Offentlighetsprincipen: Why Swedish Salaries and Addresses Are Public

In Sweden you can phone the tax agency and ask what your neighbor earned last year. That surprises most foreigners. This guide explains the law behind it, what changed in 2024 and July 2026, and what it means for you as a visitor.

When you need this

A Swedish friend casually mentions what a neighbor earns. You search your landlord’s name and find their address, age and income. Or you’re about to e-mail a municipality, the police or another authority and wonder who else can read it. It’s also for anyone planning to move to Sweden, and for anyone who wants a document from a Swedish authority, such as a decision, an inspection report or a court judgment.

This page explains what the law says. It isn’t legal advice for a specific case.

The principle in one paragraph

Offentlighetsprincipen (the principle of public access) is written into one of Sweden’s fundamental laws, the Freedom of the Press Act (tryckfrihetsförordningen, TF). Chapter 2 opens by giving everyone the right to access allmänna handlingar, official documents. A document becomes official as soon as an authority holds it and it has been received or drawn up there. That covers letters, e-mails, registers, decisions and court judgments.

Secrecy is the exception, not the rule. TF allows access to be limited for only seven listed interests, such as national security, crime prevention and the protection of people’s personal and financial circumstances, and only through a specific provision in an ordinary law. In practice that law is the Public Access and Secrecy Act (offentlighets- och sekretesslagen, OSL). Health records, for example, are secret.

What is public about a Swedish resident

Once someone is registered as living in Sweden (folkbokförd), the population register about them is normally public. Secrecy applies only where there is particular reason to think the person, or someone close, would be harmed. The tax agency, Skatteverket, will give out the following to anyone who asks:

So “every salary is public” overstates it. Since income year 2023, Skatteverket releases only a person’s total taxed earned income for the year, not salary details from employers. Anyone can ask by phone or web form without giving a name.

Watch out: anything you send to a Swedish authority, whether an e-mail, letter or form, can become an official document that anyone may request, unless a secrecy rule covers it. Write only what the authority needs to handle your case.

People-search sites and the 2026 EU ruling

Sites such as Ratsit, MrKoll and Merinfo collect data from authorities like Skatteverket and publish profiles with addresses, ages and income. They typically hold a voluntary publishing certificate (utgivningsbevis). That brings them under the Fundamental Law on Freedom of Expression (YGL), the same constitutional protection a newspaper’s website gets. The Swedish Agency for the Media (Mediemyndigheten) issues certificates without looking at the site’s content. Swedish law also says the GDPR yields wherever it would conflict with TF or YGL.

For years that meant the GDPR simply didn’t reach these sites. That is now in flux:

• 2024: the Administrative Court of Appeal in Stockholm held that constitutional protection does not always win over the GDPR; each case needs balancing.
• 9 July 2026: the EU Court of Justice ruled in a case about a Swedish site that sells criminal judgments (C-199/24, Legal Newsdesk Sweden). Member states may not exempt processing from the GDPR unless it serves journalistic, academic, artistic or literary purposes. Nor may they leave the person only a defamation claim. Putting convictions online for payment is not, in principle, journalism.
• Now: the Authority for Privacy Protection (IMY) has four ongoing supervisions of people-search sites and is analyzing what the ruling means for them. The judgment concerned criminal records; how it applies to address-and-income sites is not settled yet.

You may also read that these sites “will be banned from 2027”. That is out of date. A 2024 government inquiry (SOU 2024:75) proposed limiting their constitutional protection from 1 January 2027. But changing a fundamental law takes two Riksdag votes with an election in between, and the proposal was not among the amendments the Riksdag adopted before the September 2026 election. It cannot take effect in 2027.

Does any of this apply to visitors?

Mostly not to you as a person, but the right does apply to you. Three points matter:

1. You are almost certainly not listed. Registering as a resident requires an expected stay of at least one year, so tourists and most short-term visitors have no population-register entry for these sites to copy.
2. You can use the right yourself. The Freedom of the Press Act gives the right to “everyone”. Nothing requires citizenship or residence.
3. Your e-mails to authorities may be public. That holds for a complaint to a municipality, a question to an agency or a letter to a court. Health details sent to healthcare are protected. Don’t assume anything else is.

Private companies are a different matter. Hotels, car-rental firms and shops are not authorities, so the right of access doesn’t reach their records. One exception arrives on 1 January 2027, when independent preschools and schools (friskolor) come under the right of access.

