In recent years, Sweden has had among the highest naturalisation rates in Europe. It also had the highest rate among the Nordic countries in 2016, closely followed by Finland. Among the 31 Nordic municipalities with naturalisation rates of 12.5% or higher, 23 were located in Finland and eight in Sweden. The most intense naturalisation process seems to have occurred in rural municipalities where the number of foreign citizens is quite low but where a high proportion of foreign nationals acquire citizenship of the country of residence. At the regional level, regions with particularly high naturalisation rates in 2016 were mainly found in Southern and Central Mid-Sweden and Eastern Finland.
It is worth noting that citizenship rules and processes vary between the Nordic countries. Generally, Nordic citizens can more easily become citizens of another Nordic country than non-Nordic citizens. Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Åland are sovereign territories but for Greenland and the Faroe Islands the citizenship is Danish, and for Åland Finnish.