What would a basic income cost in Sweden?
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Total cost per year
103 billion Swedish kronor
about 10.5 billion US dollars
10.6 million people × 810 Swedish kronor a month × 12 months
Compared with
- Government expense (central) (2022)4.8%
- Government revenue (central, excl. grants) (2024)4.8%
- Tax revenue (central government) (2024)5.8%
- GDP (nominal) (2025)1.6%
Sweden in numbers
Sweden has a population of 10.6 million (2025) and a GDP of 6.57 trillion Swedish kronor (about 669 billion US dollars) in 2025.
Paying everyone 810 Swedish kronor a month would cost 103 billion Swedish kronor a year (about 10.5 billion US dollars), or 1.6% of GDP. That equals 4.8% of central government expense (2022), 4.8% of its revenue (2024), and 5.8% of its tax revenue (2024).
Children only (under 18: 2.16 million) would cost 21 billion Swedish kronor a year (0.32% of GDP); adults only (18 and over: 8.43 million), 82 billion Swedish kronor (1.2%).
Default amount: 810 Swedish kronor a month is the World Bank's international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), converted into Swedish kronor with the World Bank's PPP conversion factor for household consumption (2025) and rounded to two significant figures. It is a reference point, not a policy proposal; change it above.
How to read this
This is the gross cost: the total paid out. The real net cost depends on which taxes fund it, which benefits or tax breaks it replaces and whether the payment is taxed. The population, budget and GDP figures are not all from the same year (see the sources).
Sources for the figures
- Population
- World Bank: population, total (SP.POP.TOTL), and population by single year of age 0 to 17 (SP.POP.AG00.FE.IN … SP.POP.AG17.MA.IN), 2025
- SP.POP.AG00.FE.IN … SP.POP.AG17.MA.IN
- Government expense and tax revenue
- World Bank: central government expense, revenue excluding grants and tax revenue, % of GDP (GC.XPN.TOTL.GD.ZS, GC.REV.XGRT.GD.ZS, GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS), 2022, 2024
- Default amount
- World Bank: international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), June 2025 update
- World Bank: PPP conversion factor, household final consumption (PA.NUS.PRVT.PP), 2025
- Retrieved from the World Bank API on November 9, 2026 (CC BY 4.0). Government figures are central government, as a share of GDP in their own year, applied to the latest GDP.