Disabled residents face a harder path to moving home

People with disabilities are more likely to feel unsafe in their neighbourhoods and to want a move they cannot make, a new Swedish analysis finds. The difference in housing choices extends beyond how residents rate their local area.

SCB's analysis, released on 28 September, draws on its 2025 citizen survey. Disability was self-reported.

Thirty per cent of respondents with disabilities said they felt not very safe or not at all safe outside in their neighbourhood after dark. The figure among other respondents was about 19%.

The findings do not mean most disabled residents dislike their municipality: 87% considered it a fairly or very good place to live.

SCB identified lower incomes as one possible factor limiting housing choices, without establishing that income or insecurity caused an individual's inability to move.

The clearest difference concerns the option to leave. About 12% of respondents with disabilities said they wanted to move but could not, compared with about 5% among other respondents.

DailySweden

DailySweden's desk of editors, reporters, researchers and investigative journalists. We bring readers factual, truthful and objective reporting on the issues that matter to them.

Contact the editorial desk ›