fejkdata/docs/research/research-geo-se.md

Open data sources for real Swedish geographic and postal-address data

Researched 2026-09-16. Goal: Sweden → län → kommun → tätort/postort → street, with real postal codes, embeddable in an MIT-licensed library.

TL;DR

Need	Best source	Licence	Embed in MIT repo?
Län + kommun names/codes	SCB kommunlankod-2026.xlsx	CC0 1.0	Yes, no attribution needed
Population per kommun (weighting)	SCB PxWeb API BE0101A/BefolkningNy	CC0 1.0	Yes
Tätorter (2,017) with code, kommun, län, population	SCB open geodata WFS/GeoPackage stat:Tatorter_2023 + PxWeb MI0810A/LandarealTatortN	CC0 1.0	Yes
Streets + house numbers + postnummer + postort + kommun + coordinates (~3.9M points)	Lantmäteriet Belägenhetsadress Nedladdning, vektor (STAC, GeoPackage per kommun)	CC BY 4.0 plus personal-data terms, purpose review, Basic-auth download	Not as-is — raw redistribution is bound by the personal-data terms; a derived aggregate (street ↔ postnummer ↔ postort, no house numbers) is the realistic path but needs a stated purpose approved by Lantmäteriet. Legal review needed.
postnummer → postort (list only)	GeoNames SE.zip (18,887 rows, 1,780 postorter)	CC BY 4.0	Yes with attribution — but source is an undated third-party file, likely stale
Street names per kommun/postort without Lantmäteriet	Trafikverket NVDB Gatunamn (Lastkajen)	CC0 1.0	Yes, but no postnummer; needs account to download
Street names	OpenStreetMap	ODbL 1.0	Effectively no (share-alike on the extracted database)
Municipal address files	OpenAddresses sources/se/* (16 kommuner)	Mixed: CC0 (Göteborg, Malmö), CC BY 4.0 (Helsingborg), unspecified (Stockholm 2016 dump, Uppsala)	Per source
Postal code register (authoritative)	PostNord → Postnummerservice Norden AB / Geposit AB	Commercial; "resale/sublicensing not permitted"	No

1. Lantmäteriet

Since 2025-02-03 the EU High Value Datasets (HVD) products are fee-free but Lantmäteriet explicitly says they are not "öppna data" because conditions attach (Avgiftsfria produkter). Two tiers exist:

• Öppna data — licence "Creative Commons, CC0" (Öppna data). Verified on Geotorget product pages for Topografi 50/100/250/1M Nedladdning, vektor ("Villkor: Creative Commons, CC0", "Juridisk prövning: Nej", GeoPackage, download in Geotorget or via the Geotorget Nedladdning API).
• Värdefulla datamängder (HVD) — licence CC BY 4.0 per the terms document Användningsvillkor för värdefulla datamängder (DNR LM2025/009266 v1.0, 2025-02-01, PDF). Products with personal data use Användningsvillkor för värdefulla datamängder som innehåller personuppgifter (DNR LM2025/009269 v1.1, 2025-03-04, PDF).

Per-product status (Geotorget product pages, rendered 2026-09-16):

