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Swedish population to hit 10 mln in 2017

Xinhua, April 13, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Swedish population is expected to hit 10 million in 2017, a year earlier than predicted, and immigration is a key reason for the country's rapid growth, according to Statistics Sweden Wednesday.

The Swedish population is growing at record speed and has not grown this fast since the nineteenth century.

In the coming years, the population is expected to grow by around 1.5 percent annually, according to Statistics Sweden, and by 2020, there will be 739,000 more people living in the country than today.

Sweden's population passed the nine-million mark in 2004 and by the end of this year, there will be 10 million people living in Sweden. It will then take only eight years for the population to grow by a further million.

Immigration is a key factor behind the unprecedented rapid population growth. In the next five years, an estimated 857,000 people will immigrate to Sweden, while a total 287,000 are expected to leave the country in the same period, meaning migration will represent an increase of 570,000 people.

Another contributing factor to Sweden's population growth is that the number of births outnumber the number of deaths. Over the next five years, an estimated 623,000 children will be born and 455,000 people will pass away. That means births will outnumber deaths by 169,000.

However, Statistics Sweden also stressed that its population prognosis is uncertain.

A statement from the agency said: "The assumption about immigrants has been changed the nearest coming years compared to the previous projection. This is according to the Swedish Migration Agency that has changed its forecast about asylum seekers. It is always difficult to predict immigration in the short term as well as the long term."

The agency pointed out that the number of asylum seekers and the number of people granted residence permits can be affected by political decisions in Sweden and abroad and that decisions can quickly change on the EU level. Endit