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Crime · Sweden · Updated 2026-10-26

Does Sweden have more rapes than the rest of Europe?

Sweden's police recorded 92.61 rapes per 100,000 people in 2025 (Brå), and in Eurostat's 2024 table Sweden's rate of 88.22 was the highest of 33 countries and UK jurisdictions; Brå's recount of 2016 under German legal and counting rules gives 15 for that year, against 64.06 in Eurostat's table, and in the EU survey 41.0% of women in Sweden reported sexual violence by a non-partner since age 15 or by a partner at any time in their life, the highest of 30 countries (EU estimate 17.2%).

Every figure in this summary is calculated from the sources listed on this page.

Rapes reported to police in Sweden per 100,000 people, 2025

Rape offences (completed and attempted, including rape of a child) reported to the police, per 100,000 people. Sweden, Calendar year 2025 (Eurostat: 2024). Unit: per 100,000 people.

92.61per 100,000 people, 2025

63Trust scoreModerate certainty

Only one source – not confirmed by others. Agreement can't be measured, so the score can't reach High.

Score breakdown

Quality32 / 40

How well the sources are made

Agreement15 / 30

Unknown with one source, so set to half

Independence6 / 20

How many separate ways the number was measured

Freshness10 / 10

How recent the newest data is

How much each source counts

  • Brå100%

Shown but not counted: Eurostat (republishes Brå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2).

Sources

SourceValueDefinitionQualityWeight
Brå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2Brottsförebyggande rådet (Brå), Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention · Police and justice recordsRetrieved 2026-10-2692.612025
Rape, aggravated rape, rape of a child and aggravated rape of a child (Penal Code chapter 6, sections 1 and 4), completed and attempted, against victims of all ages: every offence registered by the investigating authorities in the year it was reported, before any investigation.

Negligent rape (section 1 a, a separate offence since 1 July 2018; 201 reports in 2025) is not included. 9,813 offences in 2025, divided by the mean population (average of SCB's 31 December 2024 and 2025 figures, 10,596,620), as Brå does.

2025 rate from Brå Tabell 1.2 (https://bra.se/download/18.11dab50419d723e44d315605/1776153587705/10La_anm2_fr1950.xlsx); the series is computed from Brå's counts in Tabell 1.1 (https://bra.se/download/18.11dab50419d723e44d315607/1776153587981/10La_anm_fr1950.xlsx) and SCB's population (https://api.scb.se/OV0104/v1/doris/sv/ssd/BE/BE0101/BE0101A/BefolkningR1860N, https://api.scb.se/OV0104/v1/doris/sv/ssd/BE/BE0101/BE0101A/BefolkningR1860NCKM), which reproduces Brå's published rates for 2024 and 2025 exactly. Brå's Tabell 1.2 gives other rates for 2008, 2009, 2011, 2020, 2022, 2023; for 2022 and 2023 they match the count including negligent rape. Of the 9,813 rapes reported in 2025, 2,521 were against children under 15 (Brå Tabell 10, https://bra.se/download/18.11dab50419d723e44d315606/1776153587771/10La_anm_10_ar.xlsx).

4 of 5 checks
  • Yes: Method and definitions published. Brå publishes a quality declaration (RV0102) and a definitions document for the statistics.
  • Yes: Official statistics or peer-reviewed. Official statistics of Sweden, produced by Brå.
  • Yes: Full count or representative sample. Counts every rape offence registered as reported, not a sample.
  • Yes: Raw data downloadable. Yearly counts and rates are free Excel downloads on Brå's reported-offences page.
  • No: No known break or quality problem. The legal definition widened within the series (2013, 1 July 2016, consent law of 1 July 2018), and Brå's own per-100,000 table disagrees with its counts for 2008, 2009, 2011, 2020, 2022, 2023.
100%
Eurostat, police-recorded offences by offence category (crim_off_cat), ICCS 03011 RapeEurostat · Police and justice recordsRetrieved 2026-10-2688.222024
Rape as defined by the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (sexual penetration without valid consent), recorded by the police, per 100,000 inhabitants.

Sweden's figures are supplied by Brå from the same police records; Eurostat notes that Sweden's sexual violence data include offences against children under 18. 9,309 offences for Sweden in 2024, against 9,957 in Brå's own table, which includes 608 attempted rapes.

Republishes Brå's data, so it is shown but not counted. In Eurostat's 2024 table Sweden has the highest rate of the 33 countries and UK jurisdictions with data; the next highest is France (65.95). Metadata: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/metadata/en/crim_sims.htm.

