Fathers in Sweden took an average of 27 percent of parental leave days for children born in 2021, an increase of one percentage point on the figure for children born in 2020, and the first rise in four years, according to new figures from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan).

It also represents an increase of 7 percentage points since 2010.

“We can see in this year’s report that the number of both days with paid leave and total leave, including unpaid days, taken by fathers has increased for children born in 2021,” said Trude Warner, an analyst for the agency.

The majority of parental leave is taken before the child turns two, before they start preschool, which is why the agency’s report focuses on leave taken in the child’s first two years of life.

Over the same period, the number of days taken by mothers has dropped, with mothers taking an average of 74 percent of days for children born in 2018, 2019 and 2020, with the figure dropping to 73 percent for children born in 2021.

Despite this, mothers still take more than 2.5 times as many days of parental leave than fathers.

In previous years, the number of unpaid days of parental leave taken by mothers increased as the number of paid days decreased, but this wasn’t the case last year.

“The number of unpaid days has dropped for the first time since we started measuring this around ten years ago,” Warner said. “That could be due to the worse economic situation.”

There are also substantial regional differences in whether parents take an equal amount of parental leave, defined by the agency as each parents taking at least 40 percent of the total days of paid leave before the child’s second birthday. 

Parents in Västerbotten were the most equal, with 27.5 percent of parents in this region taking at least 40 percent of days each, followed by Stockholm and Uppsala. These regions all have high numbers of highly educated parents, who are more likely to share parental leave equally. 

At the other end of the scale was Kalmar, where just 12.4 percent of parents shared leave equally. This is also one of the regions with the lowest number of highly educated residents.

Among children born in 2005, mothers took between 91 and 100 percent of parental leave in over two fifths (43 percent) of families. That figure dropped to a quarter (25 percent) for children born in 2021.

The number of fathers who didn’t take any leave at all also dropped over the same period, from 21 percent for children born in 2005 to 10.9 percent for children born in 2021.

This year marks 50 years since Sweden became the first country in the world to extend parental leave to fathers back in 1974, when parents were given 180 shared days of paid leave per child. By 1989, this had reached 450 days, and fathers were given their own earmarked month of leave – the pappamånad – in 1995. This was increased to two months in 2002, with the total number of days increased to 480 days.

In 2016, the number of “use it or lose it” days earmarked for each parent increased to three months.

In 2012, double days were introduced, with parents given 30 days where they can both take parental leave at the same time. This is due to increase to 60 days from July 1st, 2024, and a new rule will be introduced to make it possible for parents to transfer up to 45 days of paid leave to someone other than the child’s other parent.