What does it really cost to live in Stockholm 🤔?

Recently, some of my fellow DA’s at Study in Sweden made a post on Instagram describing what their monthly cost of living looked like, and let’s just say I was a bit surprised. I think it’s important to set some reasonable expectations around money, especially when you’re coming into a new space all by yourself. In this post, I’m going to break down for you guys what it costs to live in the capital of Scandinavia, on the KTH campus, in the heart of Stockholm.

Rent

First thing’s first. You need a roof over your head right 😂? This was the first thing I considered when I was thinking about studying in Sweden. The good thing about KTH is that you’re guaranteed housing as an international student. You may not get your first preference, or any of your preferences for that matter 😅, but you’ll be assured of somewhere to live. That was a HUGE deal for me. You guys have already seen that I live with 2 other students in a three-bedroom apartment. When I just started at KTH, my monthly rent was 6900 SEK per month. Since I came, it was slightly increased to 7100 SEK per month. Now, what does that get me?

• The roof 😂 (as we discussed earlier)
• Electricity, heating and water (I have to pay for Wi-Fi)
• 16 hours of access to a laundry room per month

Other students live on campus with similar arrangements. Some have studio apartments with rent prices ranging from 8000 SEK upwards. Others live further away from the campus at Lappis, in Täby or at other student accommodation with rent ranging from around 2500 SEK upwards.

Food

My second largest spend for the month is on food. Groceries in Sweden are cheap to some, but expensive to others. It really just depends on the context from which you’re coming. For me, coming from the Caribbean, I find that the prices in Stockholm are similar or sometimes cheaper than what I would be paying at home. I spend approximately 2500 SEK on groceries every month. To give you some context, here are the costs of some basic household necessities:

• 1kg of chicken leg quarters – 30 – 40 SEK
• 1 Litre of milk – 18 – 25 SEK
• Average sized box of cereal – 30 – 55 SEK
• A hand of bananas (approx. 5) – 30 – 50 SEK
• A litre of juice – 25 – 40 SEK
• A bag of potato chips – 20 – 40 SEK

Eating out

This one is purely dependent on you and your eating/cooking preferences. For me, I tend to buy between 3 and 5 meals in a week. On average, a basic sit down meal in Stockholm ranges between 150 and 250 SEK. That would include going to a fast-food restaurant like Max or Subway. If you’re buying food on campus though, things tend to be a bit cheaper. I can buy a tuna wrap with something to drink for less than 80 SEK on campus, and for me at least, that would constitute an entire meal. All in all, I budget around 2400 per month on eating out.

Transportation

As you can imagine, one of the good things about living on the KTH campus is that you don’t really need to pay for public transport on a daily basis. The only time I spend money on transport is when I go to central Stockholm, to visit a friend who lives off campus, or on an adventure 😚. When you live on campus, everything is close by. There are at least 6 supermarkets within walking distance. Most other things you’ll ever need are always near campus. Add to that, getting around in Stockholm is EXTREMELY EASY. Every town, suburb or city is very well connected to the next by the Metro, above ground railway, bus or even ferry. What’s more, students get a discount on public transport tickets. A single ticket, which allows you to enter any component of the public transport facilities for 75 minutes will run you 26 SEK (using your student discount). An unlimited one-day pass will cost 110 SEK.

Depending on what you like to do, or where you like to go, you can decide what type of ticket you buy. Weekly, monthly and yearly passes are also available for the Stockholm public transport system. I currently budget 600 SEK per month on transportation.

Everything else

So, we’ve taken care of the essentials, what about everything else? There are so many lifestyle and entertainment activities to engage in in Sweden. Here are the costs of a few things for you to consider:

• A ticket to the nightclub – 100 – 200 SEK (although some are free before midnight)
• A movie ticket – 100 – 250 SEK depending on the theatre (the ones further out of town are a bit cheaper)
• A concert ticket – as little as 750 SEK
• A roundtrip train to Gothenburg from Stockholm – 600 – 800 SEK
• Gym membership – 350 – 450 SEK/month (I use the Stockholm City gyms which are much cheaper than the private ones).

All in all, living on campus in Stockholm is far from cheap😅. In my estimation, you should be budgeting between 1000 and 1500 USD per month, depending on your lifestyle. Stockholm is obviously not the cheapest city to live in in Sweden, I mean, it’s the capital of Scandinavia for crying out loud 😅. I hope that this guide allowed you to set some expectations if you are considering studies here. Please feel free to reach out with any questions, I would love to answer them! Until next time!