Sweden 7.1.1

• Public culture expenditure, all levels of government, per capita in 2020: 3 307 SEK, 2 867 EUR.
• Public culture expenditure in percentage of GDP, in 2020: 0.69 percent.
• Public culture expenditure in percentage of the total public expenditure in 2019: 1.60 percent.

Between 2008 and 2015, total public spending on culture increased by around 10 percent. There has been a noticeable trend of regional governments increasing their part of total government spending on culture while the municipal part is decreasing. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the national budgets for arts and culture increased further in the last two years.

Of the 15.8 billion SEK national government expenditure on culture, media, religious denominations, and leisure (as defined in the national budget) in 2019, 4.7 billion SEK went to popular adult education (folkbildning), 1.4 billion SEK to regional cultural activities, 1.7 billion SEK to museums and exhibitions and 1.4 billion SEK to theatre, music and dance. Public spending on culture varies a great deal between different parts of the country, both because different municipalities and regional governments spend different amounts and because the national government’s cultural budget is spent unevenly in relation to different parts of the country. Priorities within cultural policy may also differ between different levels of government.