Moderates gain ground in all 56 rural municipalities

The Moderates increased their support in all 56 of Sweden’s rural municipalities in this year’s parliamentary election, extending their gains from Simrishamn in the south to Pajala in the north.

That is the finding of a new SVT analysis, published on Tuesday. The result describes gains in support, not a claim that the party came first in every municipality.

Daniel Jansson at the University of Gothenburg’s SOM Institute describes a historic shift in rural voting. He links the change to voters’ views of the parties on security, the economy and immigration, alongside differences in education and values between places.

The analysis uses the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions’ classification. Rural municipalities have fewer than 15,000 people in their largest urban area and relatively little commuting to other municipalities.

The findings add a geographical dimension to the election result: the Moderates’ advance was shared across the entire rural category, despite differences between individual communities.

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