4 of 5 checks
  • Yes: Method and definitions published. Eurostat publishes definitions and country notes in its crime statistics metadata (crim_sims).
  • Yes: Official statistics or peer-reviewed. Official statistics compiled by Eurostat from national statistical authorities.
  • Yes: Full count or representative sample. Built from Sweden's full count of police-recorded offences.
  • Yes: Raw data downloadable. The whole dataset is a free download from Eurostat's database.
  • No: No known break or quality problem. Eurostat's count for Sweden (9,309 in 2024) differs from Brå's (9,957), and the same definition changes as in Brå's series apply.
Not counted
Rapes reported to police in Sweden per 100,000 people, 2025, by source · per 100,000 people
  • Brå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2
  • Eurostat, police-recorded offences by offence category (crim_off_cat), ICCS 03011 Rape
0255075100200820112014201720202025Brå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2, 2008: 59.07Brå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2, 2009: 63.85Brå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2, 2010: 63.55Brå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2, 2011: 69.13Brå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2, 2012: 66.43Brå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2, 2013: 62.67Brå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2, 2014: 69.07Brå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2, 2015: 60.39Brå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2, 2016: 67.67Brå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2, 2017: 73.27Brå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2, 2018: 78.21Brå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2, 2019: 83.48Brå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2, 2020: 90.4Brå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2, 2021: 92.82Brå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2, 2022: 89.33Brå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2, 2023: 88.21Brå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2, 2024: 94.2Brå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2, 2025: 92.61Eurostat, police-recorded offences by offence category (crim_off_cat), ICCS 03011 Rape, 2008: 53.37Eurostat, police-recorded offences by offence category (crim_off_cat), ICCS 03011 Rape, 2009: 58.91Eurostat, police-recorded offences by offence category (crim_off_cat), ICCS 03011 Rape, 2010: 58.66Eurostat, police-recorded offences by offence category (crim_off_cat), ICCS 03011 Rape, 2011: 64.35Eurostat, police-recorded offences by offence category (crim_off_cat), ICCS 03011 Rape, 2012: 62.73Eurostat, police-recorded offences by offence category (crim_off_cat), ICCS 03011 Rape, 2013: 58.96Eurostat, police-recorded offences by offence category (crim_off_cat), ICCS 03011 Rape, 2014: 65.26Eurostat, police-recorded offences by offence category (crim_off_cat), ICCS 03011 Rape, 2015: 56.88Eurostat, police-recorded offences by offence category (crim_off_cat), ICCS 03011 Rape, 2016: 64.06Eurostat, police-recorded offences by offence category (crim_off_cat), ICCS 03011 Rape, 2017: 69.72Eurostat, police-recorded offences by offence category (crim_off_cat), ICCS 03011 Rape, 2018: 74.85Eurostat, police-recorded offences by offence category (crim_off_cat), ICCS 03011 Rape, 2019: 80.85Eurostat, police-recorded offences by offence category (crim_off_cat), ICCS 03011 Rape, 2020: 86.02Eurostat, police-recorded offences by offence category (crim_off_cat), ICCS 03011 Rape, 2021: 89.74Eurostat, police-recorded offences by offence category (crim_off_cat), ICCS 03011 Rape, 2022: 86.38Eurostat, police-recorded offences by offence category (crim_off_cat), ICCS 03011 Rape, 2023: 84.66Eurostat, police-recorded offences by offence category (crim_off_cat), ICCS 03011 Rape, 2024: 88.22
Show the data as a table
YearBrå, Anmälda brott (reported offences), Tabell 1.1 and 1.2Eurostat, police-recorded offences by offence category (crim_off_cat), ICCS 03011 Rape
200859.0753.37
200963.8558.91
201063.5558.66
201169.1364.35
201266.4362.73
201362.6758.96
201469.0765.26
201560.3956.88
201667.6764.06
201773.2769.72
201878.2174.85
201983.4880.85
202090.486.02
202192.8289.74
202289.3386.38
202388.2184.66
202494.288.22
202592.61–

Rapes reported in Sweden per 100,000 people in 2016, recounted under German rules

Rapes reported to the police in Sweden, recounted by Brå with Germany's legal definition of rape and Germany's recording and counting rules, per 100,000 people. Sweden, Reports made in 2016. Unit: per 100,000 people.

15per 100,000 people, 2016

49Trust scoreLow certainty

Only one source – not confirmed by others. Agreement can't be measured, so the score can't reach High.

Score breakdown

Quality24 / 40

How well the sources are made

Agreement15 / 30

Unknown with one source, so set to half

Independence6 / 20

How many separate ways the number was measured

Freshness4 / 10

How recent the newest data is

How much each source counts

  • Brå recount100%

Sources

SourceValueDefinitionQualityWeight
Brå report 2020:13, Reported and cleared rapes in Europe (Swedish original 2020:2)Brottsförebyggande rådet (Brå), Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention · Independent countRetrieved 2026-10-26152016
Brå recounted the rapes reported in Sweden in 2016 the way Germany records them: attempts kept, rape of a child removed, reports dropped where the case was closed at once, found not to be a crime or committed abroad, one offence per complainant instead of per incident, and reports removed where the victim had not physically resisted (for example while asleep or intoxicated), which German law then did not classify as rape (pp.

44-45).

Value from p. 46 (Swedish version p. 45, https://bra.se/download/18.45e4b8e192705389a367b5/1729680770013/2020_2_Anmalda_och_uppklarade_valdtakter_i_Europa.pdf); recorded in scripts/sweden-rape-statistics.manual.json. Brå's Figure 7 has no value labels, so no values are read from it; Eurostat's table gives 64.06 for Sweden in 2016 before the recount. The study covers the years before Sweden's 2018 consent law.

