2. Key figures on immigration and integration in the Nordic countries
Image: Mads Schmidt Rasmussen / norden.org*
This chapter presents a brief overview of immigration and integration in the Nordic countries. It is based on the descriptive statistics and harmonised data from th Nordic Statistics database.
Definitions of migrants vary across the Nordic countries, particularly in terms of generational tracking. To enhance comparability in migration and integration statistics, the Nordic Council of Ministers launched a collaborative initiative involving the Nordic statistical institutes (Østby & Gulbrandsen, 2020, 2022). As a result, the Nordic Statistics database now uses uniform definitions: ’foreign-born’ refers to individuals born abroad with two foreign-born parents (excluding those adopted by native-born parents); ’descendants’ are those born in the country to two foreign-born parents; and ’the rest of the population’ includes all others.
These harmonised definitions allow for meaningful comparisons across countries, revealing significant differences in both migration patterns and the proportion of foreign-born residents (Figure 1). While the share of foreign-born population has grown in all Nordic countries except for Greenland since the 1990s, Sweden has consistently had the highest proportion relative to its total population, whereas Finland has the lowest. In recent years, Iceland and the Åland Islands have also approached Sweden in terms of the share of foreign-born residents, reaching 20% of the population, but their absolute numbers are substantially smaller.
In absolute terms for 2025, the number of foreign-born residents is as follows: Denmark – 862,000, the Faroe Islands – 8,930, Greenland 6,804, Finland – 583,000, Åland 6,453
, Iceland 82,000, Norway 1.06 million, and Sweden 2.2 million. To allow for comparison across the Nordic countries, the graphs below illustrate the share of migrants as a percentage of each country's total population.
The figure does not include those born in Finland
Figure 1. Share of foreign-born individuals in Nordic countries in 1990–2025. Source: Nordic Statistics database, CITI02.
Figure 2 shows the share of foreign-born individuals in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden in 2022, categorised by their length of stay in the country
. In all four countries, approximately 60% of the foreign-born individuals have lived in the country for more than 8 years. In both Denmark and Sweden, around 40% have resided in the country for over 15 years, indicating long-standing immigration patterns. The proportion of new arrivals, those with 0 to 3 years of residence, is relatively consistent across the countries, ranging from 18% to 20%.
It is important to note that refugees and asylum seekers are not automatically registered as residents in the Nordic countries. As a result, they are not fully captured in this dataset. This is particularly relevant for recent arrivals from Ukraine, who may not yet meet the criteria for population registration and are therefore underrepresented in the data. This is also important to consider in interpreting other figures.
Figure 2. Share of foreign-born individuals in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden by length of stay (time since first date of registered residence), 2022. Source: Nordic Statistics database, MIGR06.
Figure 3 shows the distribution of the foreign-born population in 2022 by region of origin for Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Sweden. Each pie chart illustrates the composition of the foreign-born population in the respective country by geographic background.
The largest share of foreign-born residents in Sweden, Denmark, and Finland have a background from Asia (including Türkiye), accounting for 43%, 38%, and 33%, respectively. In Norway, this group is the second largest at 31%, while the largest share comes from EU27/EFTA/UK countries, representing 35% of Norway’s foreign-born population. This category also forms the second-largest group in Denmark (34%), Finland (24%), and Sweden (19%).
Foreign-born from other European countries outside the EU/EFTA and Nordic regions make up 24% in Finland, 11% in Sweden, 9% in Denmark, and 8% in Norway. Other notable groups include migrants from Africa and those from other Nordic countries, who together account for a significant share of the foreign-born populations across the Nordic region.
Figure 3. Share of foreign-born individuals in Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden by region of origin, 2022. In the case of Denmark, individuals born in Greenland and the Faroe Islands are recorded as Danish-born. Source: Nordic Statistics Database, MIGR06.
Figure 4. Reason for residence permit among non-EU immigrants in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, 2022. Source: Nordic Statistics database, MIGR07.
In 2022, refugee status accounted for nearly 40% of all residence permits issued to non-EU migrants in Norway and Sweden since 1997, which was the largest share among permit types (Figure 4). In Denmark, by contrast, labour migration and family reunification (excluding refugee-related cases) together made up the majority of residence permits. These differences reflect both historical migration patterns and variations in national immigration policies, particularly with regard to humanitarian protection and labour migration.
Figure 5. Educational attainment in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden by level of education and population group (aged 25-64 years) among registered resident population. The figure includes all education – both received abroad and in the country of destination. Source: Nordic Statistics database, EDUC32.
Educational attainment is associated with individuals’ opportunities for labour market participation, social mobility, and broader integration outcomes (Giotis et al., 2025). Among the foreign-born population, a higher proportion have only primary education, particularly in Norway and Sweden, where nearly over 25% fall into this category, compared to just 10–15% among the rest of the population
(Figure 5). At the same time, the share of individuals with tertiary education is higher among the foreign-born than the rest of the population in Denmark, while in Norway and Sweden, the proportion with tertiary education is roughly equal across both groups. This diversity partly reflects differences in migration channels, with humanitarian migration traditionally playing a larger role in Sweden, and labour migration being more prominent in Denmark.
‘Rest of the population’ refers to individuals with one or both parents born in the reporting country.
A closer look at the enrolment of foreign-born individuals in tertiary education reveals both cross-country differences and changes over time (Figure 6). Denmark stands out with the highest share of foreign-born young people (aged 16–29) enrolled in tertiary education, ranging from 20% in 2016 to around 19% in 2021, despite a gradual decline in recent years. In contrast, Sweden has consistently reported the lowest enrolment rates throughout the period. Norway saw a notable increase in enrolment, particularly between 2019 and 2020, indicating improved access to or uptake of tertiary education among young foreign-born individuals.
Figure 6. Foreign-born individuals with more than two years of residence enrolled in tertiary education (ISCED 5-8), aged 16-29 years. Source: Nordic Statistics database, EDUC30.
Figure 7. Employment rate by sex and background in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, 2021 (aged 20-64 years). Source: Nordic Statistics database, WORK30.
There is a substantial employment gap between foreign-born individuals and the rest of the population, particularly for women (Figure 7). Foreign-born men have consistently lower employment rates than native-born men in all four countries, with the widest gap in Sweden (85% compared to 70% in the three other countries). Foreign-born women have the lowest employment rates across all groups in every country. The disparity is especially notable in Finland and Sweden, where their employment rates are 24 and 21 percentage points lower than among native-born women, respectively. In Finland, only 53% of foreign-born women were employed. The smallest employment gaps between foreign-born and native-born individuals are found in Norway for women and Denmark for men.
‘Length of stay’ is also associated with employment rates across all countries: both foreign-born men and women show higher employment rates the longer they have lived in the country (Figure 8). In addition, the gender gap in employment generally narrows over time, with those residing for more than 15 years showing the smallest gaps and, in many cases, the highest overall employment rates among foreign-born individuals.
Figure 8. Employment rate of foreign-born individuals by sex and length of stay in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, 2021 (aged 20–64 years). Source: Nordic Statistics Database, WORK31.