The percentage of human homicides in the Sweden fell to its lowest level in more than a decade in 2025, official statistics showed today, as new tools and methods helped police crack down on the gang violence that has plagued the country for the past 20 years.

The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (BRA) said 84 people were killed last year, compared with 92 in 2024 and well below the record in 2020 when 124 people were killed.

“The trend in the number of deadly violence incidents in 2025 represents the second consecutive year of decline and was at its lowest level since 2012,” the BRA said in a statement.

The figures are a welcome boost for the right-wing government, which won the 2022 election thanks in part to an announcement on tackling gang violence that had brought gun deaths to the highest level in the European Union.

The BRA added that Sweden’s now deadliest armed attack in February last year, unrelated to gangs and in which 10 people were killed, had a significant impact on the 2025 statistics, accounting for almost a quarter of all deaths attributed to violence using firearms.

Sweden holds elections this September and crime is one of the key issues for voters, even though the number of incidents of armed violence in Sweden has more than halved since 2022.

Police and politicians cite new methods, extra resources and increased powers as reasons for the decline in crime. The changes include anonymity for some witnesses in court, increased electronic surveillance, tougher sentences and safe zones, as they are known, where police can investigate people even if they are not suspected of a crime.

Police said the measures have allowed them to seize gang assets and have become more effective in deterring incidents of armed violence.

Gun violence remained the most common cause of violent death and claimed the lives of 42 people in 2025, three fewer than a year earlier.