3 of 5 checks
  • Yes: Method and definitions published. Each step of the recount is described in the report (pp. 44-45).
  • Yes: Official statistics or peer-reviewed. Brå report, peer-reviewed by a professor emeritus of sociology (foreword, p. 4).
  • Yes: Full count or representative sample. Starts from all rapes reported in Sweden in 2016; the last step uses case files coded for Brå report 2019:9.
  • No: Raw data downloadable. Built from specially ordered statistics and microdata that are not published.
  • No: No known break or quality problem. Brå calls the result a construct, not the true level; the text gives it as the 2013-2017 average (from 63 to 15) while the chart is labelled 2016.
100%

Women in Sweden who have experienced sexual violence by a non-partner since age 15 or by a partner at any time

Share of women who say they have experienced sexual violence, including rape, by a non-partner since age 15 or by a partner at any time in their life. Sweden, Survey fieldwork September-November 2023. Unit: % of women aged 18-74.

41% of women aged 18-74, 2023

60Trust scoreModerate certainty

Only one source – not confirmed by others. Agreement can't be measured, so the score can't reach High.

Score breakdown

Quality32 / 40

How well the sources are made

Agreement15 / 30

Unknown with one source, so set to half

Independence6 / 20

How many separate ways the number was measured

Freshness7 / 10

How recent the newest data is

How much each source counts

  • EU-GBV100%

Sources

SourceValueDefinitionQualityWeight
EU gender-based violence survey (EU-GBV), Eurostat table gbv_any_type, "Sexual"Eurostat, EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE); FRA and EIGE collected the data for Sweden · Victim surveyRetrieved 2026-10-26412023
Women aged 18-74 living in private households who said they had experienced sexual violence by any perpetrator in adulthood, which Eurostat defines as by a non-partner since age 15 or by a partner at any time in their life.

Includes unwanted intercourse by force or when unable to refuse, attempts, other degrading sexual acts and unwanted sexual touching by non-partners. Rape alone: 21.9% (EU estimate 9.2%). Swedish fieldwork September-November 2023; Eurostat files it as wave 2021.

EU-27 estimate 17.2% (flagged as estimated); Sweden has the highest share of the 30 countries in the table. Sample and fieldwork from Eurostat's quality report (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/metadata/en/gbv_sims.htm), recorded in scripts/sweden-rape-statistics.manual.json.

4 of 5 checks
  • Yes: Method and definitions published. Common EU-GBV questionnaire and methodology, documented in Eurostat's quality report (gbv_sims).
  • Yes: Official statistics or peer-reviewed. Official EU statistics from Eurostat, FRA and EIGE.
  • Yes: Full count or representative sample. Random sample of women from Sweden's population register: 2,562 answered out of 11,933.
  • Yes: Raw data downloadable. Country tables are a free download from Eurostat's database.
  • No: No known break or quality problem. Response rate 21.5%, the second lowest in Eurostat's quality report, and answers were collected online only.
100%

Why the numbers differ

  • Sweden's rape law is broad: it was widened in 2013 (Brå 2020:13, p. 26) and 2016 and has required consent since 1 July 2018. Brå links part of the rise in reports to the 2016 and 2018 changes: 9,813 rapes were reported in 2025, 46% more than in 2016. (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)
  • Sweden counts sex with a child under 15 as rape (2,521 of the 9,813 reports in 2025); in Germany, which Brå used for comparison, sexual activity with a minor is not classified as rape (Brå 2020:13, p. 44). (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)
  • Sweden counts every incident separately, so repeated rapes of one person can become many offences: in 2013-2017 reported rapes averaged 31% more than complainants, and about 300 of the 6,294 rapes reported in 2014 came from one case. Germany would count such a report once (Brå 2020:13, pp. 40-41). (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)
  • Sweden records an offence when it is reported, before any investigation; Germany's statistics count only reported rapes that still stand after the investigation (Brå 2020:13, pp. 44-45). (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)
  • Germany for comparison: Eurostat's police-recorded rape rate for 2016 is 9.64 per 100,000 for Germany and 64.06 for Sweden. Recounted with Germany's rules, Brå puts Sweden at 15 (Brå 2020:13, p. 46). (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)
  • Reporting rates differ between countries and cannot be measured directly, Brå says. In the EU survey, 12.6% of women in Sweden who had experienced physical or sexual violence said they had reported it to the police, against an EU estimate of 13.9%; the table does not separate sexual violence. (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)
  • Police figures count offences reported; the survey counts women who say they experienced violence by a non-partner since age 15 or by a partner at any time in their life, whether or not they reported it. (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)

Common mistakes

  • Reading police-recorded rape rates as a measure of how many rapes happen. Brå advises against using Eurostat's reported-crime figures as a measure of actual crime levels (Brå 2020:13, p. 80). (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)
  • Comparing Eurostat's wider "sexual violence" category (ICCS 0301, which adds sexual assault) with rape figures from other sources. (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)