Want to date a Swede? Head to these cities
Small cities Malmö and Linköping are the places to be if you want to go on a date in Sweden, according to research carried out by a new dating app.
The team behind HIMYNAMEIS, a Swedish dating startup, toured 31 Swedish cities over three weeks, then ranked the places they visited out of ten, basing the points allocation on factors like the number of singles willing to date, quality and variety of dating, and the city’s romantic atmosphere.
The results suggested that not big cities Stockholm or Gothenburg, but small ones like Linköping and Malmö are the places most likely to produce the best dating experience.
"Linköping was really pleasant with its lake, really good nightlife and bars, and the same thing with Malmö," co-founder Ludvig Lindström told The Local.
"A combination of the romantic atmosphere, lots of places to date and number of singles who were open to new ways to date made those two cities the best, though it was pretty close."
Less favourable were the unscientific study's results from Sweden’s two biggest cities. Capital Stockholm ranked five out of ten, while Gothenburg came rock bottom with only three out of ten.
"There are a lot of singles in Stockholm as it’s a really big city, but it’s also really stressed and it seems like their dates are very quick," warned Lindström.
"It’s like a production line. One date, then the next, then the next. The quality of the date may not be good, but you can get a lot of them."
Hoping to compete with dating apps such as Tinder, the app asks users to upload short clips of themselves in order to find potential matches, with the claim being that video provides a more authentic impression of a person than images. But it seems Gothenburg's residents weren't so keen on trying out the new method.
"I was surprised, people from Gothenburg are very friendly, but we went to Chalmers University’s student union to hand out fliers and were told to leave," laughed Lindström.
"The same thing actually happened in two other places in Gothenburg. We weren’t happy about that, so that also played a part in the ranking," he admitted.
As for any internationals hoping to date a Swede, the south of the country could be the best place to start.
"Malmö is an international city, so it’s really easy to melt in there if you’re from somewhere else," Lindström recommended. "It’s a city made up of hundreds of different nationalities, so it could be a good place to start if you’re from abroad."
Cosmopolitans thinking of flocking to Malmö in their masses may want to consider the full list, detailed below.
Sweden’s best dating cities (according to HIMYNAMEIS):
1. Malmö (8/10)
1. Linköping (8/10)
3. Norrköping (7/10)
4. Örebro (7/10)
5. Halmstad (7/10)
5. Umeå (7/10)
7. Uddevalla (7/10)
8. Falun (7/10)
9. Visby (7/10)
10. Östersund (7/10)
11. Karlstad (6/10)
11. Kalmar (6/10)
13. Jönköping (6/10)
14. Karlskrona (6/10)
15. Helsingborg (6/10)
16. Trollhättan (6/10)
17. Stockholm (5/10)
18. Lund (5/10)
19. Skellefteå (5/10)
19. Växjö (5/10)
19. Västerås (5/10)
22. Borgholm (5/10)
23. Uppsala (4/10)
24. Borås (4/10)
25. Kristianstad (4/10)
25. Luleå (4/10)
27. Gävle (3/10)
28. Skövde (3/10)
29. Sundsvall (3/10)
30. Örnsköldsvik (3/10)
31. Göteborg (3/10)
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The team behind HIMYNAMEIS, a Swedish dating startup, toured 31 Swedish cities over three weeks, then ranked the places they visited out of ten, basing the points allocation on factors like the number of singles willing to date, quality and variety of dating, and the city’s romantic atmosphere.
The results suggested that not big cities Stockholm or Gothenburg, but small ones like Linköping and Malmö are the places most likely to produce the best dating experience.
"Linköping was really pleasant with its lake, really good nightlife and bars, and the same thing with Malmö," co-founder Ludvig Lindström told The Local.
"A combination of the romantic atmosphere, lots of places to date and number of singles who were open to new ways to date made those two cities the best, though it was pretty close."
Less favourable were the unscientific study's results from Sweden’s two biggest cities. Capital Stockholm ranked five out of ten, while Gothenburg came rock bottom with only three out of ten.
"There are a lot of singles in Stockholm as it’s a really big city, but it’s also really stressed and it seems like their dates are very quick," warned Lindström.
"It’s like a production line. One date, then the next, then the next. The quality of the date may not be good, but you can get a lot of them."
Hoping to compete with dating apps such as Tinder, the app asks users to upload short clips of themselves in order to find potential matches, with the claim being that video provides a more authentic impression of a person than images. But it seems Gothenburg's residents weren't so keen on trying out the new method.
"I was surprised, people from Gothenburg are very friendly, but we went to Chalmers University’s student union to hand out fliers and were told to leave," laughed Lindström.
"The same thing actually happened in two other places in Gothenburg. We weren’t happy about that, so that also played a part in the ranking," he admitted.
As for any internationals hoping to date a Swede, the south of the country could be the best place to start.
"Malmö is an international city, so it’s really easy to melt in there if you’re from somewhere else," Lindström recommended. "It’s a city made up of hundreds of different nationalities, so it could be a good place to start if you’re from abroad."
Cosmopolitans thinking of flocking to Malmö in their masses may want to consider the full list, detailed below.
Sweden’s best dating cities (according to HIMYNAMEIS):
1. Malmö (8/10)
1. Linköping (8/10)
3. Norrköping (7/10)
4. Örebro (7/10)
5. Halmstad (7/10)
5. Umeå (7/10)
7. Uddevalla (7/10)
8. Falun (7/10)
9. Visby (7/10)
10. Östersund (7/10)
11. Karlstad (6/10)
11. Kalmar (6/10)
13. Jönköping (6/10)
14. Karlskrona (6/10)
15. Helsingborg (6/10)
16. Trollhättan (6/10)
17. Stockholm (5/10)
18. Lund (5/10)
19. Skellefteå (5/10)
19. Växjö (5/10)
19. Västerås (5/10)
22. Borgholm (5/10)
23. Uppsala (4/10)
24. Borås (4/10)
25. Kristianstad (4/10)
25. Luleå (4/10)
27. Gävle (3/10)
28. Skövde (3/10)
29. Sundsvall (3/10)
30. Örnsköldsvik (3/10)
31. Göteborg (3/10)
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