Norway vs. Sweden
Norway and Sweden side by side on 14 indicators: GDP, growth, inflation, debt, unemployment, life expectancy, CO₂ emissions and more.
Each indicator uses the most recent year with figures for nearly every country, so the two are always compared like for like. The year sits beside every figure.
GDP (nominal)2025
Sweden leads by 1.3×
GDP per person2025
Norway leads by 1.5×
Population2025
Sweden leads by 1.9×
At a glance
- Sweden has the larger economy: $669bn against $531bn, 1.3× the size.
- Per person it reverses: Norway produces $94,468 per head against $62,662.
- Sweden grew faster in 2025 (+1.5% against +1.1%).
- Sweden emits less CO₂ per person: 3.6 t against 7.2 t.
- People in Sweden live longer: 84.1 yrs against 83.2 yrs.
Real GDP, indexed
2014 = 100. Built from IMF real growth rates, so it shows the shape of each economy's growth, not its size.
Economy
People
Environment
All indicators
| Indicator | Year | Norway | Sweden | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GDP (nominal) | 2025 | $531bn | $669bn | 1.3× |
| GDP per person | 2025 | $94,468 | $62,662 | 1.5× |
| Real GDP growth | 2025 | +1.1% | +1.5% | 0.4 pp |
| Inflation (consumer prices) | 2025 | 3.0% | 2.6% | 0.4 pp |
| Unemployment (ILO) | 2025 | 4.6% | 8.7% | 4.1 pp |
| Government debt, % of GDP | 2025 | 45.0% | 34.9% | 10.1 pp |
| Population | 2025 | 5.6m | 10.7m | 1.9× |
| Life expectancy | 2024 | 83.2 | 84.1 | 0.9 yrs |
| Human Development Index | 2023 | 0.970 | 0.959 | 0.011 |
| Urban population | 2025 | 83.6% | 89.1% | 5.5 pp |
| Internet use | 2024 | 99.0% | 95.5% | 3.5 pp |
| CO₂ per person | 2024 | 7.2 t | 3.6 t | 2.0× |
| Land area | 2023 | 364,270 km² | 407,270 km² | 1.1× |
| Population density | 2025 | 15/km² | 26/km² | 1.7× |
Methodology
Each indicator shows one year for every country: the latest year, up to last year, for which at least 80% of the 30 countries have figures. That keeps comparisons like for like: a country whose statistics office publishes early is never set against another country's older number. The year is shown beside every figure.
GDP, GDP per person, real growth, inflation, government debt and population come from the IMF World Economic Outlook, which is revised each April and October; figures for the most recent year are partly IMF estimates. Unemployment is the World Bank's ILO-modelled rate, which applies one definition to every country and can therefore differ from the rate a national statistics office publishes. Life expectancy, urban population, internet use, land area and CO₂ emissions per person (excluding land use) come from the World Bank's World Development Indicators. The Human Development Index is published by the UN Development Programme and taken from Our World in Data.
Money figures are in current US dollars at market exchange rates, not adjusted for purchasing power. Population density is population divided by land area. The real GDP chart compounds the IMF's annual real growth rates from a base year set to 100, so it shows how each economy has grown rather than how large it is.
The figures are checked against their sources every week, and the pages update when a source publishes new numbers.
Sources
Cite this as: News Unlimited, “Country comparison: economy, people and environment”.