Sweden sees major population growth mainly due to immigration

The Swedish population is growing faster, mainly due to immigration, and is now nearing the 10 million mark, it was reported Wednesday.

The Swedish population increased by 55,300 in the first half of 2016, which is 9,500 more than in the corresponding period last year, new figures from Statistics Sweden showed.

Immigration represents the main reason for the population growth as a total 62,200 people moved to Sweden in the first six months of this year.

While immigration from the other Nordic nations and from the EU is still significant, the number of refugees from outside Europe also increased compared to the first half of 2015.

According to Statistics Sweden, around 18,000 refugees have moved to Sweden so far this year. Most of them are from Syria.

However, a large number of those who applied for asylum last year are still waiting for their applications to be processed. They have not been counted in Statistics Sweden's survey.

(APD)