Every year, Talent City Index Sweden shows which Swedish municipalities the target group would most like to live and work in. In this year’s ranking, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Uppsala are at the top of the list. However, strong attractiveness does not tell the whole story about a municipality’s future position in the rankings.
Two perspectives sharpen the question
While Talent City Index Sweden 2025 captures people’s preferences for where they would like to live or work, Nordregio’s State of the Nordic Region 2026 (Heleniak & Berbert Bruno, 2026) shows how Nordic regions are actually developing demographically: which are growing, which are ageing and which are losing population. For municipalities and regions working with talent attraction, placing the two perspectives side by side raises a sharper question: are the municipalities people most want to live or work in located in regions with demographic tailwinds, or are they part of a context where the population is instead declining?
This is an important distinction. In a growing region, attractiveness can become an accelerator. It reinforces a development that is already moving in the right direction. In a region with population decline, the same attractiveness takes on a different strategic meaning: it may be more about holding ground, strengthening their position and creating confidence in the future despite a tougher demographic playing field.
Talent City Index
In Talent City Index Sweden 2025, Stockholm ranks first: 34.7 percent of respondents selected Stockholm as one of the municipalities where they would most like to live or work. Gothenburg follows in second place with 33.5 percent, and Uppsala ranks third with 18.3 percent. Sundsvall is further down the list, in 25th place with 8.0 percent. It is included here because it shows a different type of regional playing field: a municipality with a visible position in the Talent City Index, but located in a county where the wider demographic context is more challenging (Future Place Leadership, 2025).
Looking across three years, it is also clear that attractiveness moves faster than demography. Gothenburg was at the top of the Talent City Index Sweden in both 2023 and 2024, while Stockholm took over first place in 2025. Uppsala ranked fourth in 2023, fell to eighth place in 2024 and is now back in third place (Future Place Leadership, 2023, 2024, 2025). This shows that a municipality’s attractiveness can shift relatively quickly: it can strengthen, weaken, and recover. Population development, on the other hand, moves more slowly — and that is exactly why the comparison with Nordregio becomes interesting.
State of the Nordic region 2026
When the results of the Talent City Index are compared with Nordregio’s picture of population development, the difference between tailwinds and headwinds becomes clear. The Stockholm region increased its population by 51 percent between 1990 and 2024. Uppsala grew by 54 percent, which Nordregio highlights as the strongest regional population growth in Sweden during the period. Västernorrland, the county where Sundsvall is located, moved in the opposite direction, with a population decline of 7.3 percent (Heleniak & Berbert Bruno, 2026).
For Stockholm and Uppsala, two different pictures therefore point in the same direction. The municipalities rank very highly in Talent City Index Sweden 2025, while also being located in regions with strong long-term population growth. This is attractiveness with demographic tailwinds.
Demographic Tailwinds
Demographic tailwinds make a municipality’s position particularly strong. Attractiveness is not only about many people saying they would like to live and work there. It also aligns with a broader movement in which the population has in fact grown strongly over time. For municipalities in this position, the strategic question becomes how attractiveness can be used to grow smartly: with housing, services, labour markets and living environments that make people not only want to move there, but also able and willing to stay.
Demographic Headwinds
Sundsvall illustrates a different type of demographic reality. It should not be read simply as a municipality in decline. As the largest municipality in Västernorrland, Sundsvall may function as a regional anchor even when the wider county is losing population. That is precisely why the comparison is interesting: the municipality has a visible position in Talent City Index Sweden 2025, while the surrounding regional context is demographically weaker.
For Sundsvall, attractiveness is therefore not only about competing with the municipalities at the top of the national ranking. It is also about strengthening the role of the regional centre, attracting selected target groups and counteracting the wider demographic headwinds around it.
This makes the comparison important for municipalities and regions working with talent attraction. The question is not only: how attractive are we? The question is also: what demographic reality are we operating in?
Attractiveness Depending on the Wind
The conclusion is straightforward: strong attractiveness is always an asset, but it does not mean the same thing everywhere.
For municipalities in growing regions, the task is to turn attractiveness into sustainable growth — with housing, infrastructure, labour-market capacity and services that make it possible for people not only to move there, but to stay.
For municipalities in regions with population decline, the task is different. Attractiveness becomes a tool for defending the position, strengthening the role of the regional centre, targeting specific groups and changing the story from decline to possibility.
The real winners of the future are therefore not simply the municipalities most people dream of. They are the municipalities that understand what their attractiveness needs to do.
Article written by Gabriella Schelin, Data Analyst, Future Place Leadership
References
Future Place Leadership. (2023). Talent City Index Sweden 2023. Talent City Index.
Future Place Leadership. (2024). Talent City Index Sverige 2024. Talent City Index.
Future Place Leadership. (2025). Talent City Index Sverige 2025. Talent City Index.
Heleniak, T., & Berbert Bruno, K. (2026). Population change in the Nordic Region. In M. Bobrinskaya & T. Niedomysl (Eds.), State of the Nordic Region 2026 (Nordregio Report 2026:2). Nordregio. https://doi.org/10.6027/R2026:2.1403-2503
