Field:

Foreign controlled enterprises 2016

Foreign control of enterprises increased in Sweden with 125 enterprises in 2016. After the increase there were 14,111 foreign controlled enterprises in Sweden. The number of employees in the foreign controlled enterprises decreased with 4,647 persons, which was a decrease with less than 1 percent compared to last year’s survey. This meant that there were 633,216 employees in foreign-owned companies in Sweden in 2016.

Norwegian ownership decreases

Norway was the country that accounted for the largest decrease of foreign controlled enterprises in Sweden between 2015 and 2016 with a decrease of 83enterprises; the second largest decrease was Luxembourg with 24 companies. After the decrease Norway is still the country that controls most enterprises in Sweden (2,186 companies) followed by the US (1,395 companies) and Denmark (1,390 companies).

Highest number of employees in German controlled enterprises

Several countries decreased their number of employees in Sweden in 2016. The largest decrease occurred in companies controlled by the US and Great Britain. The decrease amounted to 6,565 and 1,380 employees compared to 2015.

After the decrease of employees in US controlled enterprises in Sweden, Germany is once again the ownership country with the highest number of employees, 72,803; followed by Norway and the US with 69,616 and 67,336 employees respectively.

A few large enterprises provide most employment

Of the foreign controlled enterprises in 2016, 87 percent were small with fewer than 50 employees in Sweden. These enterprises, however, accounted only for 12 per cent of employees in foreign controlled enterprises. Large enterprises with 250 or more employees accounted for 3 per cent of all foreign controlled enterprises, but their share of employment was 66 per cent of all employees in foreign controlled enterprises. This has remained largely unchanged compared to previous years.

The smaller foreign controlled enterprises had a larger proportion of their employees within the service sector compared to the large foreign controlled enterprises, which were more evenly distributed between manufacturing industry and the service sector.


Foreign controlled enterprises 2016

Serial number: Statistik 2017:05

Reference number: 2017/110

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