2023 SME COUNTRY FACT SHEET

SWEDEN
Brief introduction
SME DEVELOPMENT 2021-2022
• In 2022, SMEs in Sweden continued their recovery, with SME valued added growing by
2.8% and SME employment increasing by 1.2%. However, as value added growth is not NUMBER OF
adjusted for inflation, in the high-inflation environment of 2022, growth in real terms has been ENTERPRISES +1.5%
lower.
• The Proximity, Social Economy & Civil Security ecosystem, for example, is one of the few NUMBER OF
ecosystems in Sweden that generated significant growth in SME employment in both 2021 PERSONS
EMPLOYED
+1.2%
(3.7%) and 2022 (5.3%). SME value added in this industrial ecosystem also grew, by 9.1%
in 2021 and by 1.2% in 2022. Please note that value added growth is not adjusted for
inflation.
• In 2023, it is expected that SME value added in Sweden will continue to grow by 0.3% but
VALUE ADDED +2.8%
SME employment is expected to decline by 0.3%. Please note that value added growth SMEs in the ‘non-financial business sector’. Estimates produced by JRC.
forecasts are not adjusted for inflation.

ENTERPRISES
ENTERPRISES PERSONS
PERSONS EMPLOYED
EMPLOYED VALUE ADDED
VALUE ADDED
NUMBER SHARE NUMBER SHARE € BILLION SHARE

SMEs 681 183 99.8% 1 868 605 56.2% 135.7 47.4%

(0 -249 persons employed)

LAR GE EN T ER PRI S E S 43.8% 52.6%

1 425 0.2% 1 458 951 150.6
(250+ pers ons em pl oy ed)
The data for 2022 are estimates produced by JRC, based on 2008-2020 figures from national and Eurostat databases.

SME-RELATED STRENGTHS AND CHALLENGES

SME-RELATED STRENGTHS AND CHALLENGES
KEY STRENGTHS
• Sweden proposes a conducive business environment for firms and
entrepreneurs. In the 2022 IMD World Competitiveness Ranking,
Sweden ranks in 4th place (but losing 2 places compared to 2021).
Sweden’s high position in the ranking is secured by its very good
performance on business efficiency and infrastructure indicators.
• According to the 2022 EIB Investment Survey, business regulation is
much less of an obstacle for firms in Sweden than in average for the
firms in the EU, with only 9.2% of Swedish firms reporting business
regulation as an obstacle to long-term investment compared to the EU
average of 28%.
• Access to finance conditions in Sweden remain good. While the
country’s EIF loan index in 2021 was slightly below the EU average
and on a continuous declining trend, the equity index remained
increasing and well above the EU average (1 in 2021 compared to the
EU average of 0.23).
• According to the JRC Pitchbook data, a steep increase trend has been
observed in venture capital investments in climate tech start-ups and
scale-ups, with EUR 2.9 billion in 2021 compared to 0.78 in 2020 (39%
of total venture capital investments in 2021, compared to 23.7% in
2020).
KEY CHALLENGES
• The biggest long-term barrier to investment that Swedish firm highlighted
in the 2022 EIB Investment Survey is the availability of skilled staff (90%).
The lack of skilled workers is disproportionately affecting SMEs,
hampering their growth and productivity.
• According to the 2023 Country Report, labour shortages of digital experts
are particularly problematic. More action is needed to increase the pool
of those experts. Estimates indicate that Sweden will have a shortage of
70,000 ICT specialists by 2024.
• On connectivity, while Sweden still ranks high comparatively to the rest
of the EU, the 2022 Digital Economy and Society Scoreboard indicates
that the country has fallen back to 9th place and is below the EU average
on 5G coverage. It has also fallen back to 9th place for digital public
services.
• The Single Market Scoreboard shows that the participation of Swedish
SMEs in public procurement is substantially lower than the EU average.
In 2021, only 27% of bids came from SMEs in Sweden whereas the EU
average was 70.15%.

OTHER KEY SME-RELATED BRIEF INSIGHTS

The 2022 Digital Economy and Society Scoreboard shows Swedish SMEs perform above the EU average on
that Sweden has the highest proportions of SMEs with at environmental measures. According to the data from
least basic level of digital intensity (86%) and enterprises the 2021 Eurobarometer survey, more Swedish SMEs
using cloud services (69%) in the EU. 19% of enterprises have taken resource-efficiency measures, offered
analyse big data and 10% of enterprises use artificial green products or services and invested in clean
intelligence technologies, which puts Sweden above the technologies than the EU average. However, the
EU average. Sweden is one of the leaders in the EU when percentage of SMEs that have benefited from public
it comes to SMEs selling online (33%) and total turnover support measures for their production of green products
from e-commerce (19%). is lower in Sweden (20.4%) than the EU average
The SME Performance Review monitors SME-related developments across the EU. (29.1%).
For more information, please see: https://ec.europa.eu/growth/smes/sme-strategy/performance-review_en