Sweden's homicide rate hits 13-year low after years of gang violence

STOCKHOLM—Sweden's homicide rate fell to its lowest level since 2012 last year, with police recording 84 murders—a significant drop from the 92 killings in 2024 and far below the peak of 124 in 2020, Reuters reports.

Three years after the center-right Moderate Party formed a coalition government with the Christian Democrats and Liberals—backed by the far-right Sweden Democrats—the administration can now claim a tangible success. All four parties had previously pledged to crack down on crime and gang violence.

Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats, had accused then-Social Democratic Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of failing to "leave no stone unturned" in combating gang-related crime, vowing that his party would take stronger action.

Police Granted New Powers

Swedish police attributed the decline in murders to new methods and expanded authorities, including enhanced wiretapping laws, greater anonymity protections for witnesses in court, tougher penalties, and the introduction of "security zones" where officers can conduct searches without suspicion.

The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention noted that the reduction in gang violence was even more pronounced than initial figures suggest. Nearly a quarter of firearm-related homicides in 2025 were not linked to gang activity but stemmed from a school shooting in Örebro in February of that year, when a 35-year-old former vocational school student killed ten people before taking his own life.

Government Announces Further Measures

In March 2026, a poll by the research firm Indikator Opinion found that Swedish voters ranked "law and order" as their top priority ahead of the September 2026 election. Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer (Moderate Party) declared in December that the fight against gang violence would intensify: "I've made it clear that this train won't be stopping at the station. Now is not the time to slow down."

Since the 2000s, Sweden has seen a sharp rise in homicides and organized crime, with firearm-related murders tripling between 2012 and 2020. From 2018 to 2023, the country had the highest rate of gun homicides in Europe. According to a report last year, both victims and perpetrators in these cases were twice as likely to have a migration background as their share of the total population would suggest.