Converted to fixed 2024 prices, the state culture budget has decreased by SEK 1.3 billion from 2019, when the state invested SEK 10.1 billion in culture, to SEK 8.8 billion in 2024.
DIK's union chairwoman Anna Troberg believes that "the state has abdicated its responsibility for financing culture."
"Hard-pressed regions and municipalities are unable to cover the gap," she says in a press release.
The report was prepared by the accounting firm PwC, which uses an international and somewhat narrower definition of cultural expenditure than the Swedish Agency for Cultural Analysis.
Facts: How the municipalities invested
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Umeå was the municipality that in 2024 spent the largest proportion of its total operating budget on culture (4.0%), followed by Säter (3.1%) and Malmö (3.1%).
Three sparsely populated municipalities in northern Sweden invested the least money in culture: Vilhelmina (0.8%), Överkalix (0.9%) and Vindeln (1.0%).
Source: Part 1 of the trade union DIK's report series on the financing of culture.
