Being an island municipality it has not been amalgamated with any other entities. The small island of Tranholmen has, however, been transferred to Danderyd Municipality. The rural municipality was made a market town (köping) in 1910, a city in 1926 and a unitary municipality in 1971.
The municipality always refers to itself as Lidingö stad ("the City of Lidingö"). This was a decision taken by the municipal assembly (kommunfullmäktige) in 1992.
Lidingö traces its history to at least 600 BC, from when remains have been found.[3] According to legend, Lidingö was a place where the Vikings would gather before setting sails to eastern areas, however no proof have been found to confirm that theory. When the city arms was to be chosen in 1928 a Viking ship became the motif, in the colors of the Swedish flag. Lidingö was first mentioned in writing in 1328, called Lydhingö when the entire island and the farms were owned by Bo Johnsson Grip. On a map from 1661 the island is called Lijdingeöö.[citation needed]
Economy
The island itself hosts very few industries, a relatively well-known one being AGA AB, which started production on the island in 1912.
Much of the populated land area is built with one-family houses; a total of 36% of the population, or 17,020 people (2006), live in such houses [1][permanent dead link] and, to a large extent, commute to work in Stockholm or other municipalities of Greater Stockholm.
There are also quite a number of conference mansions in the northern parts of the island, providing a part of the industry of Lidingö.
Demography
Population development
Population development in Lidingö Municipality 1970–2019[4]
Year
Population
1970
36,174
1975
36,727
1980
37,390
1985
38,271
1990
38,399
1995
39,042
2000
40,584
2005
41,892
2010
44,017
2015
46,302
2017
47,185
2019
48,123
2022 population by district
This is a demographic table based on Lidingö Municipality's electoral districts in the 2022 Swedish general election sourced from SVT's election platform, in turn taken from SCB official statistics.[5]
In total there were 35,877 Swedish citizens of voting age resident in the municipality.[5] 36.8% voted for the left coalition and 62.2% for the right coalition. Indicators are in percentage points except population totals and income.
Lidingö is one of the wealthiest municipalities in Sweden, with the fourth highest median income per capita.[6] The share of highly educated persons, according to Statistics Sweden's definition: persons with post-secondary education that is three years or longer, is 46.0% – also the fourth highest in the country.[7]
Residents with a foreign background
On 31 December 2017 the number of people with a foreign background (persons born outside of Sweden or with two parents born outside of Sweden) was 10 065, or 21.33% of the population (47 185 on 31 December 2017). On 31 December 2002 the number of residents with a foreign background was (per the same definition) 6 422, or 15.59% of the population (41 192 on 31 December 2002).[8] On 31 December 2017 there were 47 185 residents in Lidingö, of which 8 265 people (17.52%) were born in a country other than Sweden. Divided by country in the table below - the Nordic countries as well as the 12 most common countries of birth outside of Sweden for Swedish residents have been included, with other countries of birth bundled together by continent by Statistics Sweden.[9]
The island's politics has traditionally been dominated by the centre-right Moderate Party. They currently run the municipality in coalition with the Christian Democrats and with the Lidingö Party.
Chairman of the municipal executive board is Anna Rheyneuclaudes Kihlman from the Moderate Party.
In 1942, Lidingö created a committee to provide support for the people in Lohja (Swedish: Lojo) in the southern part of Finland who suffered badly during World War II. An orphanage was opened in Lidingö and money was collected and sent to Lohja. The orphanage was closed in 1943 as most of the children then had returned to Finland. The money that was left over was used to provide food for the children in Lohja. Lidingö and Lohja still maintain a close relationship.
Another sister city is Alameda, California. The initiative came from Alameda in 1959 and was part of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's people-to-people-movement. The purpose was to develop better understanding between people from different countries after World War II. Both Alameda and Lidingö are islands with a bridge connecting them to a big city.
As the Baltic countries were liberated from the Soviet Union in 1990-1991, Lidingö looked for a new sister city in the area. Saldus in Latvia was selected. During the years, a number of environmental, cultural and other projects have been accomplished.