Fertility & birth rates in Sweden and United Kingdom

Fertility rate in Sweden vs United Kingdom chart

According to the latest available data on birth rates, the fertility rate in Sweden was 1.45 children per woman in 2023, compared to 1.56 in the United Kingdom in 2023. The replacement level is considered to be 2.1 children per woman.

Check Sweden vs the United Kingdom population clock for a dynamic visualization of the changing population.

The chart below showcases historical changes in the birth rates.

Table

Year	Fertility rate
	Sweden	United Kingdom
1960	2.17	2.69
1961	2.21	2.78
1962	2.25	2.86
1963	2.33	2.88
1964	2.47	2.93
1965	2.39	2.86
1966	2.37	2.78
1967	2.28	2.68
1968	2.07	2.6
1969	1.93	2.51
1970	1.92	2.44
1971	1.96	2.41
1972	1.91	2.2
1973	1.87	2.04
1974	1.87	1.92
1975	1.77	1.81
1976	1.68	1.74
1977	1.64	1.69
1978	1.6	1.75
1979	1.66	1.86
1980	1.68	1.9
1981	1.63	1.82
1982	1.62	1.78
1983	1.61	1.77
1984	1.66	1.77
1985	1.74	1.79
1986	1.8	1.78
1987	1.84	1.81
1988	1.96	1.82
1989	2.01	1.79
1990	2.13	1.83
1991	2.11	1.82
1992	2.09	1.79
1993	1.99	1.76
1994	1.88	1.74
1995	1.73	1.71
1996	1.6	1.73
1997	1.52	1.72
1998	1.5	1.71
1999	1.5	1.68
2000	1.54	1.64
2001	1.57	1.63
2002	1.65	1.63
2003	1.71	1.7
2004	1.75	1.75
2005	1.77	1.76
2006	1.85	1.82
2007	1.88	1.86
2008	1.91	1.91
2009	1.94	1.89
2010	1.98	1.92
2011	1.9	1.91
2012	1.91	1.92
2013	1.89	1.83
2014	1.88	1.81
2015	1.85	1.8
2016	1.85	1.79
2017	1.78	1.74
2018	1.76	1.68
2019	1.71	1.63
2020	1.67	1.57
2021	1.67	1.58
2022	1.53	1.56
2023	1.45	1.56
2024	1.45	1.55
2025	1.46	1.54
2026	1.46	1.53
2027	1.47	1.53
2028	1.47	1.53
2029	1.48	1.52
2030	1.48	1.52
2031	1.49	1.52
2032	1.49	1.53
2033	1.49	1.53
2034	1.5	1.53
2035	1.5	1.53
2036	1.5	1.53
2037	1.51	1.53
2038	1.51	1.53
2039	1.51	1.53
2040	1.52	1.53
2041	1.52	1.54
2042	1.53	1.54
2043	1.53	1.54
2044	1.53	1.54
2045	1.53	1.54
2046	1.53	1.54
2047	1.54	1.54
2048	1.54	1.54
2049	1.54	1.55
2050	1.54	1.55

