10 reasons to choose Linköping

Linköping is Sweden’s fifth largest city and it’s growing fast. At present, we are about 165,500 residents. By 2025, it’s estimated there will be more than 175,000 people living here – and by 2060, we reckon there will be 250,000. While industry and commerce is an enabler for that continued growth, the growing city returns the favour through new customers, clients, and potential partners. As you can imagine, construction cranes are a common feature on our skyline – and it’s not for nothing that we like to call ourselves a future-oriented city.

With the E4 motorway, the railway, and an international city airport with several daily departures to Amsterdam – just minutes from the city centre – Linköping is ideally located. In fact, together with Norrköping and its international harbour, we’re one of Sweden’s best logistics regions. And, as Linköping lies directly between Sweden’s two largest cities, geography really is on our side. Today, some 500,000 residents live within a one-hour commute, and with the coming high-speed railway Ostlänken, travel times will be even shorter in the future.

The general level of education in Linköping is high – 51% are educated to post-upper secondary school, and the population is young, with an average age of 39. Linköping University, which has around 36,000 students and a staff of 4,000, is ranked as one of the leading universities in the world. The university not only offers a range of innovative programs, including many professional qualifications for the likes of doctors, teachers, economists, and civil engineers – it also conducts world-leading, multi-disciplinary research in a variety of fields. LiU students are among the most sought-after in the labour market, and its alumni includes Oscar winners, ministers of state, global business leaders, and founders of top start-ups. LiU students have also become globally influential, and listed among Sweden’s super talents.

Built on a combination of innovation, sectoral breadth, cutting-edge competence, and beneficial collaboration, the Linköping business community encompasses some 12,000 active companies. Thanks to the optimal mix of manufacturing, service, trade, and public sector activities, we are well-equipped to cope with any cyclical ups and downs in the economy. Here, you’ll not only find big names like SAAB and Ericsson, but also a strong culture of innovation which has enabled many of our companies to become world leaders in their respective branches. Sectra, IFS, and NIRA Dynamics are just a few examples.

Choosing a city isn’t just a matter of a good business climate and exciting job opportunities. You also have to like the idea of living there. And in Linköping, as shown by our growing number of residents, people do.

Perhaps that’s because in Linköping, nature – like culture – is always close at hand, and there’s plenty of leisure activities for families, outdoor enthusiasts and nightlifers alike. How about water skiing in the middle of the city? A historic city tour? Or perhaps a boat trip on the Göta canal? In Linköping, there’s lots to choose from – in fact, the hospitality industry is one of our fastest growing industries for a reason.

Linköping's picturesque location in the middle of the fertile Östgöta plain, with its wealth of open landscapes, forests, and lakes, enables our food producers to take advantage of all that nature has to offer. The city also has a creative cuisine for all tastes – with a plentiful selection of trendy, sustainable cafes, and restaurants.

The accommodation itself then? Well, here you can live just the way you want – whether that means a trendy apartment in the city, a terraced house on the edge of town or a countryside villa just twenty minutes from the city centre. That’s what we’d like to call quality of life.

In a world that’s becoming more and more complex as we speak, we are stronger together – and achieving growth is ever so often a joint effort. In Linköping, we are well known for the close and frequent collaboration between the public sector, industry, academia, and the local community. In fact, collaboration is in our DNA – it’s how we’ve always created the perfect conditions for a successful business climate with many competitive synergies.

Linköping has a well-developed infrastructure for supporting the growth of our companies. Over the years, we’ve developed many niched innovation hubs where companies in the same field can achieve synergies by working together. Linköping Science Park is known across the world, of course, but we also have a host of thriving innovation clusters within aviation technology, Greentech and Agrotech. In addition, we have a range of effective support systems for our new entrepreneurs and start-ups, including one of Sweden’s best business incubators – LEAD.

There’s one issue that is more important than all others: our environment. And when it comes to the environment, our ambitions are sky-high. In fact, our goal is to become the world's most resource-efficient region – and we're already well on our way. For example, Linköping was the first city to make the decision to become carbon neutral as early as 2025, and we are also taking a leading role in areas such as waste management and recycling – as well as developing green travel plans to include more bike routes and public transport options. In addition, our business community contributes to sustainable development on a global scale. So if sustainability is also on your agenda – well, then you've come to the right place.

In Linköping, the entrepreneurial spirit is everywhere – and entrepreneurship is for everyone. That’s why we’re actively promoting entrepreneurial skills among the city’s youth, starting as early as primary school with the project Framtidsfrön (“Seeds for the Future”), and continuing that journey into high school with Ung Företagsamhet (“Junior Achievement”). Because that future we’re all dreaming of – it starts right here, today.

• As the only city in Sweden, Linköping has been awarded as the ‘City centre of the year’ no less than three times. It’s a result of the close collaboration between Linköping municipality, property owners and our business community – all working together to create a beautiful, vibrant, and safe city for everyone.
• Fokus magazine has awarded Linköping as the country’s second-best place to live, among Sweden’s larger cities.
• Linköping has also been awarded as ‘Sweden’s smartest city’ by the technology and architecture group PE – defining a smart city as one that uses digitalisation, innovation, and data to simplify living, care for natural resources and create a more sustainable community.
• No Netflix without Linköping? Perhaps not, because the streaming technology which laid the foundation for companies like Spotify, Netflix and HBO actually has its origin in Linköping. The seeds of those innovations were sown at Linköping University almost fifty years ago.
• The Grammy-winning rock band Ghost, and beloved Swedish singer-songwriter Lars Winnerbäck, both forged their sound in the rehearsal spaces of Linköping. The composer Ludwig Göransson – currently making it big in Hollywood with his music for Star Wars: The Mandalorian – comes from here, as well.
• Beyoncé’s voice is coloured by Linköping, as the Linköping-based tech company Softube – perhaps better-known in London and Los Angeles – created some of the vocal effects used by the star. A perfect example of the collaboration between Linköping University and our start-up community achieving international recognition.
• Twice a year Linköping fills up with fantasy characters from the world of comics, cinema, and video games as the biggest Nordic cosplay festival, Närcon, opens its doors.
• The non-profit organization Ung Företagsamhet was founded in Linköping in 1980, giving Sweden’s sixth-formers the chance to start, develop and close down their own company during a full academic year.