Voting Patterns in Malmö’s 2022 Local Election Diversity, Language Proficiency, Trust and Belonging

Abstract

This study maps electoral turnout in the superdiverse city of Malmö, Sweden. It examines the extent to which sociodemographic characteristics, together with sociopsychological and attitudinal factors—including language proficiency, sense of belonging to the city, and trust in others—relate to political participation in Swedish local elections. Key results indicate that turnout is higher among older voters, women, the highly educated, and Swedish citizens; that for immigrants, it varies by region of birth, and increases with years of residence. Moreover, differences in turnout by religious identification are observed, with nativity status playing a key moderating role. The results further show higher levels of trust among voters towards people of other backgrounds, while non-voters report lower social distance towards neighbours of other ethnicities and religions, implying inconsistent patterns across these two measures. Finally, voters report a stronger sense of belonging to the city and higher levels of language proficiency than non-voters.