Children 0-14 years as share of population

Table

Year	Share of people 0-14 years old
	Sweden	United Kingdom
1960	22.4%	23.3%
1961	22%	23.3%
1962	21.5%	23.2%
1963	21.2%	23.2%
1964	21%	23.3%
1965	20.9%	23.4%
1966	20.9%	23.5%
1967	21%	23.7%
1968	20.9%	23.9%
1969	20.9%	24%
1970	20.8%	24.1%
1971	20.8%	24.1%
1972	20.8%	24%
1973	20.7%	23.9%
1974	20.7%	23.6%
1975	20.7%	23.3%
1976	20.6%	22.9%
1977	20.5%	22.4%
1978	20.3%	21.9%
1979	19.9%	21.4%
1980	19.6%	21%
1981	19.2%	20.6%
1982	18.9%	20.2%
1983	18.6%	19.8%
1984	18.3%	19.5%
1985	18.2%	19.3%
1986	18%	19.1%
1987	17.9%	18.9%
1988	17.8%	18.9%
1989	17.8%	19.1%
1990	17.9%	19.1%
1991	18.1%	19.3%
1992	18.4%	19.4%
1993	18.6%	19.5%
1994	18.8%	19.6%
1995	18.9%	19.5%
1996	18.8%	19.4%
1997	18.7%	19.3%
1998	18.7%	19.3%
1999	18.6%	19.2%
2000	18.4%	18.9%
2001	18.3%	18.7%
2002	18.1%	18.5%
2003	17.9%	18.4%
2004	17.7%	18.3%
2005	17.4%	18.2%
2006	17.1%	18%
2007	16.9%	17.9%
2008	16.7%	17.8%
2009	16.6%	17.8%
2010	16.6%	17.8%
2011	16.7%	17.7%
2012	16.8%	17.8%
2013	17%	17.8%
2014	17.2%	17.8%
2015	17.3%	17.9%
2016	17.5%	18%
2017	17.7%	18%
2018	17.8%	18.1%
2019	17.8%	18%
2020	17.7%	18%
2021	17.7%	17.8%
2022	17.5%	17.6%
2023	17.2%	17.4%
2024	17%	17.2%
2025	16.7%	17%
2026	16.4%	16.7%
2027	16.2%	16.5%
2028	15.9%	16.2%
2029	15.6%	16%
2030	15.3%	15.7%
2031	15.1%	15.5%
2032	14.8%	15.3%
2033	14.5%	15.2%
2034	14.3%	15.1%
2035	14.1%	15%
2036	13.9%	14.9%
2037	13.8%	14.9%
2038	13.8%	14.8%
2039	13.8%	14.8%
2040	13.8%	14.8%
2041	13.8%	14.8%
2042	13.9%	14.8%
2043	13.9%	14.9%
2044	14%	14.9%
2045	14.1%	14.9%
2046	14.1%	15%
2047	14.2%	15%
2048	14.3%	15%
2049	14.4%	15%
2050	14.4%	15.1%

Children aged 0-14 make up 17% of the population in Sweden and 17.2% in the United Kingdom in 2024, compared to 17.9% and 19.1% respectively in 1990.

Demographics of Sweden and the United Kingdom compared.

Natural population change in Sweden vs United Kingdom by year

For the past 10 years, the annual natural population change (excluding migration) has been +0.2% in Sweden and +0.16% in the United Kingdom. The chart below illustrates the comparison of the absolute yearly changes resulting from births and deaths.

Table

Year	Population change due to births and deaths
	Sweden	United Kingdom
1960	27,693	314,400
1961	30,832	311,519
1962	30,246	340,800
1963	35,741	337,995
1964	45,968	405,000
1965	44,857	364,132
1966	45,286	333,356
1967	41,700	346,145
1968	30,858	292,622
1969	23,904	260,577
1970	30,563	244,918
1971	31,583	257,123
1972	28,428	162,650
1973	24,409	112,389
1974	23,664	67,476
1975	14,746	33,735
1976	8,222	-5,621
1977	7,426	0
1978	4,138	16,859
1979	4,976	61,872
1980	5,818	95,734
1981	1,664	73,234
1982	1,665	56,314
1983	833	61,966
1984	3,335	84,633
1985	4,175	79,170
1986	9,206	90,690
1987	11,757	136,325
1988	15,186	136,628
1989	24,629	119,861
1990	29,100	154,569
1991	29,299	143,562
1992	28,605	149,709
1993	20,924	103,893
1994	20,196	127,304
1995	9,710	87,028
1996	1,768	98,884
1997	-3,539	99,138
1998	-3,541	87,730
1999	-6,201	64,551
2000	-2,662	70,671
2001	-1,779	65,032
2002	893	65,308
2003	6,271	89,471
2004	9,893	131,974
2005	9,030	144,963
2006	15,436	176,455
2007	15,552	196,232
2008	18,439	216,325
2009	21,387	230,422
2010	25,320	251,066
2011	21,733	259,361
2012	20,943	248,473
2013	23,041	198,830
2014	26,179	206,784
2015	23,518	175,738
2016	25,800	177,139
2017	24,138	145,125
2018	23,403	119,321
2019	25,697	108,342
2020	14,495	-4,272
2021	22,914	30,612
2022	10,487	39,751
2023	5,269	34,589

