Chapter 9 of 13 in Sverige i fokus

The welfare society: what tax pays for and who is responsible for what

Quick answers

What is tax used for?

For welfare: healthcare, schools, roads, pensions, child allowance and support during illness or unemployment. Tax is paid by both people and companies.

What is social insurance (socialförsäkringen)?

The state's financial protection for residents: pensions, sickness insurance, parental insurance, unemployment insurance, student aid and child allowance.

What are the regions (regionerna) responsible for?

Health and medical care. Sweden's 21 regions collect tax and run hospitals and health centres.

What are the municipalities (kommunerna) responsible for?

Childcare, schools, elderly care and social services. The municipality decides its own tax and what the money is used for.

The citizenship test is written in Swedish, so the key Swedish terms are given in brackets the first time they appear. This chapter is also available in Swedish: Välfärdssamhället.

Chapter 9 of Sverige i fokus is about the welfare society (välfärdssamhället). Welfare (välfärd) should give every resident basic financial and social security. It is paid for with taxes, and the state, the regions and the municipalities are responsible for different parts. Here you will learn what tax is used for and who does what.

What is the welfare society?

The welfare society is about people being able to live a secure life. You should have access to healthcare and education. You should get financial support if you become ill or unemployed. Everyone should feel a basic security, whatever their age or situation in life.

To provide good welfare, the state, the regions and the municipalities need enough income for their budgets (budgetar). A large part of the money comes from taxes (skatter). Taxes make it possible to pay for important services together, such as schools, healthcare and roads.

What is tax used for?

Tax is not only paid by people who work. Companies also pay tax, and there is tax on goods and services. The more people who work, and the more that is bought and sold, the more money the state, the regions and the municipalities have for welfare. Here are three important taxes:

• Income tax (inkomstskatt). Part of your wages goes to the state, the region and the municipality.
• VAT (moms, mervärdesskatt). A tax you pay when you buy goods and services.
• Employer contributions (arbetsgivaravgifter). Fees the employer pays to the state for its employees, on top of wages. The money goes to sickness insurance and pensions, among other things.

Some welfare services are run by private companies. They are still paid for with tax money. This means that a private health centre or an independent school is also part of the welfare system.

Here you can see why work matters for the whole of society. The person who works pays income tax, the employer pays contributions, and what is bought with the wages generates VAT. All three go to welfare.

What is social insurance?

Social insurance (socialförsäkringen) is the state’s way of giving residents financial security. The state finances pensions, sickness insurance, parental insurance, unemployment insurance, student aid and child allowance. The rules are in the Social Insurance Code (socialförsäkringsbalken, 2010:110). It covers, among other things, parental benefit, child allowance, sickness benefit and the old-age pension.

This is how the parts fit together:

• Pension (pension) is money you receive when you are old and stop working.
• Sickness insurance (sjukförsäkring) gives you sickness benefit (sjukpenning) when you are ill and cannot work.
• Parental insurance (föräldraförsäkring) gives parental benefit (föräldrapenning) so that you can stay at home with small children.
• Unemployment insurance (arbetslöshetsförsäkring) gives you an income when you are unemployed. It is paid out through the a-kassa, which you can read about in chapter 8.
• Student aid (studiestöd) is money for people who study.
• Child allowance (barnbidrag) is money for families with children.

The state also pays for higher education and research at universities and university colleges.

What are the regions responsible for?

Sweden has 21 regions (regioner). Each region collects tax from its residents. The regions’ most important task is to provide health and medical care (hälso- och sjukvård) to everyone. That is why they run and pay for hospitals and health centres.

Healthcare is divided into different types:

• Primary care (primärvård). Health centres (vårdcentraler), child health centres and maternity care centres.
• Hospital care (sjukhusvård). Emergency hospitals, county hospitals and university hospitals, where operations and advanced treatment take place.
• Other care. Psychiatric care, rehabilitation and dental care.

