Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

MOVING TO SWEDEN

Here’s why Umeå was just ranked the best place to live in Sweden

Situated seven hours north of Stockholm, Umeå may not be the most famous municipality beyond the borders of Sweden – but there's more to this northern city than meets the eye.

Published: 28 June 2024 10:35 CEST
Here's why Umeå was just ranked the best place to live in Sweden
Students at Umeå University enjoy the sunshine by Universitetsdammen. Photo: Jonatan Stålhös/imagebank.sweden.se

Umeå is in fact the best place to live in Sweden, according to a new ranking by the magazine Fokus. 

The research was carried out by Infostat on behalf of Fokus and looked at factors such as household economy, safety, jobs, education, childcare, healthcare, infrastructure, services, leisure and public economy.

“This is of course great. All of northern Sweden and not least Umeå is on fire right now and offers residents extremely good opportunities to live good lives,” Umeå mayor Hans Lindberg said in a press statement.

Lindberg highlighted the fact that the city has low unemployment, good proximity to nature and good transport links. It was also ranked highly when it came to feelings of safety, has a low gun violence rate, low ethnic segregation and good police presence.

It’s also the largest city in Sweden with no so-called vulnerable areas.

While much of the rest of Norrland is predominantly industrial, Umeå has two universities, so the city benefits from a young population and a thriving cultural scene. Many people outside Sweden may not have heard of it, but it does have one claim to fame internationally: Stig Larsson, the author of the Millennium crime trilogy, grew up in Umeå and wrote some of his earliest work in the city.

And having a university appears to be a common theme in the top three, where Umeå was joined by Luleå, also in Norrland, and Karlstad, on the shores of Lake Vänern.

The study also looked at how different cities fare among varying groups of people who may not want the same things. The best municipalities for people in their twenties, for example, were Solna, Stockholm and Luleå, while families with young children had the same top three as the study as a whole, but in a different order, with Luleå first, followed by Karlstad, followed by Umeå.

Pensioners preferred Örnsköldsvik, also in Norrland, followed by Umeå and Solna.

The worst municipalities overall were Tanum, Älvdalen and Vansbro.

Here’s the top ten:

1. Umeå

2. Luleå

3. Karlstad

4. Lidingö

5. Mölndal

6. Täby

7. Örnsköldsvik

8. Östersund

9. Nacka

10. Lund

And the bottom ten:

281. Heby

282. Gnesta

283. Östhammar

284. Valdemarsvik

285. Flen

286. Vingåker

287. Gagnef

288. Vansbro

289. Älvdalen

290. Tanum

Do you live in Umeå? Do you agree it’s the best place to live in Sweden? Let us know in the comments what you like about it.

Member comments

  1. Unless the university / river has moved since I lived there, that’s Universitetsdammen and not Umeälven in the picture…

    1. Sorry about this! I took that from Imagebank Sweden’s own photo caption but should have double checked it myself. It’s updated now.

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

PROPERTY

‘The Local set this off’: Small Swedish town’s one krona plots go viral

When Götene, a quiet lakeside municipality in Western Sweden, launched a campaign in April to sell plots of land for one krona per square metre, they never could have guessed that they'd be fielding thousands of calls from across the world a few months later.

Published: 1 July 2024 15:35 CEST
'The Local set this off': Small Swedish town's one krona plots go viral

When The Local spoke to Götene’s mayor Johan Månsson on June 24th, the municipality was happy with the results of its campaign, selling three plots since April after receiving 20 expressions of interest. But as it turns out, that was just the beginning of a story Månsson described as “completely surrealistic”.

“We started in April and sold a few plots, then not much happened after that,” Månsson told The Local when we spoke to him again a week later. “We managed to sell two more just before all of this blew up.”

“All of this started last Monday, when SVT Väst [the Swedish public broadcaster’s western Sweden station] picked up the story,” Månsson said. “Then TT [the main Swedish newswire] picked it up, and Aftonbladet did a TikTok thing about it, which went viral nationally.”

Employees at Götene municipality could already see an “explosion” in the number of interested people after that, Månsson said, although up until this point it had only gone viral within Sweden.

Götene’s mayor Johan Månsson. Photo: Götene Municipality

‘Viral media snowball’

“After that came your article in The Local, which I think made this explode on a global level,” Månsson said.

“On Wednesday, we could see it spreading in Europe and then globally, set off a viral media snowball which rolled across the world, getting bigger and bigger by the day.”

“You could see it rolling over Europe, to Asia – mainly India and Pakistan, with it all culminating later in the week when CNN got in touch with me. I just spoke to The Washington Post yesterday, which has led to an interest from the USA, South America and Australia.”

“I think I can safely say we’ve reached all the corners of the earth by now.”

All the media attention has put Götene municipality into “crisis mode”, Månsson said, while describing the situation as “like winning the lottery”. There are only one or two people manning the phone lines, which have been ringing constantly for the past week.

“It’s impossible to handle, we’ve had to pause the campaign until August 7th so we can catch up with all the expressions of interest.”

‘I’m convinced there will be more than enough potential buyers’

It’s not entirely clear how many of the thousands of interested potential buyers will culminate in a sale, Månsson said, as buying property doesn’t give you the right to live in Sweden, so many buyers will need to find another way to stay in the country.

“It’s hard to see exactly what the situation will look like [after August 7th], but it would be very, very strange if we don’t break a new record in the number of plots sold. I’m convinced there will be more than enough potential buyers left over.”

The municipality itself is still open to selling the plots to anyone, whether they currently live in Sweden or not, but Månsson underlined the fact that buyers should make sure that their immigration documents are in order before committing to a plot.

“We can check that the house is being built – that’s our rule. Of course, you need to have the right to stay in Sweden, but that’s not our responsibility, that’s checked elsewhere. And we’ve had to explain that to a few people, of course.”

The municipality has also introduced a new rule, that anyone interested in buying a property needs to have a Swedish bank account, although this isn’t in order to limit the plots to people already living in Sweden, but rather to combat money laundering, Månsson said.

“Anyone from abroad who wants to come here, contribute and enrich our community is more than welcome.”

‘Every family is worth their weight in gold to us’

So, how much would it mean to Götene municipality if all 30 plots of land are sold to families who build homes and settle in the region?

“Every family is worth their weight in gold to us, and it would also make a huge difference to our tax income as such a small municipality,” Månsson said, while adding that schools in particular would benefit from more children in the area. 

“Every single person, every family is worth its weight in gold.”

The equivalent of ‘millions of kronor worth of marketing’

The media interest has also resulted in “millions of kronor worth of marketing” for Götene, Månsson said, with CNN describing the lakeside region as “idyllic” and “rural Sweden at its finest”.

“I’m not convinced that those of us working in the region or the people living here have really taken in what’s happening and what has happened,” he said. “I think it will take a while before we do. It’s fantastic.”

The municipality isn’t sure yet what the next steps for the campaign will be once sales reopen in August, although they’re in discussion about whether more plots could be included. 

“We’ll have to see what happens,” Månsson said. 

SHOW COMMENTS