Sweden: Preventive Healthcare - World Health Systems Facts

Maternal mortality ratio (per 100,000 live births), 2023: 4
Under-five mortality rate (per 1000 live births), 2023: 2.5
Neonatal mortality rate (per 1000 live births), 2023: 1.4
Tuberculosis incidence (per 100,000 population), 2023: 3.7
Probability of dying from any of CVD, cancer, diabetes, CRD between age 30 and exact age 70 (%), 2021: 7.9%
Suicide mortality rate (per 100,000 population), 2021: 13.8
Adolescent birth rate (per 1000 women aged 15-19 years), 2015-2024: 2.0
Adolescent birth rate (per 1000 women aged 10-14 years), 2015-2024: 0.0
Diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3) immunization coverage among 1-year-olds (%), 2023: 94%
Measles-containing-vaccine second-dose (MCV2) immunization coverage by the locally recommended age (%), 2023: 92%
Pneumococcal conjugate 3rd dose (PCV3) immunization coverage among 1-year olds (%), 2023: 94%
Human papillomavirus (HPV) immunization coverage estimates among 15 year-old girls (%), 2023: 88%
Prevalence of anaemia in women aged 15-49 years (%), 2023: 16.8%

Source: World health statistics 2025: monitoring health for the SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals. Tables of health statistics by country and area, WHO region and globally. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2025. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

“Sweden’s low rates of preventable deaths from causes such as lung cancer, alcohol-related deaths and road traffic accidents is linked to strong public health policies. Low rates of mortality from treatable causes also point to an effective healthcare system in avoiding deaths from potentially fatal conditions.”

Source: OECD/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2023), Sweden: Country Health Profile 2023, State of Health in the EU, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels.

“Spending on public health and prevention increased greatly during the pandemic in Sweden as in other EU countries. It accounted for nearly 5% of health spending, a greater share than the about 3% that was usually allocated to prevention before the pandemic.”

“Sweden’s low levels of preventable deaths from causes such as lung cancer, alcohol-related deaths and road traffic accidents can be explained in part by strong public health policies. Public awareness campaigns and high taxes on tobacco and alcohol have contributed to restricting consumption. The alcohol control policy is characterised by a state retail monopoly, which limits access to dedicated stores with restricted opening hours. It also imposes a minimum age of 20 to buy alcohol in Systembolaget, the government-owned chain of alcohol stores.

“In 2021, Sweden adopted a Comprehensive Strategy against Alcohol, Narcotics, Doping, Tobacco and Gambling for 2021-25. Building on the previous strategies since 2011, its overarching goal is a society free from illicit drugs, with reduced alcohol-related harm and reduced tobacco use.

“Low mortality from traffic accidents is the result of a longstanding road safety strategy, called Vision Zero, which has as an ultimate goal that nobody should be killed or seriously injured in traffic accidents. This strategy has been successful: fewer than 200 people died in road accidents in Sweden according to preliminary figures for 2021 – down from over 500 in 2003 (European Road Safety Observatory, 2022).”

“Sweden has three nationwide population-based cancer screening programmes that are free of charge for participants, related to breast, cervical and colorectal cancers (OECD, 2023a).

“All Swedish regions offer mammography screening for women aged 40-74, and cervical cancer screening is also rolled out nationally for women aged 23-64. Participation rates in these two screening programmes have been well above EU averages both before and during the pandemic. While screening rates fell slightly during the first year of the pandemic in 2020, it went back up in 2021, although breast cancer screening rates still remained slightly below their pre-pandemic levels in 2021 (Figure 15).

“On the other hand, screening for colorectal cancer was not widely offered to men and women across the country until 2021, and only 2 of the 21 regions provided screening for their residents aged 50-59 prior to that. This explains why only 26 % of people aged 50-74 in Sweden reported having been screened in the last two years in 2019, which was a lower share than the EU average of 33 % (Figure 16). In 2022, however, all regions sent invitations to participate in colorectal cancer screening, completing the programme rollout, which is expected to result in higher screening rates.”

Sweden: Preventive Healthcare - National Policies - World Health Systems Facts

World Health Systems Facts is a project of the Real Reporting Foundation. We provide reliable statistics and other data from authoritative sources regarding health systems and policies in the US and sixteen other OECD member nations.

Page last updated June 19, 2025 by Doug McVay, Editor.