Scandinavian country has second highest gun crime death rate in Europe, with poverty and inequality among driving factors. S weden is in the grip of a rise in gang violence and shootings that has taken citizens and leaders by surprise. No other country in Europe is seeing anything like this. Since the number of fatal shootings in the country has more than doubled, according to official statistics, and drug and gun crimes have steadily increased since the beginning of the s.
The gun-murder rate in the Swedish capital was roughly 30 times that of London on a per capita basis in However, the unrest has spread to smaller cities. However, the data shows a more complex picture, with the social fortunes of those living in areas most affected by crime falling behind the living standards of much of the rest of Sweden.
Sweden now has one of the highest gun death rates per capita of any European country for which there are figures, according to the most recent data from the United Nations office on drugs and crime UNODC.
In recent years, the country has overtaken Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia in terms of deaths per , population. It is now second only to Albania when compared with other European countries with populations of at least one million, having been in 14th place in While these areas do have high proportions of residents born outside Europe and second- and third-generation immigrants, they have been shaped by socioeconomic circumstances over a long period of time, a factor which experts say is of far greater significance to the current situation.
Long-term unemployment rates are above average in the majority of these areas and is increasing. While some statistics are going in the right direction β for example, the percentage of young people not in education or work has decreased over the last 10 years in a majority of the areas designated vulnerable β more needs to be done. Harsher punishments, which the government invests a lot of resources in now, will not overcome those problems. The income gap in Sweden has increased in recent decades : according to the latest statistics, income has not been this unevenly divided for more than 40 years.
