STOCKHOLM, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A quarter of Swedish single households with dependent children had difficulties making ends meet last year, Statistics Sweden (SCB) said on Wednesday.

       It was the highest proportion since the same study was first done in 2014 and up from 17.7 percent in 2022, according to the figures provided by SCB.

       "Single-parent households have been especially hard hit by decreasing real wages due to inflation," Thomas Helgeson, SCB's head of living conditions and democracy section, told Xinhua.

       The report indicates that 9 percent of two-parent households -- the same proportion as in the population in general -- had difficulties making ends meet last year, according to SCB.

       Among the unemployed and those born outside Sweden, the percentage of individuals facing financial difficulties increased from 31 to 39 percent and 17 to 22 percent respectively from 2022 to 2023, according to the report.