats.

The campaign trail

The dominant issues were a wave of gang-related gun and bomb violence that had given Sweden one of the highest rates of fatal shootings in Europe, the soaring cost of living and electricity prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, energy policy and the future of nuclear power, and continued debate over immigration and integration. The campaign confirmed a fundamental realignment: the Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals now openly sought the support of the Sweden Democrats, abandoning the cordon sanitaire that had isolated the party since its entry into parliament in 2010.

The outcome

The Sweden Democrats rose to 20.54% and 73 seats, overtaking the Moderates (19.10%, 68 seats) to become the largest party on the right. On the left, the Left Party took 6.75%, the Centre Party 6.71%, and the Greens 5.08%; on the right the Christian Democrats won 5.34% and the Liberals clung on at 4.61%, just above the threshold. Because the four right-wing parties together edged the four parties of the left by three seats, the right won the right to form a government despite the Social Democrats remaining comfortably the single largest party.

What followed

In October 2022 the Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson became prime minister at the head of a three-party minority government of Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals, governing on the basis of the "Tidö Agreement" negotiated with the Sweden Democrats, who supported the government from outside the cabinet in exchange for influence over migration and crime policy. It was the first time the Sweden Democrats had been brought into a national governing arrangement — a watershed in Swedish politics that ended their decades of isolation and made Jimmie Åkesson's party the effective power-broker of the new majority.

Where the data comes from

Swedish Election Authority (Valmyndigheten) — val.se.

Compiled and reviewed from official results by ElectioMap. See our data methodology.