Travel survey

Travel to work and school is increasing - but at lower levels than before the pandemic

In Sweden, 3.9 billion journeys were made in 2024, which is an increase of 3.5 percent compared to 2023. In particular, journeys related to work and school show a statistically significant increase in the past year, although it is still far from the levels before the pandemic.

The changes in terms of mode of travel were not as large. Travel by public transport continues to increase in 2024, but not as much as in the previous two years. Travel by car and by bicycle also shows increases, while travel by foot decreased. However, all of these changes were within the margin of error in the past year.

The Statistics in Brief

Since 2019, a travel survey has been conducted and presented in annual reports. The survey covers Sweden's population aged 6–84 years and is carried out as a combined paper and web questionnaire. The sample is stratified by residential county, age group, and gender. The sample for 2023 includes approximately 12,200 people in Sweden.

Data on travel behaviour provide important background information for formulating national and regional transport policy, the infrastructure development and the range of transport services offered, traffic safety efforts, and research and development concerning people's travel and communication patterns.

Transport Analysis first began collecting data from national travel behaviour surveys under the auspices of the Swedish Institute for Transport and Communications Analysis (SIKA) as Riks-RVU during the period 1994–1998, then in RES 1991–2001 and RES 2005–2006.

The annual reports were published for Riks-RVU and RES during the period 1994–2001, and they have issued been in electronic form as of RES 1999. RES 2005–2006 is published both electronically and in hardcopy form. Collections of tables from RVU Sweden are published annually in electronic form. Statistics from RVU Sweden will also be published in other analyses that Transport Analysis conducts.