Vulnerable area (Sweden)

Vulnerable area (Swedish: Utsatt område) is a term that has since 2015 been applied by the Swedish Police Authority to areas in Sweden with persistent low socio-economic status, impacted by high rates of criminal activity. Within these areas there are, for example, public acts of violence, open drug dealing, and people showing "open discontent against society".

The areas are divided in three categories, roughly by the severity of the situation: "vulnerable areas" (utsatta områden), "risk areas" (riskområden), and "particularly vulnerable areas" (särskilt utsatta områden). According to SVT, Sweden's national public television broadcaster, the special "risk area" category signifies that there is a risk of the situation worsening, while in "particularly vulnerable areas", parallel societies exist, residents show a reluctance to participate in legal processes, there may be systematic threats and violence against witnesses, and the police have difficulty carrying out their duties. In these latter areas, there may also be extremism, violations of religious freedom, and people traveling to participate in war.

In December 2023, six areas were removed from the list, and four areas were added. Four of the vulnerable areas that remained on the list were downgraded to less serious categories, while one area was upgraded to a more serious category. This brought the total to 59 areas (of which 27 were "vulnerable areas", 15 were "risk areas" and 17 were "particularly vulnerable areas"). In October 2021, there were a total of 61 areas. In June 2019, there were a total of 60 areas. In 2023, around 550,000 people, or 5 percent of the country's population, lived in one of these areas and in 2017, 200,000 people, or 2 percent of the population, lived in "particularly vulnerable areas".

All the areas are situated south of the town of Gävle; however, only 11.4% of Sweden's total population live in the Norrland region, and most are areas constructed during the Million Programme (MP). Although there are towns north of Gävle having MP areas, they do not experience the crime rate of some southern MP areas.

In April 2019, the publication of the list by police was criticised by municipality politicians as it was stigmatising and dissuaded investors. Police responded that they saw no reason to make the list a secret, and that the list served the purpose of providing a uniform basis of evaluating districts across the country. Interior minister Morgan Johansson stated that the list will continue to be public information.

In June 2019, an update was released by police and three vulnerable areas were reclassified risk areas, two vulnerable areas were removed from the list entirely and a previously unclassified area was added as a vulnerable area. Therefore, the total number of categorised areas decreased from 61 in the 2017 report to 60 in the 2019 update.

Work on improving the areas requires cooperation with several parties like local landlords and organisations, but fear of gentrification may cause problems.

In November 2020, Gothenburg municipality announced they would dedicate SEK 11 billion (about €1.05 billion) towards regenerating the six especially vulnerable areas in the Gothenburg area.