Product	Fee	Terms	Legal review	Access	Format
Belägenhetsadress Nedladdning, vektor	0	HVD terms with personal data	Yes	STAC API https://api.lantmateriet.se/stac-vektor/v1, collection belagenhetsadresser	GeoPackage, one zip per kommun
Belägenhetsadress Direkt	0	HVD terms with personal data	Yes	REST https://api.lantmateriet.se/distribution/produkter/belagenhetsadress/v4.2 (OAuth2 via API portal)	JSON / XML
Belägenhetsadress Nedladdning, Inspire	0	HVD terms with personal data	Yes (3–5 working days extra for security review)	Atom feed, login	GML; SWEREF 99 TM / ETRS89; semi-annual
Ortnamn Nedladdning, vektor	0	HVD terms (no personal data)	No	STAC collection ortnamn, one national zip (58.5 MB)	GeoPackage
Ortnamn Direkt	0	HVD terms	No	REST …/distribution/produkter/ortnamn/v2.2	JSON / XML
Kommun, län och rike (administrativ indelning)	0	STAC says CC-BY-4.0; a Lantmäteriet HVD presentation (GISS, 2025-03-04) tables it as CC0 ("CC0 används som licens för tjänster som är gemensamma för HVD och NGP … Kommun, Län och Rike") — conflicting, unverified which prevails	No	STAC collection kommun-lan-rike (zip ~6 MB, yearly + "aktuell"); OGC API Features https://api.lantmateriet.se/ogc-features/v1/administrativ-indelning (collections kommuner, lan, rike, plus -2025/-2026; items endpoint returns 401)	GeoPackage / GeoJSON
Topografi 10 Nedladdning, vektor	0	HVD terms with personal data	Yes	Geotorget download / API	GeoPackage
Topografi 50 / 100 / 250 / 1M Nedladdning, vektor	0	CC0	No	Geotorget download / Geotorget Nedladdning API	GeoPackage

Notes:

• Administrativ indelning is not a standalone Geotorget product; it is the STAC collection kommun-lan-rike, the OGC API above, an Inspire download (Atom/WCS), or a layer in Topografi 100/250/1M (CC0). Topografi 1M also carries "tätortsgränser och tätortssymboler".
• The STAC catalog root and collection/item listings are public (HTTP 200, no auth); it self-describes: "avgiftsfria och får användas enligt creative commons licens CC BY 4.0. För vissa informationsmängder kommer din användning att prövas juridiskt … och du behöver då godkänna särskilda användningsvillkor." Asset downloads on dl1.lantmateriet.se return 401 Basic — credentials are the Geotorget account (private person) or a system account (organisation). Private accounts are "endast för privat bruk" (konto-privatperson); an MIT library is not private use, so apply as an organisation.
• Record count. 290 STAC items (one per kommun), total 324 MB zipped. Smallest Bjurholm 143 KB, largest Stockholm 9.1 MB, Göteborg 8.9 MB, Malmö 4.9 MB. Fastighetsregistret held 3,882,361 valid addresses in 2022 (2,886,796 street addresses + 964,737 rural) per SCB/LM presentation; the OSM import thread cites 3.7 M. So ~3.9 M address points, not 4–5 M.
• Fields (JSON schema belagenhetsadress-4.2.2.json, matches Nationell specifikation Adress v1.0.1): kommunkod, kommunnamn, kommundel (geografisk kommundel), adressomrade + adressomradestyp (gatuadressområde / metertalsadressområde / byadressområde), gardsadressomrade, adressplatsnummer, bokstavstillagg, lagestillagg/lagestillaggsnummer, adressplatstyp, adressplatsbeteckning, postnummer, postort (both "beslutas av PostNord AB", only on current addresses), popularnamn, distriktskod/distriktsnamn, adressattAnlaggning, anmarkningstyp/anmarkningstext, registerenhetsreferens (property link), objektidentitet, objektstatus, versionGiltigFran, geometri (SWEREF 99 TM point). No län field — derive from kommunkod (first two digits).
• Lantmäteriet treats addresses as personal data via Fastighetsregisterlagen § 6: usage only for the purpose approved in the application, EU/EEA-only storage, spot checks, revocation (terms PU §§ 3.3–4.2). The OSM community reports Lantmäteriet refused ODbL compatibility and OpenAddresses (#7657, #7608) has not been able to include it; the OSM thread (127427, 91 posts, last 2026-07-25) says one mapper got approval for a full 3.7 M import but no formal import has happened.
• Attribution text required (CC BY 4.0 + terms § 3.1): product name as data source, "©Lantmäteriet", whether the data was processed, and that CC BY 4.0 applies — may be placed in accompanying documentation/metadata.
• Ortnamn: name types include Tätort ("minst 200 invånare"), Bebyggelse, Trakt, Kyrka, Anläggning, nature names; Ortnamnsregistret holds ~980,000 names (Lantmäteriet, figure not re-verified). Not delivered as CSV.