Maternal mortality chart: Sweden vs United Kingdom

The maternal mortality rate, which is the probability of dying during childbirth or within 42 days of pregnancy termination, is 4 deaths per 100,000 live births in Sweden, compared to 8 deaths in the United Kingdom.

Table

Year	Maternal mortality per 100K births
	Sweden	United Kingdom
1985	8	2
1986	8	2
1987	8	3
1988	9	4
1989	9	5
1990	8	6
1991	8	7
1992	8	7
1993	8	8
1994	7	9
1995	7	9
1996	6	8
1997	6	9
1998	6	10
1999	6	11
2000	5	12
2001	5	13
2002	5	13
2003	5	14
2004	5	13
2005	5	12
2006	5	12
2007	5	11
2008	5	11
2009	5	11
2010	5	10
2011	5	10
2012	5	9
2013	5	9
2014	5	9
2015	5	9
2016	5	9
2017	5	9
2018	5	9
2019	4	9
2020	5	14
2021	5	13
2022	5	15
2023	4	8

Under-five mortality rates

The chance that a newborn baby will die before reaching age five is 0.25% in Sweden and 0.45% in the United Kingdom. Below is the historical data on under-five mortality rates.

Table

Year	Mortality rate before reaching 5 years of age, per 1,000 live births
	Sweden	United Kingdom
1960	1.96%	2.66%
1961	1.92%	2.61%
1962	1.86%	2.56%
1963	1.79%	2.49%
1964	1.71%	2.42%
1965	1.63%	2.34%
1966	1.56%	2.28%
1967	1.49%	2.22%
1968	1.44%	2.18%
1969	1.39%	2.14%
1970	1.34%	2.1%
1971	1.29%	2.06%
1972	1.23%	2%
1973	1.16%	1.94%
1974	1.09%	1.87%
1975	1.03%	1.8%
1976	0.98%	1.72%
1977	0.94%	1.64%
1978	0.9%	1.57%
1979	0.87%	1.49%
1980	0.84%	1.41%
1981	0.82%	1.34%
1982	0.8%	1.27%
1983	0.78%	1.22%
1984	0.77%	1.17%
1985	0.76%	1.14%
1986	0.75%	1.11%
1987	0.74%	1.08%
1988	0.73%	1.04%
1989	0.72%	0.99%
1990	0.7%	0.93%
1991	0.66%	0.87%
1992	0.62%	0.82%
1993	0.57%	0.77%
1994	0.52%	0.74%
1995	0.48%	0.72%
1996	0.46%	0.7%
1997	0.44%	0.69%
1998	0.42%	0.68%
1999	0.41%	0.67%
2000	0.41%	0.65%
2001	0.4%	0.64%
2002	0.4%	0.63%
2003	0.39%	0.63%
2004	0.37%	0.61%
2005	0.36%	0.6%
2006	0.35%	0.59%
2007	0.33%	0.58%
2008	0.32%	0.56%
2009	0.31%	0.54%
2010	0.31%	0.52%
2011	0.3%	0.5%
2012	0.3%	0.48%
2013	0.29%	0.46%
2014	0.29%	0.45%
2015	0.29%	0.45%
2016	0.28%	0.44%
2017	0.28%	0.44%
2018	0.27%	0.44%
2019	0.26%	0.44%
2020	0.26%	0.44%
2021	0.25%	0.44%
2022	0.25%	0.45%
2023	0.25%	0.45%