Foreign-born workers made up about two-thirds of new elderly-care hires

Foreign-born workers made up about two-thirds of the care assistants and nursing assistants hired by Swedish municipalities over the past decade. Their contribution is becoming more important as elderly care prepares for a sharp rise in the number of people aged 85 and over.

Municipalities recruited about 90,000 people into those two occupations during the period, and 60,000 of them were born outside Sweden, according to a new SKR report. The figures describe recruitment rather than net job growth, because many employees also retired or left the sector.

The result is a workforce that already looks different from a decade ago. More than half of municipal care assistants are now foreign-born, as are more than one in three nursing assistants. Across municipalities and regions, almost 300,000 employees were born abroad. Their share of monthly paid municipal staff rose from 13 percent in 2014 to 22 percent in 2024, SKR says.

That change matters because Sweden's elderly population is growing faster than the available workforce. The number of people aged 85 and over is expected to increase by around 60 percent during the next decade. If staffing and working methods remain unchanged, demographic demand alone would require the elderly-care workforce to grow by 32 percent by 2033.

Municipal elderly care currently employs about 200,000 people: roughly 110,000 nursing assistants, 75,000 care assistants and 16,000 nurses. Around 57,000 people who were working in the sector in 2023 are expected to retire by 2033. Recruiting new staff will therefore be necessary even if technology, scheduling and preventive care help existing teams work differently.

There has been progress in making the jobs more sustainable. Between 2019 and 2025, the proportion working full time rose from 46 to 63 percent among nursing assistants and from 42 to 65 percent among care assistants. Total staffing increased by about 5,000 people, but the number of full-time-equivalent posts increased by almost 10,000.

Skills will be as important as headcount. Nursing assistant became a protected professional title in July 2023, while the share of care assistants with relevant training rose from 39 percent in 2021 to 43 percent in 2024. That creates a practical integration question: whether workers recruited from abroad can access Swedish training, language support and routes into qualified roles while already contributing on the job.

A broader IFAU study found that the foreign-born share of workers in care and preschool more than doubled over two decades. The researchers describe foreign-born employees as increasingly important to welfare staffing, while warning that lower immigration would narrow a recruitment channel the sector has relied on. The study covers several welfare services, so it does not measure elderly care alone or prove that immigration by itself solves the staffing gap.

The work is also about quality, not only numbers. In Oskarshamn, 98 percent of home-care recipients surveyed said staff usually treated them well, the municipality reported in 2024. That local result cannot represent every municipality, but it shows why recruitment and professional development have to be discussed alongside trust and continuity for older people.

Foreign-born staff are not a temporary reserve waiting to fill a future shortage. They are already a central part of Swedish elderly care. The next test is whether municipalities can retain them, recognise their experience and provide the training that turns recruitment into stable, skilled careers.

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 ›