The Scandinavian brown bear population consists of about 2800 bears in Sweden and 100-150 bears in Norway. The population was at its lowest around 1930, when only about 130 bears survived the extermination attempt in both countries. However, conservation measures in Sweden ensured that the bear survived and increased. The bear is distributed throughout the northern two-thirds of Sweden and in areas along the Swedish border in Norway, in addition to two subpopulations along the Finnish and Finnish and Russian borders in northern Norway.
The map shows the relative densities of bears, based on the densities of scats collected for population estimates (figure by Jonas Kindberg).