Migration to Sweden causes record population growth: Statistics Sweden

Immigration sent the Swedish population soaring at an unprecedented rate last year, figures published on Monday showed.

The Nordic country's population grew by 104,000 people during 2015, the biggest year-on-year increase yet recorded as the total count reached 9.85 million, public agency Statistics Sweden said.

Immigration to Sweden accounted for 77 percent of the increase while the rest of the growth was down to fertility rates, the agency said.

Immigration intensified in the summer and early autumn of 2015 before dropping from nearly 12,000 new arrivals per month in September to under 7,000 in November, according to Statistics Sweden.

Sweden received a record 163,000 asylum applications during 2015, according to the country's Migration Agency.

In November, the center-left government introduced measures to abate the influx of migrants, such as temporary work permits for most asylum applicants.

For the second year in a row, the largest group of immigrants were Syrian nationals, accounting for about a quarter of all newcomers, or 31,000 people.

Men have since the spring of 2015 outnumbered women in Sweden for the first time in its history, owing to a hike in male life expectancy, the female mortality rate and male-dominated immigration, Statistics Sweden said. Endit