r/Lulea • u/ImplementSea3020 • Feb 18 '26
Salary in Luleå
I have a postdoc offer with a salary is 47000 SEK per month. Is it enough for a family of 3? My wife will look for jobs but our baby is under 1 year old so it would be difficult. Also how is life in Luleå for expats? We are moving from the UK.
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u/Mountainweaver Feb 18 '26
It should be fine, make sure you get accomodations on Porsön and you can minimize costs (coz you can walk to your job, grocery store, preschool). Owning a car eats on the budget.
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u/forkbeard Feb 18 '26
The biggest factor for your economy will be rent. If you can get researcher or university housing near campus, life becomes a lot easier. If you move to Luleå without queue time and have to rely on expensive new builds, second-hand contracts, or buying something right away, your budget will feel very different.
Sweden is very much built around two incomes. There is no joint taxation, and the system assumes both adults work, although childcare is capped and relatively affordable once your kid is old enough. The problem is that the job market is a bit slow right now, so your wife might have a hard time finding work quickly, especially with a baby under one year old.
That said, 47,000 SEK per month is still liveable for a family of three. After tax it will be quite a bit less, so do not expect a luxury lifestyle. If you cook at home, do not eat out all the time, and avoid expensive hobbies like buying a snowmobile or a horse, you will manage fine.
As for Luleå, if you like nature, snow, and being outdoors, it is actually a pretty nice place to live. Bonus points if you like ice hockey or basketball, because the whole city is obsessed with it.
And about the “expat” (or non-brown labour migrants) thing, you will mostly end up in the academic bubble around LTU anyway, so you can easily live among other international academics if that is what you want.
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u/felixfj007 Feb 19 '26
Well the Porsö-bubble has its risks of barely even needing to learn/use swedish, if your work language is English.
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u/ImplementSea3020 Mar 21 '26
Really thank you for a detailed response. We cook at home at lot. We normally eat out twice a month. I will try for University housing but I think they prefer students and PhD candidates. Regarding the language, my intention is to learn swedish because this is the 4th country I am moving to, and I want to make it the last one.
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u/Haselmeier Feb 18 '26
Hej, I think it is a decent salary in Sweden. You will be fine getting by. Rent in Luleå is usually not so expensive. However, groceries can be quite pricy especially with a couple of mouths to feed. I think you would not live in luxury. It would be better with two incomes. Otherwise another aspect is that it can be quite cold so plan on to buy good winter clothes and on top of that I think it could be quite isolating from time to time as a person that is not used to Luleå. The culture in Norrbotten and no language skills. There is a bigger international community in Luleå due to the university.
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u/Wseries Feb 19 '26
I'm sure you've already done the exchange rate but 47000 SEK equates to about £3853. If you think you could manage on that in the UK you will probably be okay in Luleå.
Good luck, I hope you take this opportunity. Luleå is a beautiful place. Personally I would love to live there.
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u/ImplementSea3020 Mar 21 '26
That's true. Even net salary is close to my my London salary. And I presume that expenses would be much lower than London.
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u/01joja Feb 19 '26
Also remember that you will be able to take parent leave. I don't know all the details but I think you keep 80% of the salary, you get it from Försäkringskassan instead of your employer.
You are also allowed to take care of your sick kid and I think you keep 80% of your salary then too. Make sure that you are following all the rules correctly because there have been many cases recently where people have made mistakes and had to pay things back.
Also, having a kid should not impact your wife's work prospects. I don't think the employer is allowed to ask for that during the interviews even.
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u/ImplementSea3020 Mar 21 '26
Thanks for the info. I agree 100%. It felt very weird when I was asked this question and weirder thing is that a woman asked me this.
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Feb 18 '26
I earn 49500kr in Stockholm. I’m living lavish alone, 47000 with a family would still be comfortable due to low cost of living in Luleå.
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u/_CountingOnRain Feb 18 '26
Cost of living in Luleå is not that low though
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Feb 18 '26
Not sure how it is nowadays for sure. I’ve applied for uni and saw rent is almost the same as Stockholm which shocked me a lot, but how is it now?
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u/01joja Feb 19 '26
Food is generally more pricey than in Gothenburg. Especially eating out.
Taxes are also higher than in stockholm and gothenburg.
Apparently so are electricity too.
I like comparing with my friends and sometimes it feels like I have lower living costs in Gothenburg than my friends in Luleå but have a higher salary with the same lvl of education and experience. Feels weird.
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u/_CountingOnRain Feb 19 '26
This is just not true - What are you even basing this on.. Electricity is cheaper in Lulea 100%. Food is not more expensive - a lunch in Luleå is 140 SEK which is cheaper than Gothenburg. Salary depends on which industry- Gothenburg has larger job market and hence pays more in a larger amount of sectors, Lulea has high salaries in certain industries but lower salaries in sectors that are not in demand as job market is lower
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u/Jackeking99 Feb 22 '26
Thing that makes electricity seem to cost more is we need more of it to heat the homes
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u/Dismal_Pudding5666 Apr 30 '26
Hey! DMed you to ask about information on salary for postdoc. I have my postdoc interview soon at Lulea
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u/Sorry-Document-732 Feb 18 '26
The salary is well within the range to support you all, maybe not with any extravagance but you'll not starve. How is the expected living situation, are you being provided with housing or are you expected to buy or rent? because those things are important, as just one income might not be enough for a loan to buy an apartment.