According to Swedish Security Agency MSB (Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap), the number of vehicle fires has been steadily rising since 1998.
In 1998, with a total of 434 cars deliberately set on fire, in 2017 the number was 1,772. However, it is slightly smaller than the number of ignited cars in 2016: 1,886.
In reality, the number of torched cars should be much higher, as:
- The number only refers to alarms received by Fire Departments. In one fire, there is more often than not, several vehicles. For example, a fire where one car is torched and the fire spreads to adjacent cars is recorded as one task.
- In 2017, there were a total of 2,116 unknown causes of ignition. Of these, probably, some are deliberately ignited, but the cause of the fire remains to be determined.
Thus, the number of torched cars can be estimated to be at least 5,000.
The statistics can be examined here: