First-time voters in Sweden are becoming one of the most gender-polarized groups in the electorate ahead of the parliamentary election on 13 September. Research suggests that young women and men increasingly differ in their political preferences, while social media is playing a growing role in how the youngest voters encounter politics.
First-time voters will account for 6.5 percent of eligible voters in the 2026 election, up from 5.7 percent in 2022, according to Statistics Sweden (SCB). Their share varies considerably across the country, from 9.2 percent in Danderyd, north of Stockholm, to 3.8 percent in Överkalix in northern Sweden.
The group broadly resembles the rest of the electorate, but there are some important differences. First-time voters have tended to support the Left Party (Vänsterpartiet) and Green Party (Miljöpartiet) more than the average voter and the Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterna) less, while the Moderates (Moderaterna) performed particularly well among them in the 2022 election.
Researchers are now paying particular attention to another divide: gender.
First-time voters in Sweden show a widening gender gap
Political differences between young women and men have become particularly pronounced among voters aged 18 to 25 over the past decade, according to research from the SOM Institute at the University of Gothenburg cited by Sweden Herald.
Among the youngest voters, the divide is especially visible.
“It is a gender-polarized group,” Jakob Ahlbom, a doctoral student in political science at Stockholm University, told the news agency TT.
According to Ahlbom, the current pattern is unusual historically because young women and men are voting increasingly differently from one another.
The divide is also visible across the electorate. In Statistics Sweden’s May 2026 party preference survey, 39.1 percent of women said they would vote for the Social Democrats if an election were held at the time, compared with 28.6 percent of men. The Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) showed the opposite pattern, with support from 24.7 percent of men and 12 percent of women.
Those figures cover voters of all ages and therefore do not measure the youth gender gap directly. They nevertheless show that gender has become an increasingly relevant dividing line in Swedish electoral politics.
Researchers remain cautious about explaining why the differences are particularly strong among younger people.
Social media may reinforce different political environments
One factor being examined is the increasingly different media environments inhabited by young women and men.
Ahlbom said the gender gap began to widen around the period when social media became more widespread among younger age groups. Young women and men also tend to consume different types of content online.
Research has found greater political differences among those who use social media most heavily, he said. But this does not establish that social media itself causes political polarization.
Oskar Hultin Bäckersten, a postdoctoral researcher in political science at Mälardalen University, told TT that the relationship could work in both directions: existing political attitudes may influence which content people choose to watch just as online content may influence political attitudes.
The distinction is important because the 2026 election is taking place in a media environment substantially different from that of four years ago.
TikTok has become much more important before the 2026 election
Traditional media remain important to Swedish voters, but political information increasingly reaches younger people through social platforms.
The Internet Foundation’s 2026 election report found that around half of first-time voters encounter political content on TikTok. The platform has grown considerably as a source of political information since the previous parliamentary election.
The foundation also found that almost four in ten first-time voters follow politicians, political influencers or experts discussing politics and social issues. Podcasts are becoming more important as well: the proportion consuming political content through podcasts increased from 17 percent in 2022 to 31 percent in 2026.
At the same time, television, radio and newspapers remain the sources Swedish voters generally consider most important for political information.
The result is an increasingly fragmented information environment in which different generations, and potentially different groups within the same generation, encounter politics through different channels.
For political parties, this makes first-time voters particularly important. Hultin Bäckersten noted that voting itself can become habitual: people who participate in their first election are more likely to participate again, while those who abstain the first time are less likely to vote in subsequent elections.
Young voters want politics to be clearer
Interviews with first-time voters also suggest that political engagement does not necessarily translate into confidence in parties or political communication.
Maya Stenmark, a 19-year-old voter interviewed by TT, said climate and environmental issues were among her main concerns and described voting as a way of influencing a government with which she is dissatisfied.
Eighteen-year-old Anton Rasmusson, meanwhile, identified unemployment and healthcare among his priorities. He said he follows debates, reads political analyses and uses online election guides, while remaining sceptical of politicians’ claims.
Both reflect a group that is politically engaged but navigating a much broader and more fragmented information environment than previous generations of first-time voters.
Sweden’s parliamentary, regional and municipal elections will be held on 13 September 2026, with early voting already underway since 26 August. How the growing gender divide among younger voters translates into actual party support will become clearer only after the ballots are counted, but it is already emerging as one of the distinctive features of Sweden’s youngest electorate.
