This is a list of cities in modern Sweden that once enjoyed city privileges, thus were entitled to call themselves

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than city, cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares ...

( sv, stad, plural ''städer''). The year indicates the year they were established or when they were granted a

royal charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but ...

. The list does not include towns in Finland established during Swedish rule.

Overview

Legally and administratively, the term ''stad'' is not used in Sweden since the municipal reform of 1971, when the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality ...

(''kommun'') became the only existing form of local government. Before the reform there were 132 urban centres (133 to 1966) that had the title of ''stad''. The urban centres of these municipalities are still called ''stad'' in daily speech and 14 of the municipalities have chosen to continue to call themselves ''stad'' in marketing situations, although several of them now encompass large rural areas following the merger of Swedish municipalities in the 1970s and 1980s. These 14 are: Borås Municipality, Gothenburg Municipality, Haparanda Municipality,

Helsingborg Municipality Helsingborg Municipality (''Helsingborgs kommun'') is a Municipalities of Sweden, municipality in Scania County in Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Helsingborg, which is Sweden's eighth largest city. The municipality had a population of ...

, Landskrona Municipality, Lidingö Municipality,

Malmö Municipality Malmö Municipality ( sv, Malmö kommun), or City of Malmö (''Malmö stad''), is a Swedish municipality in Skåne County, the southernmost of the counties of Sweden (and conterminous with the historical province (''landskap'') of Scania). When ...

, Mölndal Municipality,

Solna Municipality Solna Municipality ( sv, Solna kommun or , ) is a municipality in Stockholm County in Sweden, located just north of Stockholm City Centre. Its seat is located in the town of Solna, which is a part of the Stockholm urban area. Solna is one of ...

Stockholm Municipality Stockholm Municipality or the City of Stockholm ( sv, Stockholms kommun or ) is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. It has the largest population of the 290 municipalities of the country, but one of the smallest areas, mak ...

, Sundbyberg Municipality, Trollhättan Municipality, Vaxholm Municipality and Västerås Municipality. The decision to call themselves ''stad'' has been taken purely for image and marketing reasons. In legal situations the word ''kommun'' (municipality) must be included in the municipality's name and governmental authorities will only refer to them by their legal names.

List

Notes

Skanör Skanör is a town in Vellinge Municipality and part of the conurbation Skanör med Falsterbo in southwestern Scania, Sweden. City facilities include hotels, restaurants, a harbour, a medieval church and an elementary school. A greenbelt called ...

and Falsterbo were joined together administratively in 1754 by the name

Skanör med Falsterbo Skanör med Falsterbo ( da, Skanør og Falsterbo) is a statistical locality (Swedish ''tätort'', locality code 3672), situated in Vellinge Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 6,937 inhabitants in 2010. It consists of the two old towns of ...

; they merged into a single urban area in the 1960s, still keeping their separate identities as two towns.

Today

Most of the former towns are today urban centres (''

tätort An urban area or () in Sweden has a minimum of 200 inhabitants and may be a city, town or larger village. It is a purely statistical concept, not defined by any municipal or county boundaries. Larger urban areas synonymous with cities or towns ( s ...

er'') and seats of their municipalities. Two seats/former towns and municipalities have a different name: Djursholm is the seat of Danderyd Municipality and Visby is the seat of Gotland Municipality. A number of suburban towns have grown together with neighbours and are nowadays seldom considered as separate towns: * Huskvarna (part of

Jönköping Jönköping (, ) is a city in southern Sweden with 112,766 inhabitants (2022). Jönköping is situated on the southern shore of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern, in the province of Småland. The city is the seat of Jönköping Munici ...

) * Mölndal (part of Gothenburg urban area) * Djursholm,

Nacka Nacka () is the municipal seat of Nacka Municipality and part of Stockholm urban area The Stockholm urban area ( sv, Stockholms tätort) is the largest and most populous of the statistical localities or urban areas in Sweden. It has no adminis ...

Solna Solna Municipality ( sv, Solna kommun or , ) is a municipality in Stockholm County in Sweden, located just north of Stockholm City Centre. Its seat is located in the town of Solna, which is a part of the Stockholm urban area. Solna is one of ...

, Sundbyberg (part of

Stockholm urban area The Stockholm urban area ( sv, Stockholms tätort) is the largest and most populous of the statistical localities or urban areas in Sweden. It has no administrative function of its own, but constitutes a continuous built-up area, which extends int ...

) *

Lidingö Lidingö, also known in its definite form ''Lidingön'' and as ''Lidingölandet'', is an island in the inner Stockholm archipelago, northeast of Stockholm, Sweden. In 2010, the population of the Lidingö urban area on the island was 31,561. It ...

(separated from Stockholm by water, but anyhow often counted to its urban area although according to

Statistics Sweden Statistics Sweden ( sv, Statistiska centralbyrån ; SCB) is the Swedish government agency operating under the Ministry of Finance and responsible for producing official statistics for decision-making, debate and research. The agency's responsibi ...

, Lidingö is an urban area of its own) The following are not seats of their municipalities: * Gränna and Huskvarna (in Jönköping Municipality) * Mariefred (in

Strängnäs Municipality Strängnäs Municipality (''Strängnäs kommun'') is a municipality in Södermanland County in eastern Sweden, located by Lake Mälaren. Its seat is located in the city of Strängnäs. The present municipality was created in 1971, when the ''City ...

) * Marstrand (in Kungälv Municipality) *

Sigtuna Sigtuna () is a locality situated in Sigtuna Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 8,444 inhabitants in 2010. It is the namesake of the municipality even though the seat is in Märsta. Sigtuna is for historical reasons often still ref ...

(in Sigtuna Municipality where the seat is Märsta) *

(in Vellinge Municipality) * Skänninge (in

Mjölby Municipality Mjölby Municipality (''Mjölby kommun'') is a municipality in Östergötland County in southeast Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Mjölby, with some 13,000 inhabitants.

) * Torshälla (in Eskilstuna Municipality) * Öregrund (in Östhammar Municipality)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:List of cities in Sweden * Sweden

Cities A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...