In 2021 there were 3,958 Swedish controlled enterprise groups with affiliates abroad, an increase of 125 groups since 2020. Of these enterprise groups 1,218 or 31 per cent had subsidiaries in Norway. 19 per cent of the enterprise groups had subsidiaries established in Denmark, US and Finland.

Summary

The number of employees in the Swedish controlled enterprise groups with affiliates abroad amounted to over 2.24 million, an increase of 4.0 per cent over the preceding year. The number of employees abroad increased by 61,005 to 1,533,205 and the number in Sweden increased by 25,826 to 705,508 employees.

The largest increase in individual countries took place in the Great Britain where the number of employees in the Swedish controlled groups increased by 10,834 and in Russia, where the number of employees increased by 8,991. Swedish controlled enterprise groups also decreased their number of employees in a few countries, in Brazil their number of employees decreased by 5,274 and in Japan by 4,711 employees.

The countries where Swedish enterprise groups had their largest number of employees were US with 219,703, Germany with 101,435 and China with 93,353 employees.

Just under half of the employees abroad were in a group with at least 5,000 employees in Sweden. The 27 enterprise groups with at least 5,000 employees in Sweden accounted for 48 per cent of all employees in foreign countries, and 38 per cent of employees in Sweden.

The total turnover for the Swedish groups with affiliates abroad accounted to SEK 7,109 billion for year 2021. Abroad the total turnover was SEK 4,157 billion and the total turnover in Sweden was SEK 2,952 billion. That was an increase of 10 per cent abroad and an increase of 13 per cent in Sweden over the preceding year.