Most healthcare is publicly run (i offentlig regi), meaning by the regions. But there are also private care providers that are paid for with tax money.

What are the municipalities responsible for?

The municipalities (kommunerna) have a large responsibility. Each municipality decides itself how much tax its residents pay to the municipality and what the money is used for. The municipality makes sure there are schools. The municipality is also responsible for helping old and sick people who cannot manage everyday life on their own. Here are four examples of municipal welfare:

• Childcare (barnomsorg). Preschools and after-school centres.
• School and education. Every municipality has compulsory schools (grundskolor) for children between 6 and 16. There are also upper secondary schools (gymnasieskolor) and municipal adult education (kommunal vuxenutbildning).
• Elderly care (äldreomsorg). Older people often need help with cleaning, cooking, laundry, shopping and personal hygiene. By law, the municipality must offer support and help so that older people can stay in their own homes. If that does not work, they can move to a home for the elderly.
• Social services (socialtjänsten). Every municipality has social services that give support and protection to those who need it. This can be families without enough money, people without housing, people with addiction problems or people exposed to threats and violence. Social services also support people with disabilities and give advice about work and studies.

State, region or municipality: who does what?

This is the question the test most often circles around in this chapter. Learn the division:

Level	Responsible for
The state (staten)	Pensions, sickness insurance, parental insurance, unemployment insurance, student aid, child allowance, universities and university colleges
The regions (regionerna, 21)	Health and medical care: hospitals, health centres, psychiatry, dental care
The municipalities (kommunerna)	Preschool, compulsory school, upper secondary school, adult education, elderly care, social services

A simple way to remember it: the state handles the money for insurance and allowances, the region handles healthcare, and the municipality handles what is close to you, like the school and help for the elderly.

Take a family as an example. The children go to the municipality’s compulsory school and the youngest are at the municipality’s preschool. The family receives child allowance from the state. When a child falls ill, the parents go to the region’s health centre. A parent who studies gets student aid from the state. Grandma, who can no longer manage on her own, gets help from the municipality’s elderly care. All three levels are part of an ordinary family’s life, and all are paid for with tax.

What the test usually asks about

• That welfare is financed with taxes, from both people and companies.
• What income tax, VAT and employer contributions are.
• Which insurance schemes and allowances the state pays for, such as pensions and child allowance.
• That Sweden has 21 regions and that they are responsible for healthcare.
• What primary care is, as opposed to hospital care.
• That the municipality decides its own tax.
• What the municipality is responsible for: childcare, schools, elderly care and social services.
• That compulsory school is for children between 6 and 16.

Practise the chapter

The questions for chapter 9 are on the page questions for chapter 9. They are ten practice questions we have written from the chapter, not UHR’s questions. Read the chapter first, then read the explanation for each answer. You can also try the practice test.

Difficult words in this chapter

välfärd

welfare: that everyone in society has basic security, for example healthcare, schools and money during illness

finansiera

to finance: to pay for something

budget

budget: a plan for income and expenses

moms

VAT (mervärdesskatt): a tax you pay when you buy goods and services

arbetsgivaravgift

employer contribution: money the employer pays to the state for each employee, on top of wages

primärvård

primary care: the everyday healthcare close to you, for example the health centre (vårdcentralen)

äldreomsorg

elderly care: help and care for old people

socialtjänst

social services: the part of the municipality that gives support and protection to people who need it

bistånd

assistance: help, often financial help from the municipality

i offentlig regi

publicly run: run by the state, a region or a municipality, not by a private company

The course

The full course, all 13 chapters

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• Lessons for every chapter of Sverige i fokus
• Practice questions with explanations and page references
• A mock test in the same form as the August test
• Difficult words explained in plain Swedish

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Sources

• Sverige i fokus, UHR (2026): s. 30–31
• Socialförsäkringsbalk (2010:110), riksdagen.se: 1 kap. 1 § och 3 kap. 3 §, vilka förmåner som ingår i socialförsäkringen