One out of every seven people living in Sweden has been born outside the country, official statistics show.

The latest figures on ethnicity obtained by The Malta Independent show that 14.3% of Sweden’s population, or 1.33 million, were foreign-born. Of these, 859,000 were born outside the European Union while 477,000 were born in another EU state.

The figures were obtained in the wake of remarks made by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat on Friday. When asked to comment about what Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said - that the migration numbers Malta is facing are not extraordinary - Dr Muscat replied: “If she thinks the figures are not alarming, she can propose the Swedish government to take migrants”.

Like any other European country, Sweden has had to face immigration issues for many years, and this has also created controversy with regard to ethnicity, economic benefits, jobs for non-Swedish people and settlement patterns, together with the overall impact on society.

In 2009, immigration reached its highest level since records began with 102,280 people migrating to Sweden while the total population grew by 84,335.

In 2010, 32,000 people applied for asylum to Sweden, a 25% increase from 2009

In 2009, Sweden had the fourth largest number of asylum applications in the EU and the largest number per capita after Cyprus and Malta.  

While many of the immigrants come from nearby Finland, the influx from faraway countries is also large. In 2011, there were 125,499 Iraqis and 63,828 Iranians living in Sweden.