Stockholm is Sweden’s capital and is renowned for its beauty and architecture, its many green spaces and above all for its proximity to water. The city is built on 14 islands and the surrounding mainland, and is a link between Lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea.
Stockholm is growing fast. The city’s population is currently approximately 900,000, but by 2022 that is expected to rise to one million – in a wider region of three million. This requires continous development and innovative and effective urban planning. Currently, there are over 100 active and planned construction projects in and around the city – all with a strong focus on sustainability and the stockholmers of today and tomorrow.
Stockholm is one of the most knowledge-intensive and innovative regions in the world. The core investment opportunities are founded on innovation and tech. More than 25,000 global tech and startup companies has been founded in Stockholm. Stockholm has the most unicorns per capita in the world after Silicon Valley.
Stockholm’s well developed fiber network is one of the pre-conditions to our digitalization and smart city efforts. Stockholm enjoys 100-per cent broadband coverage, both fixed and mobile. Stokab’s network is the world’s largest open fibre network. In total, it stretches the equivalent of more than 30 times around the earth. It is 1.25 million fibre kilometres long, 5,500 cable kilometres long and boasts 600 crossover connections (nodes) and more than 15,000 access points (ODF). The fiber network in Stockholm is provided and administered by Stokab, a company owned by Stockholm City Council.
The City of Stockholm has been working determinedly with digitalization for a long time. The city provides almost 33% of all open data made available by Swedish public organization. Between 2013-2017 the city invested heavily in the Digital Renewal Program, resulting in more than 90 successful digitalization initiatives and projects. Before 2013, the city ran the E-services Program which resulted in more than 70 e-government services. In 2017 the city will ramp up the Smart City Program as a result of the adoption of the strategy for Stockholm as a smart and connected city by the City Council.
The Department for Digitalization is the city’s central organization responsible for strategic issues within digitalization and business development using IT. The department has approximately 70 employees with expert skills ranging from IT-infrastructure to business development.
In a report entitled Networked Society City Index 2013, Ericsson compared the ICT maturity of 31 cities based on their economic, social and environmental development. Stockholm ranked no. 1, followed by London, Singapore and Paris. Stockholm held the no. 1 positions also in 2014 and was ranked no. 1 again in 2016. Today, Stockholm’s Kista region is one of the world’s leading mobile technology clusters. In 2012, Kista Science City was home to 10,000 companies employing a total of 72,000 staff, of which 1,200 were ICT companies with 24,000 staff in total.