This is a list of cities in modern Sweden that once enjoyed city privileges, thus were entitled to call themselves town (Swedish: stad, plural städer). The year indicates the year they were established or when they were granted a royal charter. The list does not include towns in Finland established during Swedish rule.
Legally and administratively, the term Swedish: stad is not used in Sweden since the municipal reform of 1971, when the municipality (kommun) became the only existing form of local government. Before the reform there were 132 urban centres (133 to 1966) that had the title of Swedish: stad.
The urban centres of these municipalities are still called Swedish: stad in daily speech and 14 of the municipalities have chosen to continue to call themselves Swedish: stad in marketing situations, although several of them now encompass large rural areas following the merger of Swedish municipalities in the 1970s and 1980s. These 14 are: Borås Municipality, Gothenburg Municipality, Haparanda Municipality, Helsingborg Municipality, Landskrona Municipality, Lidingö Municipality, Malmö Municipality, Mölndal Municipality, Solna Municipality, Stockholm Municipality, Sundbyberg Municipality, Trollhättan Municipality, Vaxholm Municipality and Västerås Municipality.
The decision to call themselves Swedish: stad has been taken purely for image and marketing reasons. In legal situations the word kommun (municipality) must be included in the municipality's name and governmental authorities will only refer to them by their legal names.
Most of the former towns are today urban centres (tätorter) and seats of their municipalities. Two seats/former towns and municipalities have a different name: Djursholm is the seat of Danderyd Municipality and Visby is the seat of Gotland Municipality.
A number of suburban towns have grown together with neighbours and are nowadays seldom considered as separate towns:
The following are not seats of their municipalities: