Table 4: Countries of birth of persons with a residence permit who were registered as having “unknown”
nationality as of 31 December 201568
Country of birth
Number of persons registered as having “unknown” nationality
1. Sweden
4,699
2. Unknown
105
3. Somalia
91
4. Syria
90
5. Lebanon
70
6. Russia
59
7. Estonia
57
8. Latvia
44
9. Iraq
21
10. Azerbaijan
17
Table 4 shows that the majority of persons registered in the Population Register with “unknown” nationality
were born in Sweden. The category “unknown” is used in a variety of situations, as discussed in Section
3.3.2.1 below. In some cases, a person may be registered as having “unknown” nationality pending action
by their foreign parents or guardians to undertake procedures so that the child acquires their nationality. In
other cases, it is used when the determination of nationality is problematic. The second highest number of
persons registered as having “unknown” nationality also have their country of birth indicated as “unknown”.
Table 5: Countries of birth of persons with a residence permit who were registered as having their nationality
“under investigation” as of 31 December 201569
Country of birth
Number of persons registered as having nationality
“under investigation”
1. Palestine
44
2. Syria
25
3. Sweden
20
4. Lebanon
5
5. Qatar
4
6. Iraq
4
7. Egypt
3
8. Various71
2
As shown in Table 5, the majority of persons whose nationality, or lack thereof, is currently “under
investigation” were born in Palestine, Syria or Sweden. The total number of persons with nationality
“under investigation” is low compared to the number of persons registered as “stateless” or of “unknown”
nationality.
68
Email from Statistics Sweden, 2 March 2016.
69
Ibid.
70
In the data published by Statistics Sweden, Cyprus, Israel, Kuwait, Libya, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and “other” are each indicated as
the country of birth in respect of two persons registered as having their nationality “under investigation”.
UNHCR STOCKHOLM, 2016
23