Table 1: Total number of persons with a residence permit in Sweden who were registered as “stateless”, with
“unknown” nationality or with nationality “under investigation” in the years 1991-201563
Year
Stateless
Unknown
Under investigation
Total
1991
9,019
5,073
414
14,506
1992
9,069
5,336
1,221
15,626
1993
8,360
5,508
2,150
16,018
1994
7,408
5,361
2,676
15,445
1995
6,743
4,935
2,582
14,260
1996
6,383
4,754
2,510
13,647
1997
6,139
4,264
2,326
12,729
1998
5,554
2,762
1,650
9,966
1999
5,337
3,829
1,395
1,0561
2000
4,962
2,841
1,092
8,895
2001
4,642
3,221
0
7,863
2002
4,298
1,946
833
7,077
2003
4,746
1,806
714
7,266
2004
5,153
1,703
662
7,518
2005
5,299
1,559
580
7,438
2006
6,050
19,319
348
25,717
2007
6,239
16,378
307
22,924
2008
6,739
14,075
385
21,199
2009
7,758
11,996
422
20,176
2010
8,213
10,823
194
19,230
2011
8,659
8,892
113
17,664
2012
9,596
7,820
38
17,454
2013
13,020
7,430
40
20,490
2014
19,001
8,166
54
27,221
2015
21,580
5,523
119
27,222
Changes in the number of persons registered as having “unknown” nationality have been less consistent.
Between the years 1991 to 2005, the numbers steadily decreased, to rise sharply in 2006 to 19,319 persons,
after which the numbers started going down again. These changes can be explained by State succession
and the registration practices related to such in Sweden.
In order to be registered in Sweden as a national of a certain State, it is required that the State exists;
therefore, persons who have been nationals of a State which has ceased to exist are recorded as having
“unknown” nationality until the Swedish Tax Agency is informed about a new nationality that the person has
acquired, after which this is recorded in the Population Register. In the Swedish context, this has particularly
concerned persons who were nationals of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro and explains the
sudden and significant increase of persons recorded as having “unknown” nationality in 2006, when
Montenegro declared independence and Serbia became the legal successor of the union.64 The decrease
in the number of persons with “unknown” nationality since 2006 can, to a large extent, be explained by
the fact that those who, before 2006, were registered as nationals of Serbia and Montenegro acquired a
new nationality. In 2011, the number of persons recorded as having “unknown” nationality following the
63
Statistics Sweden, based on data from the Swedish Population Register, available at: http://www.statistikdatabasen.scb.se.
64
This background information is contained in a footnote to the population statistics on the website of Statistics Sweden.
UNHCR STOCKHOLM, 2016
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