The number of asylum seekers in Sweden fell by 30% in 2025, reaching its lowest level since 1985, and the right leaning government promises to tighten migration laws ahead of elections in September, Reuters reports.
The ruling minority coalition, backed by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, has made reducing the number of asylum seekers a central plank of its policy since coming to power in 2022. It has blamed the previous Social Democrat-led government’s lax migration rules and failed integration process for the rise in gang crime.
Immigration Minister Johan Forsell told reporters that the change is not just about the numbers showing fewer immigrants, but also about who is coming to Sweden. The number of immigrants (excluding refugees from the Ukrainian war) fell to 79,684 in 2025, compared to 82,857 in 2024.
Asylum seekers and their family members made up just 6% of the total number of immigrants,
while in 2018 asylum seekers made up 31% of the 133,000 total immigrants.
The number of people who have left Sweden voluntarily or under the orders of the authorities has increased, and Forsell added that this is the part that is the government’s priority.
The government has begun reducing the number of asylum seekers by making it more difficult to obtain residence permits and citizenship, and has also introduced financial incentives, providing benefits so that immigrants can leave Sweden. Forsell said that there are plans to make the rules even stricter, including when it comes to obtaining citizenship.
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