The 2026 Stockholm youth survey shows many young people in Södertälje reporting good health, enjoyment of life and safety at school. At the same time, up to 40 per cent of girls said they had experienced anxiety and worry during the previous two weeks. The survey had 1,184 respondents and an 80 per cent response rate.
What happened?
The survey covers pupils in year 9 of compulsory school and year 2 of upper-secondary school. It examines living habits, safety, health and wellbeing, as well as risk factors including crime, alcohol, drugs and gambling. Södertälje has participated every other year since 2006.
The municipality’s summary highlights that a large proportion feel safe at school and that this share has increased. Fewer report concern about becoming a victim of crime at school than in previous surveys. Among year 9 pupils, fewer also report volume offences such as shoplifting and vandalism than in other Stockholm County municipalities.
Location
Södertälje, Stockholms län
Impact and significance
The findings are not uniform. According to the municipality, girls report comparatively high levels of good mental health, optimism and satisfaction with their appearance, yet their mental wellbeing is slightly lower than boys’. The anxiety figure shows why an encouraging overall picture should not obscure differences between groups.
The municipality says access to its youth clinic and first-line support has been expanded so young people can receive help earlier. The article does not, however, present an evaluation showing what effect these particular services had on the survey results.
Background
Schools, social services, and culture and leisure services use the responses in municipal development work. This is a self-reported survey: it describes what participants said when answering, not medical diagnoses or recorded offences for each individual.
Questions were revised for 2026 to improve reliability and reflect current issues. Only parts of this year’s material can therefore be compared with earlier years, a limitation that matters when reading trend claims.
Latest update
Södertälje’s results were published on 8 September. The municipality’s next step is to follow up the responses in services that work with young people. Anyone comparing earlier Stockholm surveys should check whether the question concerned retained the same wording and method.
Sources
Related analysis
Reviewed: 2026-09-08. Independent editorial content. WUA Sverige is not affiliated with any political party.