Swedish General Elections
AS OF 2026-09-21 · 52 CONTESTS · general election, 13 September 2026 · WIKIPEDIA, NATIONAL ELECTORAL AUTHORITIES
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Where the chamber sits · 5.5 of 10, left to right, spread 2.1 →
Every Swedish general election from the first Second Chamber of 1866 to September 2026: forty years of a franchise that reached one adult man in five, the proportional breakthrough of 1911, the Social Democratic century, the four per cent threshold that has shaped every result since 1970, and the arrival of a party the others spent a decade refusing to talk to.
Sources: Wikipedia election articles and Valmyndigheten (val.se) · as of 2026-09-21
Riksdag seats
349
175 for a majority
Elections since 1866
52
Peak turnout
91.8%
1976, the year the Social Democrats finally lost
Latest
2026
Social Democrats (S) largest
The chronology
Every Swedish general election since the Second Chamber was created in 1866, newest first. The rows before 1970 are that chamber alone, elected on a franchise that only became universal in stages.
After the Sweden Democrats · 2014–2026
The Sweden Democrats entered the Riksdag in 2010 and every election since has turned on who will and will not deal with them. In 2022 they finished second with 20.5% and supported a government from outside it under a written agreement, the arrangement that ended thirty years of the parties refusing to speak to them.
Social Democrats (S) 99Moderate Party (M) 70Sweden Democrats (SD) 62
Social Democrats (S) 107Sweden Democrats (SD) 73Moderate Party (M) 68
Swedish Social Democratic Party (S) 100Moderate Party (M) 70Sweden Democrats (SD) 62
Swedish Social Democratic Party 113Moderate Party 84Sweden Democrats 49
The bloc years · 1991–2010
A banking crisis, an EU referendum and the arrival and departure of New Democracy broke the old five-party arrangement. From 2006 the four centre-right parties campaigned as a single Alliance and won twice, which is the only time the Swedish right has managed consecutive terms.
Swedish Social Democratic Party 112Moderate Party 107Green Party 25
Swedish Social Democratic Party 130Moderate Party 97Centre Party 29
Swedish Social Democratic Party 144Moderate Party 55Liberal People's Party 48
Swedish Social Democratic Party 131Moderate Party 82Left Party 43
Swedish Social Democratic Party 161Moderate Party 80Centre Party 27
Swedish Social Democratic Party 138Moderate Party 80Liberal People's Party 33
One chamber · 1970–1988
The upper house was abolished in 1970 and the whole Riksdag was elected at once, on a four per cent threshold that has shaped Swedish politics ever since. Turnout peaked at 91.8% in 1976, the year the Social Democrats finally lost, and the nuclear referendum and the wage-earner funds dominated the decade that followed.
Swedish Social Democratic Party 156Moderate Party 66People's Party 44
Swedish Social Democratic Party 159Moderate Party 76People's Party 51
Swedish Social Democratic Party 166Moderate Party 86Centre Party 56
Swedish Social Democratic Party 154Moderate Party 73Centre Party 64
Swedish Social Democratic Party 152Centre Party 86Moderate Party 55
Swedish Social Democratic Party 156Centre Party 90Moderate Party 51
Swedish Social Democratic Party 163Centre Party 71People's Party 58
Folkhemmet · 1921–1968
The Social Democrats came first at every one of these fourteen elections and governed for all but a handful of the years between them, the longest continuous run of any democratic party in Europe. Per Albin Hansson's phrase for it, the people's home, described a project that ran from pensions and housing to the supplementary pension fight of 1957 to 1960. Turnout climbed from 55% to 89% across the period.
