Your municipality

What it handles: preschool and school places, SFI and komvux, social services and income support, elderly care, rubbish and recycling, building permits, and in some places a housing queue and consumer advice.

How to reach it: every municipality has a contact centre and its own website. Some of the largest: Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Uppsala, Linköping, Örebro, Västerås, Helsingborg, Norrköping and Jönköping.

Where people get stuck: term dates, school holidays and preschool rules are set by each municipality, so a neighbour in the next municipality may have a different sports break week.