STOCKHOLM, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- The outstanding debts owed by Swedes increased substantially in 2023, totalling 119 billion Swedish kronor (11.4 billion U.S. dollars) at the year's end, the Swedish Enforcement Authority said on Tuesday.
The increase was the largest since the 1990s, marking a 17-percent rise from 2022 when unpaid debts first surpassed 100 billion kronor, the government agency in charge of debt collection said in a press release.
Meanwhile, the number of indebted individuals rose by 6 percent to more than 417,000, or around 5 percent of the population aged 20 and over.
"The number of people in debt increasing at such a rate is a trend shift," said Davor Vuleta, an analyst at the authority, in the press release.
The most notable surge was observed among those aged 65 and older, as the total number of individuals in this group increased by 9 percent, the authority said.
Compared to previous years, cases involving women also surged in 2023. While two-thirds of the individuals with outstanding debts were men, the proportion of women and their outstanding debts was expanding, official data showed.
The total scale of unpaid taxes increased by 80 percent among women compared with the 29-percent rise among men, according to the press release. (1 Swedish krona = 0.096 U.S. dollar) ■
