Friday, July 11, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Here are the richest and poorest areas in Sweden

Published 26 January 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Djursholm in Stockholm.
1 minute read

The gap between Sweden’s richest and poorest is still significant, although it has narrowed somewhat, according to Statistics Sweden (SCB). Djursholm tops the list of the wealthiest areas, while the student-dense area of Flogsta ranks at the bottom.

Sweden’s economic standard declined for the second consecutive year in 2023, according to SCB’s latest figures. The median income amounted to just over €26,000. Meanwhile, the proportion of people living in “relative poverty” decreased slightly, and the gap between the richest and poorest shrank for the first time in many years.

SCB’s statistics also include figures on Swedes’ net incomes, which EFN Finansmagasinet has analyzed at the municipal level. Southern Djursholm ranks at the top with a net income of just under €172,000. It is followed by northern Djursholm and several other exclusive areas in Stockholm. Eight of the ten municipalities with the highest economic standards in 2023 are located in the capital region.

At the bottom of the list is the student-dense area of Västra Flogsta in Uppsala, where the average net income is around €11,000. Other areas with low incomes include student areas and immigrant-dense neighborhoods such as Rosengård in Malmö, Kronogården in Trollhättan, and Tjärna Ängar in Borlänge.

Highest incomes at municipal level

Average net income in EUR

  • Danderyd: 85,149
  • Lidingö: 54,467
  • Vellinge: 44,651
  • Täby: 43,886
  • Nacka: 43,491

Lowest income at municipal level

Average net income in EUR

  • Högsby: 22,621
  • Ljusnarsberg: 22,646
  • Filipstad: 22,691
  • Överkalix: 22,596
  • Munkfors: 23,159

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Nvidia becomes first company to reach four trillion dollars in market value

The future of AI

Published yesterday 19:46
– By Editorial Staff
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang presents DGX Spark – the world's smallest AI supercomputer.
2 minute read

Graphics card giant Nvidia made history on Wednesday when the company became the first publicly traded company ever to exceed four trillion dollars in market value. The milestone was reached when the stock rose to $164.42 during trading on July 9.

The California-based tech company has experienced a meteoric rise driven by its dominant position in AI chip manufacturing. Over the past five years, the stock has risen by a full 1,460 percent, while this year’s increase stands at nearly 18 percent.

Nvidia’s success is based on the company’s near-monopolistic control over the market for AI processors. The company’s GPU chips form the backbone of machine learning, data centers, and large language models like ChatGPT.

The company’s chips have become indispensable for tech giants Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Alphabet, all of which are investing billions in AI infrastructure. This has made Nvidia one of the main winners in the ongoing AI revolution.

Jensen Huang’s wealth explodes

The stock surge has had a dramatic impact on co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang’s personal wealth. According to Bloomberg estimates, his net worth is now $142 billion, an increase of more than $25 billion this year alone.

Huang owns approximately 3.5 percent of Nvidia, making him the company’s largest individual shareholder. The wealth increase places him among the world’s ten richest people, with his fortune closely tied to Nvidia’s stock price.

Heaviest weight in S&P 500

Nvidia now has the highest weighting in the broad US stock index S&P 500, having surpassed both Apple and Microsoft. The breakthrough has led to optimism for continued growth, with some analysts predicting that the market value could rise further.

Loop Capital’s Ananda Baruah sees Nvidia at the “forefront” of the next “golden wave” for generative AI and estimates that the company could reach a market value of over six trillion dollars within a few years.

Nvidia’s historic success reflects the broader AI euphoria that has gripped financial markets, where investors are betting that artificial intelligence will reshape the entire economy over the coming decades.

Sweden’s Christian Democrats call for tax relief for families with children

Published yesterday 7:08
– By Editorial Staff
1 minute read

Swedish families with children should receive tax relief, according to the same model as Hungary. This is proposed by Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch.

The catastrophically low birth rate has recently become a topic of discussion even among Swedish politicians. Childbirth in Sweden is at historically low levels. During 2023, an average of 1.43 children were born per woman – the lowest figure ever recorded. The standing solution advocated among Swedish politicians has been to bring foreigners to Sweden to replace the population.

The leader of the Christian Democrats Ebba Busch proposes on this theme to follow the Hungarian model, where families with children receive significant tax relief that increases for each child. The principle is to make it easier for one or later both parents to support themselves through work instead of benefits.

If current birth rate trends continue in Sweden, each new generation will be approximately 30 percent smaller than the previous one, which means major consequences including for the labor market and welfare system when fewer people of working age must support a growing elderly population.

 

Almost total halt for imported berry pickers in Sweden

Published 8 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff
2 minute read

The Swedish Migration Agency has rejected almost all applications for berry pickers for 2025. As recently as 2023, 5,000 permits were granted.

Citing years of indications that employment conditions in the berry industry are not being upheld, the Migration Agency has granted only 89 permits for berry picking this year. A total of 2,397 applications for berry pickers have been received for 2025.

Last year, the Migration Agency rejected all applications for berry pickers, but 1,272 applications were subsequently approved after court review.

The Migration Agency has also this year assessed that workers in the berry industry risk not having their employment conditions met. Therefore, the agency has decided to reject most of the applications for Thai berry pickers, says Hanna Geurtsen, Deputy Project Manager for Work Permits at the Migration Agency, in a press release.

This year, the Migration Agency explains, all employers active in berry picking have chosen to apply for permits via the EU’s Seasonal Workers Directive. The difference when applying for a work permit as a seasonal worker, compared with the national main track for work permits, is among other things that the berry pickers this year are directly employed by a company in Sweden and not via a foreign staffing agency.

It’s partly about having an employment contract signed by both parties and that the employment conditions must be in line with Swedish collective agreements. For the majority of the applications received this year, these requirements have not been met, says Hanna Geurtsen.

The berry companies that have been rejected have the possibility to appeal these decisions in court, the agency adds in its press release.

Number of berry picking permits granted by the Migration Agency in recent years:

2025: 89
2024: 0 (1,272 were approved after court review)
2023: 5,372
2022: 6,594
2021: 5,175

Swedish government to map immigrants’ opinions

Published 7 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff
The Liberals' new integration minister Simona Mohamsson on the left, on the right migrants who have landed in Europe (archive image).
1 minute read

The Swedish government is now launching a project to examine immigrants’ opinions compared to native Swedes.

The results will serve as guidance for future integration efforts, says the Liberal Party’s new integration minister Simona Mohamsson about the project.

World Values Survey, WVS, is an international research program that examines people’s values in everything from social, political, economic, religious and cultural aspects.

The Swedish government is now paying WVS €450,000 to examine how values differ between non-Western immigrants and those with entirely Swedish backgrounds. During the autumn, around 3,000 people will be interviewed.

“We are an extreme country”

According to surveys that World Values Survey has previously conducted, the differences between immigrants and native Swedes are very large regarding views on things like divorce, premarital sex, abortion and homosexuality, where Sweden overall stands out as an exceptionally liberal-oriented country.

We are an extreme country in a good way. For people who become part of our society, it becomes somewhat difficult to navigate that map, says Mohamsson about the project to the Bonnier-owned newspaper DN, which among other things highlights that immigrants are more skeptical toward homosexual relationships.

There’s a whole generation of girls who don’t get to choose who they want to love or boys who can’t come out of the closet, she says.

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