People with foreign backgrounds in troubled suburbs are more willing than people with a Swedish background living elsewhere in the country to put their lives at risk and defend Sweden in the event of a military attack, according to a new survey.
The survey, carried out by the research wing of annual political festival Järvaveckan, found that the willingness of people with foreign backgrounds living in so-called vulnerable districts to defend Sweden had increased since a similar study was carried out in 2024.
In this year’s study, carried out in the last months of 2025, 54 percent of respondents declared themselves fairly or very willing to take on a combat role, compared to 51 percent in the earlier study.
Among Swedes in the same districts, only 43 percent said they would be fairly or very willing to defend Sweden, up from 41 percent in 2024.
“These results challenge several long-held notions about the will to defend and civic engagement in vulnerable areas and among foreign-born people,” Ahmed Abdirahman, the founder of Järvaveckan, which is held every year in northern Stockholm suburb Järva, said in a statement. “There is a strong commitment to Sweden’s defence even in groups that are often described through simplified or one-sided images in the public debate.”
In other parts of Sweden, which were not broken down by national background, 48 percent said they would be willing to risk their lives to defend Sweden, up from 47 percent in 2024.
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Greater fear of war among immigrants
This year’s study sought to further deepen the picture around the willingness of immigrant Swedes to fight, asking additional questions about how concerned they are that Sweden might be drawn into a war.
The report found that Swedes with immigrant backgrounds living in vulnerable areas were significantly more worried about a coming conflict than people living elsewhere in Sweden.
Fully 45 percent of immigrant Swedes in vulnerable areas said they were quite or very worried about a coming war in Sweden, compared to 36 percent of people in the rest of Sweden, and 39 percent of people with Swedish backgrounds living in troubled suburbs.
The most worried group were women of immigrant backgrounds living in vulnerable suburbs, 53 percent of whom described themselves as very or quite worried. The least worried group were men over the age of 65 living elsewhere in Sweden, only 22 percent of whom described themselves as quite or very worried.