1. No poverty

From a Swedish perspective, the challenges within the goal are of a different nature than from a global perspective, mainly because Sweden has a well-developed welfare system and a generally high standard of living. In Sweden, the challenges are mainly about increased income inequality and a higher proportion of the population living in relative poverty, which means that a person does not have the standard of living that is generally accepted in society. Regardless of how the term is defined, poverty also implies a lack of power, influence, social protection and security (Glokala Sverige n.d.).

The goal in a local context

Malmö, like other municipalities, has a welfare commitment that is of great importance for the work of reducing poverty, not least when it comes to creating more equal living conditions for the inhabitants of the municipality. The municipality plays an important role in identifying and supporting vulnerable groups such as children in poverty, older people with low pensions, new arrivals and the long-term unemployed. For Malmö, this includes ensuring the social safety net such as financial assistance and housing support, creating access to affordable housing and ensuring that everyone has access to education, work and a meaningful and active leisure time. Collaboration with government actors, civil society and the business community is an important part of poverty reduction efforts.

What it looks like in Malmö

Reducing poverty

Poverty not only involves a lack of resources such as money and housing, but also risks having a negative impact on an individual's freedom, opportunities for participation and influence, health, education and security. The goal of reducing poverty is therefore closely linked to many of the other goals in the 2030 Agenda. Poverty can be measured in many different ways, and in Sweden there is no nationally formulated poverty measure, which makes it difficult to monitor and evaluate efforts to reduce poverty. Low economic standard, which indicates households with a disposable income of less than 60% of the country's median income, is one of the most widely used measures of relative poverty.

Malmö has a higher share of the population living in a low economic standard compared to Stockholm, Gothenburg and the country. In Malmö, just under one in five adults (aged 20-64) lived at a low economic standard in 2022. Over a ten-year period, the proportion has fallen by a few percentage points. There are major differences in Malmö between people born in Sweden (11%) and people born abroad (27%), a pattern that also exists in the country as a whole. The proportion of foreign-born people with a low economic standard has decreased in Malmö over the past 10 years, while the corresponding proportion of Swedish-born people with a low economic standard has remained largely unchanged over the same period.

The proportion of older people living in households with low economic standards has increased over time. In 2011, 15 per cent of Malmö residents over the age of 65 lived in a financially vulnerable household, compared with 18 per cent in 2022. There is a higher proportion of older Malmö residents who have small financial margins compared with Stockholm, Gothenburg and the country as a whole. The proportion of children growing up in households with a low economic standard is also higher in Malmö than in Stockholm, Gothenburg and the country as a whole. However, there has been a decrease since 2011 (35 %) compared to 2022 (30 %).

Between 2012-2022, the proportion of children in families with long-term (10-12 months in one year) financial assistance has decreased; from 17 to about 10 percent. However, Malmö has a significantly higher proportion of children in households with long-term financial assistance compared to Stockholm (3.3%), Gothenburg (5.2%) and the country (4.6%). There is also a decrease in the proportion of adult Malmö residents with long-term financial assistance, from 3.6% in 2010 to 2.5% in 2023. Among adult Malmö residents, there is a slightly higher proportion of women than men who are dependent on financial assistance for their livelihood for a longer period of time. Malmö has a higher proportion of adults with long-term financial assistance compared to the big cities and the country.

Children affected by evictions

Children living in households with a low economic standard or in households with long-term financial assistance are at an increased risk of losing their home. Research shows that children have a stronger attachment to their home and neighbourhood than adults do. Losing their home has major consequences for children and young people as they are uprooted from their lives, which makes it more difficult for those affected to have a functioning schooling and the opportunity for a social life with meaningful leisure activities. The stress that eviction generates for carers also creates stress and anxiety among children, resulting in poorer wellbeing (Nilsson och Flyghed 2004).

To monitor developments, the number of children affected by enforced evictions/evictions per 100 000 inhabitants is analysed. In Malmö, the trend has fluctuated greatly from year to year during the period 2015-2023, but throughout the period Malmö has had a higher number of enforced evictions/evictions per 100,000 inhabitants compared with Stockholm, Gothenburg and the country as a whole. The number in Malmö has also increased during this period; from 8.7 children per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015, to 14.4 children in 2023.

Building resilience to social, economic and environmental disasters

Building resilience is about ensuring that future societies remain socially, economically and environmentally sustainable. Resilience means strengthening the ability of individuals, communities and systems to anticipate, cope with, recover from and adapt to changes and stresses ranging from financial crises and pandemics to natural disasters and wars. Resilience means creating structures and processes that allow damage to be minimised and recovery to be accelerated when crises occur. The Agenda's principle of leaving no one behind is central, not least because society's most vulnerable are often the worst affected by various types of crisis. As is the case for several of the SDGs, it is a challenge to develop better indicators and more data that reflect all dimensions of sustainability to be able to monitor progress towards increased resilience in the next stage. Continued development work is needed here, both nationally and locally, to improve monitoring in the long term.

Indicators

1.1 Children in families receiving financial assistance, ages 0–18, percentage (%)

1.2 Low economic standard, ages 0–19, percentage (%)

1.3 Low economic standard, ages 20–64, percentage (%)

1.4 Low economic standard, 65+ years, percentage (%)

1.5 Enforced evictions involving children, number per 100,000 inhabitants

1.6 Adult recipients of long-term financial assistance, percentage (%)

References

Glokala Sverige (n.d.). Arbetsbok – Agenda 2030. Tillgänglig: https://fn.se/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Arbetsbok_Glokala_Sverige_2021.pdf

Nilsson, A. och Flyghed, J. (2004). Tryggare kan ingen vara? Vräkning av barnfamiljer: förekomst, orsaker och konsekvenser. Socialdepartementet Ds 2004:41. Tillgänglig: https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/departementsserien/ekonomiskt-utsatta-barn-del-4_gsb441d4/html/