Swedish Social Democratic Party 125Centre Party 39People's Party 34
Swedish Social Democratic Party 113People's Party 43Centre Party 35
Swedish Social Democratic Party 114People's Party 40Rightist Party 39
Swedish Social Democratic Party 111Rightist Party 45People's Party 38
Swedish Social Democratic Party 106People's Party 58Right Party 42
Swedish Social Democratic Party 110People's Party 58Right Party 31
Swedish Social Democratic Party 112People's Party 57Farmers' League 30
Swedish Social Democratic Party 115National Organization of the Right 39Farmers' League 35
Swedish Social Democratic Party 134National Organisation of the Right 42Farmers' League 28
Swedish Social Democratic Party 112General Electoral League 44Farmers' League 36
Swedish Social Democratic Party 104General Electoral League 58Farmers' League 36
Swedish Social Democratic Party 90General Electoral League 73Free-minded National Association 28
Swedish Social Democratic Party 104General Electoral League 65Free-minded National Association 29
Swedish Social Democratic Party 93General Electoral League 62Free-minded National Association 41
The democratic breakthrough · 1911–1920
Proportional representation arrived in 1909 and universal male suffrage with it, and the first PR election in 1911 immediately tripled the Social Democratic vote. The constitutional crisis of 1914 produced two elections in one year, the second of which the Social Democrats won. Parliamentary government was conceded in 1917 and the franchise was extended to women in 1921.
Swedish Social Democratic Party 75General Electoral League 71Free-minded National Association 47
Swedish Social Democratic Party 86Free-minded National Association 62General Electoral League 57
Swedish Social Democratic Party 87General Electoral League 86Free-minded National Association 57
General Electoral League 86Swedish Social Democratic Party 73Free-minded National Association 71
Free-minded National Association 102General Electoral League 64Swedish Social Democratic Party 64
The Second Chamber · 1866–1908
The four-estate Riksdag was replaced in 1866 by two chambers, the second of them elected on an income and property qualification that left about a fifth of adult men on the register and a far smaller share actually voting. Turnout below 25% was normal. The Lantmanna Party of the landowning farmers dominated the chamber and the great argument of the period was free trade against protection, which produced two elections in 1887 and settled nothing.
Free-minded National Association 105General Electoral League 91Swedish Social Democratic Party 34
Free-minded National Association 109General Electoral League 108Swedish Social Democratic Party 13
Lantmanna Party 119Free-minded National Association 107Swedish Social Democratic Party 4
Lantmanna Party 137Liberals 92Swedish Social Democratic Party 1
Lantmanna Party 98Liberals 73Moderate Free Traders 58
Protectionists 86Liberals 76Moderate Free Traders 66
Free traders 140Protectionists 88
Protectionists 112Free traders 102
Free traders 136Protectionists 85
Lantmanna Party 101Independents 80Centre Party 25
Lantmanna Party 92Independents 78Centre Party 34
Lantmanna Party 92Independents 76Centre Party 30
Lantmanna Party 90Independents 83Centre Party 21
Lantmanna Party 81Independents 71Ministerial Party 38
The long arc in charts
Hover any point for the exact figure.
Turnout since 1911
From 57% at the first proportional election to 91.8% in 1976, then a slow decline to the mid eighties, which is still among the highest voluntary turnouts in the world.
The Social Democratic share
Above 40% at every election from 1932 to 1994 and never below 28% since. The line falls, but it has never stopped being the largest.
Records & superlatives
Highest turnout
91.8%
1976, of the elections with a recorded figure
Lowest turnout
19.1%
1872
Highest vote share
58.6%
Free traders, March 1887
Most seats won
166
Swedish Social Democratic Party, 1982
The threshold
4%
in force at every election since the chamber was unified in 1970
Social Democratic firsts
39
the party has come first at every election since 1917
How Swedish elections work
Proportional representation with a four per cent threshold
310 constituency seats and 39 adjustment seats are allocated by the modified Sainte-Lague method, so the national result is close to the national vote. A party needs 4% nationally, or 12% in a single constituency, to take part at all.
A fixed date, and an early election that does not reset it
Sweden votes on the second Sunday of September every fourth year. A government may call an extra election, but the Riksdag it produces serves only the remainder of the term, which is why Sweden has had so few.
The bicameral era
Until 1970 the Riksdag had two chambers and only the second was elected directly, in staggered rotation, on an income and property franchise until 1911. The rows before 1970 are that chamber, and the turnout figures beneath them belong to a much smaller electorate.
Blocs, not coalitions
Swedish governments are usually minorities that legislate deal by deal. What decides an election is which side can assemble a Riksdag majority against the other, which is why the arithmetic on this page matters more than the winner.