STOCKHOLM, March 30 (Reuters) – Sweden’s homicide and manslaughter rate fell to its lowest in over a decade in 2025, official statistics showed on Tuesday, as new tools and methods helped police to drive down the gang violence that has plagued the country for 20 years.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (BRA) said 84 people were killed last year, down from 92 in 2024 and well below the peak in 2020 when 124 people were killed.
“The development of the number of cases of deadly violence in 2025 represented the second straight year of decline and was at the lowest level since 2012,” BRA said in a statement.
The statistics are a welcome boost for a right-wing government, which won the 2022 election partly due to a promise to tackle gang violence that had pushed gun-related deaths to the highest level in the European Union.
The BRA added that Sweden’s deadliest mass shooting in February last year, which was not gang-related and in which 10 people were killed, had a significant impact on the statistics for 2025, alone accounting for nearly a quarter of all gun violence deaths.
Sweden is heading to the polls in September this year and crime is among the top issues for voters, even as the number of shootings in Sweden has more than halved since 2022.
Police and politicians cite new methods, additional resources and increased powers, such as far-reaching eavesdropping legislation, as reasons behind the drop in crime.
Changes include anonymity for some court witnesses, increased electronic surveillance, tougher sentences and what are known as safety zones, where police can search people even if they are not suspected of any crime.
Police said the measures have allowed them to seize gangs’ assets and become more efficient in preventing shootings.
Gun violence remained the most common cause of violent death and claimed 42 lives in 2025, three fewer than in the preceding year.
(Reporting by Johan Ahlander and Niklas Pollard; editing by Sharon Singleton)
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