Entrepreneurship in Sweden

Sweden is a large country with a small population, 8 millions inhabitants.
The structure in Sweden has by tradition been industrial. Some well-known Swedish inventions which have lead to big worldwide industries, like ABB and Ericsson, have employed a big percent of the working force in Sweden. Our traditional fields of industry have been mining, wood, textile, telecom, car and shipping industry. During the last decades Sweden faces a heavy structural change, where some localities and regions are threaten of closure. Industries have moved abroad and there is a low growth among the SMEs.

New starters
8,2 per cent of the Swedish companies are newly started. Compared to other European countries this is below the average which is 9,7 per cent.
60 per cent of the new started enterprises are established within the regions around our three biggest cities, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö.
2/3 of the new started enterprises 2001 had a turnover below 30 000 Euros during the first year and the average people working within the companies were two persons.

Size of enterprise
The most common enterprise in Sweden is the solo enterprise. 64 per cent of the male entrepreneurs are solo entrepreneurs and 72 per cent of the female entrepreneurs. Only 4 per cent of Swedish companies have between 10-49 employees and only 1 per cent of Swedish companies have more than 50 employees .

Women and men in entrepreneurship
22 per cent of enterprises in Sweden are run by women and 78 per cent are run by men.
This division between male and female entrepreneurs has not changed since 1996.

Fields of business
Most of the enterprises are found in the service sector. Here we find 63 per cent of the women entrepreneurs and 64 per cent of the men. The next biggest sector is the trade sector, 27 per cent of the women and 21 per cent of the men. The smallest sector both for women and men is the manufacturing sector (10 per cent of the female and 15 per cent of the male entrepreneurs).

Age
I haven’t found any statistics about students starting their own companies. 22 per cent of all the entrepreneurs are younger than 30 years.
The women are younger than the men, 43 per cent of the female entrepreneurs are below 30.

Level of education
The female entrepreneurs have a higher education than men. 48 per cent of the female entrepreneurs have a university degree, compared to 34 per cent of the men.

Science parks and business incubators
During the last two decades Science parks with business incubators has grown up around most of the universities in Sweden. Connected to the 39 Swedish universities there are now around 35 Science parks and business incubators. During the 1990s a new form of business incubators has grown up around the universities, incubators that focus on the earliest part of the start-up process. These incubators are often initiated by the students and connected to the student organisations.