2. SCB (Statistics Sweden)

• Licence. Statistics and geodata published as open data: "Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal, CC0" (användningsvillkor); since 2021-07-01. Optional credit "Källa: SCB" / "Source: Statistics Sweden"; do not cite SCB as source for data you have processed. API limit 10 requests / 10 s per IP.
• Län and kommuner with codes. 21 län, 290 kommuner (lan-och-kommuner). Download: https://www.scb.se/contentassets/7a89e48960f741e08918e489ea36354a/kommunlankod-2026.xlsx (18 KB, HTTP 200). Codes: län 2 digits (01 Stockholm … 25 Norrbotten), kommun 4 digits = län + 2 (0180 Stockholm).
• Population per kommun. PxWeb API https://api.scb.se/OV0104/v1/doris/sv/ssd/START/BE/BE0101/BE0101A/BefolkningNy — region dimension has 312 values (riket, 21 län, 290 kommuner), years 1968–2024 (verified 2026-09-16). Also BE0101C/BefArealTathetKon (density, 1991–2025).
• Tätorter. 2,017 tätorter in 2023 (WFS resultType=hits on stat:Tatorter_2023 → numberOfFeatures="2017"; SCB also states 2,017). Open geodata: https://geodata.scb.se/geoserver/stat/wfs (WFS/WMS) and GeoPackage download (statistiska tätorter). Attributes: tatortskod, tatort, kommun, kommunnamn, lan, lannamn, area_ha, bef (population), ar. Population per tätort also in PxWeb MI0810/MI0810A/LandarealTatortN (2,827 region codes, every 5 years to 2023). Also Smaorter_2023, DeSO_2025, RegSO_2025.

3. Postal codes

• Owner. PostNord Sverige owns and operates the postnummer system; PTS is supervisory authority; a Postnummerråd approves changes 3–4 times a year (sv.wikipedia). Register management is delegated to Postnummerservice Norden AB, machine access via Geposit AB. Postnummerservice's terms: "free use within your own organization", "resale of data is not permitted", "sublicensing to third parties is not permitted" — unusable for an open library.
• No open list from PostNord, Lantmäteriet or Digg. dataportal.se search for "postnummer" (2026-09-16) yields only Postnummerservice's own commercial catalogue entry ("Svenska postnummer och postorter", published 2012), Helsingborg's municipal postnummer polygons, and Lantmäteriet's Inspire address entry. The old dataportal community called the postnummer system "slarvats bort till ett privat bolag". GitHub CSVs (zegl/sweden-zipcode, lapplandi/sveriges-postnummer, beshrkayali/sverige_postnummer) state no licence or provenance — do not use.
• Lantmäteriet addresses carry postnummer + postort on every current address point (set by PostNord), so the address product is the only lawful open-ish route to a complete, current postnummer ↔ postort ↔ street mapping.
• GeoNames SE.zip (readme): CC BY 4.0 ("a link on your website to www.geonames.org is ok"). Downloaded and counted: 18,887 rows, 18,887 distinct postnummer, 1,780 postorter, 22 admin1 values (21 län + blank), 285 admin2 (kommun code) values; 3,055 rows lack kommun; accuracy: 16,115 rows = 4 (centroid of postal code area), 389 = 1, 2,383 blank. Fields: country, postal code (111 64 with space), place name, admin1 name/code (län), admin2 name/code (kommun 4-digit), admin3, lat, lon, accuracy. The GeoNames sources page lists Sweden's source as www.pellesoft.se/upload/program/prg00745.zip with no date (URL now dead) — a hobbyist upload, so freshness is unknown; the row count (18.9 k) exceeds today's ~17 k total codes, indicating retired codes are still present. The zip is rebuilt daily (Last-Modified 2026-09-16) but that says nothing about the underlying data. 96 KB zipped.
• Counts. Postnummerservice: "~17 000 postal codes", "10 500 deliverable postal codes", "1 743 postal cities"; Kartanalys: 10,839 geographic postnummer, 1,740 postorter; Wikipedia: >16,100 areas (2008). Changes quarterly.
• Structure (sv/en Wikipedia): 5 digits written NNN NN. Lower numbers further south, except 1xx xx = Stockholm. First digit/tens: 10–19 Stockholm, 20–29 Skåne (Malmö 20–21), 30–39 southern Sweden, 40–49 Göteborg area (Göteborg 40–41), 50–59, 60–69, 70–79, 80–89, 90–99 progressively north to Norrbotten (98x). Postorter come in 2-, 3- or 5-position sizes; in two-position places the 3rd digit (in three-position the 4th) marks delivery type: 0 = boxes/postal, 1 = boxes/business, 2–4 and 6–7 = street delivery, 5 = rural (lantbrevbäring), 8 = reply mail, 9 = competitions/temporary — with exceptions in big cities. Box codes are therefore not street-deliverable and should be excluded when generating street addresses.

