Why your address is online – and who can get it from Skatteverket

Published 5 October 2026 Checked 5 October 2026

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Many people are surprised to find their address, age, partner, car and neighbours on Ratsit or Hitta. It isn’t a data breach. The details are public, and they take a fairly direct route from the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) to the sites.

Anyone can ask Skatteverket

Sweden has a principle of public access to official records, and it covers the population register (folkbokföring) too. According to Skatteverket, population register details are normally public, and you can request them about yourself or about anyone else. The register includes, among other things, your name, personal identity number, place of birth, address and apartment number, your marital status and who you’re married to, your children and your parents. Skatteverket: Public and confidential information (in Swedish).

• It’s easy. The easiest way to get single details is to call Skatteverket’s information line (Skatteupplysningen). You can also email through Skatteverket’s form, write a letter or visit a service office.
• It’s anonymous. The person asking doesn’t have to say who they are. Skatteverket even explains how to hide your number when you call.
• You won’t find out. Skatteverket describes no way for you to find out that someone has asked about you.
• There’s no search. Nobody can look you up on Skatteverket’s website, and you can only print a personbevis (personal certificate) about yourself.

Your details are only secret if there’s a particular reason to believe that you or someone close to you would be harmed if they were released. Some sensitive details, such as adoption and legal gender change, can also be secret.

Part of your income is public too

From the 2023 income year, your assessed earned income is public, as is the tax that Skatteverket has decided. Your full tax return, on the other hand, isn’t released to anyone else without your consent. Skatteverket also says it often passes assessed incomes and decided taxes to municipalities and certain credit reference agencies.

Your car and your home are public too

• Your car. At the Swedish Transport Agency (Transportstyrelsen), anyone can text a registration number to 71640 and get the owner’s name and town back for free. Transportstyrelsen: Who owns the vehicle? (in Swedish)
• Your home. According to the land registry (Lantmäteriet), details of who owns a property are normally public. With BankID, private individuals can look up the owner’s name and address, five times a day. If you buy a property, such as a house, you can ask Lantmäteriet for confidentiality before you apply for registration of ownership (lagfart), but only if you or someone close to you could be harmed by the details being published. Lantmäteriet: Who owns the property (in Swedish)

How the details end up on the sites

Skatteverket passes the population register details on to the state population address register, SPAR. It’s a public register of everyone registered in Sweden, and it’s updated every day. Companies get details from it to keep their customer registers up to date and to send advertising. SPAR is funded entirely by sales revenue.

SPAR holds your name, personal identity number, date of birth, address, place of registration, registered place of birth (födelsehemort) and citizenship, and who your spouse, partner or guardian is. It also holds your total income, whether you own a house and the house’s assessed value. But not everything is released to everyone:

• Companies usually get name, address and personal identity number. For advertising, they only get name and address.
• Spouse, partner and guardian are only released to certain sectors, such as banks, credit reference agencies and insurers.
• Registered place of birth and citizenship are only released to public authorities.
• Income and property are only released to the Police, the Security Service and Customs.

So if a site shows your income, it didn’t come from SPAR but from Skatteverket’s public tax records. SPAR: Personal data (in Swedish).

The people-search sites get their details from there and from other sources. Hitta, for example, says its details come from SPAR and from the phone operators.

The sites also hold a publishing certificate (utgivningsbevis), which gives them the same constitutional protection as a newspaper. That’s why they say the GDPR doesn’t apply to what they publish. Since the EU Court’s ruling in July 2026, that is no longer a given. Where the law stands now.

Skatteverket can’t help you here. Skatteverket itself says it can’t remove your details from other websites, because it isn’t responsible for how others process them. You have to contact each site.

Why remove yourself if it’s all public anyway?

Because there’s a big difference between public and one click away.

• At the authorities, you have to know who you’re looking for. Skatteverket wants to know who you’re requesting details about and sends the answer by post, unless it’s just a single detail. Lantmäteriet requires BankID and allows five searches a day. Transportstyrelsen only answers people who already have the registration number.
• On the sites, a name is enough. Anyone can search for a name or a phone number and see everything in one place: address, age, household, phone number and vehicles. The pages also show up on Google when someone searches for your name.

So removing yourself makes you much harder to find for anyone who just searches for your name. But the details don’t become secret. Someone who already knows who you are can still ask Skatteverket, and if you need real protection, protected personal data is what applies.

See who got your details from SPAR

SPAR’s register extract (registerutdrag) shows what SPAR holds about you, and which companies and organisations have received details about you in the last 12 months. Law enforcement authorities aren’t shown in the extract.

• With a Swedish e-ID: log in to the e-service on SPAR’s page about register extracts (in Swedish).
• Without an e-ID: email kundtjanst@statenspersonadressregister.se or write to Skatteverket SPAR, 205 30 Malmö. Give your name and personal identity number or coordination number.

The extract is always sent to your registered address.

Why the people you live with show up

Ratsit and Merinfo also show who lives at the same address as you. On Merinfo you can hide that detail with BankID, under “Justera min synlighet” (adjust my visibility). Here’s how on Merinfo. If the whole household wants to be less visible, each person has to remove themselves.

Moving abroad doesn’t make you disappear

When you report a move from Sweden, your address abroad goes to SPAR too, which passes it on to banks and insurers, among others. Only after you’ve lived abroad for five years are you deleted from SPAR, and you can ask for that to be postponed yourself. MrKoll also says it keeps publishing people who have emigrated. How to remove yourself without BankID.

What you can do

1. Remove yourself from the sites. It’s free and usually quick with BankID. How to do it on Ratsit, MrKoll, Hitta and the others.
2. Ask Google to remove the results. Google can remove search results that show your address or phone number. Here’s how.
3. Make your number unlisted. Ask your operator for an unlisted number (hemligt nummer), so it isn’t passed on to directory services. Here’s how.
4. Block advertising in SPAR. An advertising block (reklamspärr, in Swedish) stops addressed advertising from companies that buy addresses from SPAR. It only covers advertising and doesn’t remove you from the people-search sites.
5. Protected personal data, if you’re under threat. It’s for people exposed to violence or threats. Your name and address are then removed from SPAR. Skatteverket says explicitly that you can’t get it just because you don’t want to be visible online. More about protected personal data.

Want to see where you’re listed right now? Check where you’re listed.

A simplified explanation, not legal advice.

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