Sweden
Latest Average Wage
−1.7% · 5 years
$61,443
Country Comparison
Sweden vs United Kingdom
Compare average wages, long-term wage changes and eight consumer price categories using OECD data.
At a Glance
Sweden
vs
United Kingdom
$61,4432025
Latest Average Wage
United Kingdom +7.9%
(vs Sweden)
$66,2992025
−1.7%2025
5-Year Wage Change
United Kingdom +2.8 pts
(vs Sweden)
+1.2%2025
+3.2%2025
10-Year Wage Change
United Kingdom +0.1 pts
(vs Sweden)
+3.3%2025
81.52024
Overall Price Level
United Kingdom +2.8 index points
(vs Sweden)
84.32024
Wages are PPP-adjusted average annual wages; price levels use the United States reference of 100. Years shown are each country's latest reported observation.
How Wages Have Changed
Follow PPP-adjusted average annual wages in constant prices across both economies.
USD PPP, constant prices · missing years shown as gaps, never interpolated
United Kingdom
Latest Average Wage
+1.2% · 5 years
$66,299
Wage Milestones
Sweden
10 Years Ago
$59,542 (2015)
Historical Peak
$63,923 (2021)
Latest Wage
$61,443 (2025)
United Kingdom
10 Years Ago
$64,199 (2015)
Historical Peak
$66,480 (2019)
Latest Wage
$66,299 (2025)
Compare Everyday Price Levels
See how eight consumer price categories compare with the United States reference value of 100.
United States = 100 · Differences shown in index points
Sweden (SWE)United Kingdom (GBR)
Overall
−2.8 index points
100
81.5vs84.3
Food
+5.7 index points
100
90.8vs85.1
Clothing
+30.1 index points
100
109vs78.9
Housing
−31.2 index points
100
64.2vs95.4
Health
−0.7 index points
100
71.4vs72.1
Transport
+6.0 index points
100
117vs111
Recreation
+8.2 index points
100
98.4vs90.2
Restaurants & Accommodation
+9.8 index points
100
97vs87.2
What Stands Out
01
Latest Wage Gap
United Kingdom's latest average wage is $66,299 for 2025, about 7.9% higher than Sweden's $61,443 for 2025 — computed straight from the two reported values. That is roughly $4,856 a year on the same PPP basis.
02
Stronger Recent Trend
On the latest one-year change, Sweden shows the stronger movement at +0.9%, against +0.7% for United Kingdom. The five-year horizon reverses the ordering — Sweden at −1.7% and United Kingdom at +1.2% — so the latest year is not the whole story. Both percentages are real, PPP-adjusted changes from the reported wage series.
03
Largest Price Gap
Housing shows the widest price gap of the comparable categories in 2024: 64.2 for Sweden against 95.4 for United Kingdom. United Kingdom sits on the higher side of that 31.2-point spread; Sweden reads 31.2 index points lower on the US=100 scale. Index points are not percentages; the two scales answer different questions.
04
Closest Price Category
The closest category is Health: Sweden reads 71.4 and United Kingdom 72.1 for 2024, just 0.7 index points apart on the US=100 scale. The next closest is Overall at 2.8 index points apart. Closeness here describes the index readings only, not the baskets behind them.
Understanding the Comparison
Wage Position
United Kingdom's latest PPP-adjusted average wage is $66,299 for 2025, moderately higher than Sweden's $61,443 for 2025. In relative terms the gap is 7.9% — calculated from the two reported values — equivalent to about $4,856 a year on the same purchasing-power basis. Both figures are expressed in USD PPP at constant 2025 prices, so they can be set side by side without any further conversion. For scale, neither series has moved by that much within any single reported year, so the gap is structural rather than the product of one unusual observation. Over ten years Sweden recorded +3.2% and United Kingdom +3.3%, so the two series have been moving in the same long-term direction.
Wage Direction
This pairing shows two wage paths pulling apart rather than tracking each other. Sweden is partway through a recovery: the latest year added +0.9%, though the level remains 3.9% below its peak. United Kingdom stands just below its historical high of $66,480 in 2019, only 0.3% away, with a ten-year change of +3.3%. With United Kingdom gaining in real terms at +1.2% over five years and Sweden at −1.7%, the five-year measures move away from each other rather than closing in. All changes here are measured in real, PPP-adjusted terms, so they describe purchasing-power movement rather than nominal pay increases.
Price Profile
Sweden's overall consumer price level for 2024 reads 81.5, and United Kingdom's reads 84.3, each measured against the United States reference of 100. Neither country is uniformly higher: Sweden leads in 5 of the 8 comparable categories and United Kingdom in 3, so the profile splits by category rather than by country. The widest separation is in Housing: 64.2 for Sweden against 95.4 for United Kingdom, a gap of 31.2 index points. At the other end, Health brings the two closest — 71.4 versus 72.1, a gap of just 0.7 index points. Relative to the US benchmark, Sweden reads above 100 in 2 of its 8 reported categories, and United Kingdom in 1 of its 8.
Wage and price data should not be combined into a verdict on which country is better to live in.