4. Streets

• Lantmäteriet — see § 1; adressomrade with adressomradestyp = gatuadressområde is the street name.
• Trafikverket NVDB — CC0 1.0 Universal since 2017-04-03 (trafikverket.se links creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.sv; OSM wiki). Data product Gatunamn = "det officiellt adressbildande namnet på gatan" (municipal decision); Trafikverket is cleaning it in 2026 so it holds only names used in street addresses (Vägnamn i NVDB). Download via Lastkajen (registration with e-mail + accept licence; Shapefile/GeoPackage), or the Datautbytesportal API. Gives street ↔ kommun (and geometry) but no postnummer/postort. Record count not published on the pages checked.
• OpenStreetMap — ODbL 1.0. A list of street names extracted from OSM is a Derivative Database: "Where you make our data or any Derivative Database available to others, it must continue to be licensed under the ODbL" (OSMF FAQ); only Produced Works (maps etc.) escape share-alike. Embedding an OSM-derived JSON in an MIT repo therefore forces that data file to ODbL with attribution "© OpenStreetMap contributors" + link to openstreetmap.org/copyright, and downstream consumers inherit share-alike on the data. Not recommended.
• OpenAddresses — 16 Swedish sources, all municipal (sources/se/municipality_of_*.json: Alingsås, Gislaved, Göteborg, Helsingborg, Höganäs, Kalmar, Kristinehamn, Malmö, Nacka, Sävsjö, Stockholm, Uppsala, Västerås, Vaxholm, Växjö, Österåker). OA does not relicense; licence is per source. Checked: Göteborg CC0 1.0 (attribution "Göteborgs stad", shapefile, gatunamn), Malmö CC0 1.0 (CSV with ADRESSOMR, ADRESSPLAT, POSTNR, POSTORT, cached 2024-11), Helsingborg CC BY 4.0 ("Helsingborgs stad", GeoJSON with Gatunamn/Postnummer/Stad), Uppsala attribution required, licence name not stated (ArcGIS REST), Stockholm no licence field, data is a 2016 cache of a defunct WS. Usable for a few big cities only; no national coverage.
• Unique street-name counts. SCB (Lägenhetsregistret 2019, artikel): "Antalet gator eller vägar med en eller flera adresser är 399 175 i hela landet" — this is streets counted per place, not unique names. Most frequent: Ringvägen 205, Skogsvägen 204, Björkvägen 200, Skolgatan 196, Storgatan 180 (in 180 kommuner, 55,360 residents). A national unique-name count was not found; expect well under 399 k (probably 100–200 k) — unverified.

