Moderates gain ground in all 56 rural municipalities

The Moderates gained votes in all 56 rural municipalities in Sweden’s 2026 parliamentary election compared with 2022, according to an analysis by SVT. The result marks a historic shift, said Daniel Jansson of the SOM Institute at the University of Gothenburg.

The party’s gains reflect its focus on issues important to rural voters, Jansson said, including safety, the national and household economies, immigration and refugee reception.

Municipalities with fewer than 15,000 residents in their largest urban area and few commuters are classified as rural by Sveriges kommuner och regioner, an organisation representing municipalities and regions.

In the past, city residents were more likely to vote for right-wing parties, while rural residents tended to vote left. That pattern has shifted in recent years and was reinforced in this election. Rural residents are now more right-leaning than people in cities, and much more so than residents of Sweden’s three largest cities, Jansson said.

Differences in education levels are one factor behind the change, he said. Cities have closer access to universities and jobs requiring higher education. While right-wing politics was more closely associated with economic and tax issues in the 1990s, voting patterns now also reflect values, including traditional and nationalist views on one side and progressive, green and liberal views on the other.