Sweden's Super Rich Thrive As Stiff Rates Are Reduced

Sweden has experienced a boom in the number of super-rich individuals over the last three decades.

Global cheap chic fashion retailer H&M has made Stefan Persson Sweden's richest person. I Photo: Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship

In 1996, there were just 28 people with a net worth of a billion kronor or more (around $91m or £73m at today's exchange rate), according to a rich list published by former Swedish business magazine Veckans Affärer, as reported by Maddy Savage for BBC News.

Most of these individuals came from families that had been affluent for generations. By 2021, there were 542 "kronor billionaires," as reported by the daily Aftonbladet, collectively owning wealth equivalent to 70% of the nation's GDP.

Sweden, with a population of just 10 million, also boasts one of the world's highest proportions of "dollar billionaires" per capita.

Forbes listed 43 Swedes worth $1 billion or more in its 2024 rich list, which translates to around four per million people, compared to about two per million in the US, home to more than 342 million people.

"This increase has occurred in a somewhat stealthy manner - it wasn't really noticed until after it happened," says Andreas Cervenka, a journalist at Aftonbladet and author of the book Greedy Sweden, exploring the steady rise of Sweden's super-rich.

Sweden had very low interest rates from the early 2010s until a couple of years ago.

This made borrowing money cheap, prompting Swedes with spare cash to invest in property or high-risk ventures like tech start-ups, many of which surged in value as a result.

Although top earners in Sweden are taxed at more than 50% of their personal incomes - one of the highest rates in Europe - Cervenka argues that successive governments, irrespective of political leaning, have adjusted some taxes in a way that benefits the wealthy.

The country abolished wealth and inheritance taxes in the 2000s, and tax rates on income from stocks and payouts to company shareholders are much lower than those on salaries.

The corporate tax rate has also dropped from around 30% in the 1990s to approximately 20%, slightly lower than the European average.