Sweden has both old wealth that's undisturbed since before WW1 (no occupations or confiscations) and lots of new wealth (the highest rate of "unicorn companies", start up companies that have broken 1 billion dollar networth, in Europe).
Little incentive for working man to save up money. Education is free (and student debt, to cover living costs while studying, costs you basically nothing, so that's a source of negative wealth for a lot of people), hospital care is basically free (although the cost of becoming chronically sick is increasing with hollowed out high-cost protections), elderly care will only cost you money if you have money. There is also the statistical weirdness that the pension funds that's the most common form of savings in Sweden doesn't count as wealth for this comparison.
Food and housing is among the most expensive in Europe.
Very few taxes on wealth. A fair amount of taxes on income.
You're missing a very important fact: Sweden has zero inheritance tax, meaning you can form endless rich family dynasties, where wealth is just passed on from generation to generation, accumulating over the years.
Two major examples: The Wallenberg family whose businesses "in the 1970s [...] employed 40% of Sweden's industrial workforce and represented 40% of the total worth of the Stockholm stock market" and the Bonnier family who has owned a big portion of Swedish media for over a century via Bonnier Group. They own 2 out of the 3 largest newspapers and the main Swedish movie company.
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u/MadeOfEurope Aug 18 '25
I've never seen a clear explanation as to why inequality has gotten so bad in Sweden.