If you move to Sweden, the picture flips. Once you are folkbokförd, expect your address and age, and later your income, to appear on people-search sites, and removal isn’t guaranteed. People at real risk can ask Skatteverket about a secrecy marking (sekretessmarkering) or protected registration (skyddad folkbokföring).

How to request a document

The procedure is short, and the rules come straight from TF chapter 2:

1. Ask the authority that holds the document. That authority decides.
2. Be specific: the case or document, the person or company number, and the year. Skatteverket asks for exactly that.
3. Stay anonymous if you like. The authority may not ask who you are or why, beyond what it needs to check secrecy. Skatteverket takes requests by web form, phone, letter or at a service office.
4. Read it on site for free, immediately or as soon as possible, or order copies. Copies must be handled promptly.
5. Don’t expect e-mail as a right. Authorities need not send electronic versions. Skatteverket posts most answers and e-mails only single items.
6. Appeal a refusal. For most authorities the appeal goes to a court and must be handled promptly.

Writing in Swedish speeds things up, but English is widely understood in Swedish authorities. The document itself comes in its original language, usually Swedish. Most authorities keep a public log of documents (diarium), so you can ask what exists in a case before ordering copies.

You also have meddelarfrihet, the freedom to give information on any subject to a journalist or editor for publication.

Mistakes to avoid

• Reading a looked-up address as stalking or a data leak. It’s lawful public data in Sweden.
• Repeating “the sites will be banned in 2027”. No such amendment was adopted.
• Thinking you must justify a request. You don’t.
• Assuming the GDPR lets you delete a profile. Until IMY finishes its supervisions, that is unsettled. Contact the site first, and take complaints to IMY.
• Reading “public income” as a full salary. It’s one yearly total of taxed earned income.

Practical information

FAQ

Why are salaries public in Sweden?

Because tax decisions are official documents, and Swedish law makes official documents public unless a statute says otherwise. Since income year 2023 Skatteverket releases only a person’s total taxed earned income for the year, not salary details from employers. Anyone can ask for it by phone or form, without giving a name. People-search sites collect these figures and publish them.

Can anyone find my address in Sweden?

If you are registered as a resident, yes: population-register data, including address and personal identity number, is normally public, and sites like Ratsit list it. Short-term visitors are not registered, because registration requires an expected stay of at least a year, so tourists rarely appear. People at real risk can apply for a secrecy marking or protected registration.

Are Ratsit, MrKoll and Merinfo legal?

Under Swedish law they have operated legally with voluntary publishing certificates, which give constitutional media protection and have kept the GDPR out. In July 2026 the EU Court of Justice ruled that non-journalistic processing cannot be exempted from the GDPR, in a case about a site selling criminal judgments. IMY is now analyzing what that means for its four ongoing supervisions.

Can a foreign tourist request documents from Swedish authorities?

Yes. The Freedom of the Press Act gives the right to everyone, and nothing requires Swedish citizenship or residence. Ask the authority that holds the document. You need not say who you are or why you want it, reading it on site is free, and copies from state agencies are free below ten pages. A refusal can be appealed to court.

Is an e-mail I send to a Swedish authority public?

Usually it becomes an official document as soon as it arrives, so anyone can request it, unless a secrecy rule covers the content. Health details sent to a hospital, for example, are protected. Whether any rule covers an ordinary complaint or question depends on the area, so do not count on it. Write only what the authority needs to handle your case.

Will the people-search sites be banned in 2027?

No. A 2024 government inquiry proposed limiting the constitutional protection of such sites from 1 January 2027, but the proposal was not among the amendments the Riksdag adopted before the September 2026 election. Changing a fundamental law needs two votes with an election in between, so any such limit now lies years ahead. The July 2026 EU ruling is the live change.

Related guides

• The personnummer explained — the ID number that makes these lookups possible
• How Sweden is governed — which authorities hold which documents
• Why Swedes pay high taxes — what the public income figures reflect
• Photography rules in Sweden — the GDPR side when you post pictures of people
• Coordination numbers and bank accounts — for non-residents who work or bank in Sweden

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Facts verified 2026-10-05. Sources: Sveriges riksdag (Freedom of the Press Act, Fundamental Law on Freedom of Expression, Public Access and Secrecy Act, Data Protection Act, fees ordinance, Population Registration Act, pending constitutional amendments), Skatteverket, IMY, Mediemyndigheten, Court of Justice of the EU — full register in this topic’s source file. This page is not legal advice. Found something outdated? Tell us and we’ll fix it.