5. Sizes

Level	Count	Source
Län	21	SCB
Kommuner	290	SCB; 290 STAC items
Tätorter (2023)	2,017	SCB WFS hits
Postorter	~1,740–1,780	Postnummerservice 1,743; Kartanalys 1,740; GeoNames 1,780
Postnummer	~17,000 total, ~10,500–10,840 deliverable/geographic	Postnummerservice, Kartanalys
Streets with addresses (per place)	399,175 (2019)	SCB
Unique street names	not published; likely 100–200 k	unverified
Address points	~3.9 M (3,882,361 in 2022)	Lantmäteriet/SCB
Lantmäteriet address GeoPackages	324 MB zipped, 290 files	STAC
GeoNames SE.zip	96 KB (18,887 rows)	download
Ortnamn national GeoPackage	58.5 MB zipped; ~980 k names	STAC; Lantmäteriet

Embedding suggestion (size-driven, before licence): län + kommun + population (~20 KB) and tätorter with population (~100 KB) are trivially embeddable under CC0. A postnummer→postort table is ~300 KB raw. A national (street, postort, postnummer-range) table at ~400 k rows is roughly 15–25 MB JSON, ~3–5 MB gzipped — optional download pack territory; a default pack could carry the top N streets per kommun (e.g. 20 × 290 ≈ 6 k rows, <300 KB).

6. Licence compatibility with an MIT repo

Source	Licence	Embed?	Required notice
SCB codes, population, tätorter	CC0 1.0	Yes	None; optional "Källa: SCB"
Lantmäteriet Topografi 50/100/250/1M (admin boundaries, tätort symbols)	CC0	Yes	None (courtesy credit suggested)
Lantmäteriet Ortnamn	CC BY 4.0 + HVD terms (no personal data, no review)	Yes, data file stays CC BY 4.0 inside the MIT repo	"Källa: Ortnamn Nedladdning, vektor, ©Lantmäteriet, bearbetad, CC BY 4.0" (product name, ©Lantmäteriet, processed-flag, CC BY 4.0)
Lantmäteriet kommun-län-rike	CC BY 4.0 per STAC (CC0 per LM slide — unresolved)	Yes	Same attribution form as above unless CC0 is confirmed
Lantmäteriet Belägenhetsadress	CC BY 4.0 + personal-data terms, purpose approval, EU-only storage, revocable	Only with an approved application whose stated purpose covers deriving and publishing an aggregated street/postnummer/postort list under CC BY 4.0. Raw points (house numbers, property links) should not be redistributed. Get written confirmation from geodatasupport@lm.se; treat as unresolved until then.	Product name, ©Lantmäteriet, "bearbetad", CC BY 4.0
GeoNames SE	CC BY 4.0	Yes	Link/credit to www.geonames.org; note staleness
Trafikverket NVDB Gatunamn	CC0 1.0	Yes	None
OpenStreetMap	ODbL 1.0	Not practical (share-alike on the data)	"© OpenStreetMap contributors" + ODbL if ever used
OpenAddresses Göteborg, Malmö	CC0 1.0	Yes	None (Göteborg asks credit "Göteborgs stad")
OpenAddresses Helsingborg	CC BY 4.0	Yes	"Helsingborgs stad"
OpenAddresses Stockholm/Uppsala	unspecified	No	—
PostNord/Postnummerservice files	commercial, no redistribution	No	—

CC BY 4.0 and CC0 data files can sit in an MIT repo; the MIT licence covers the code, and a DATA-LICENSES.md/NOTICE lists each dataset with its licence and the attribution above. CC BY 4.0 § 2(a)(5)(B) (no technical protection measures) is irrelevant for a plain JSON file.

Could not verify

• Whether the kommun-län-rike collection is CC0 or CC BY 4.0 (sources disagree).
• Whether Lantmäteriet will approve an application whose purpose is publishing a derived open dataset; OSM/OpenAddresses experience suggests refusal is likely.
• GeoNames Sweden source date; assume stale.
• National count of unique street names; Gatunamn (NVDB) record count.
• Exact number of active postnummer today (three sources: ~17 k total / 10.5–10.8 k deliverable).