AbstractMedia presents hate crimes and nationalism as phenomenon that has increased both internationally and nationally in recent years. Further media largely pair these phenomenon together. The groups mostly exposed to hate and nationalism are people of different ethnic origin and LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer) people. In Sweden's general election in 2010 a RHP-party, Sweden Democrats, made it in to Parliament. The purpose of this study was to examine how hate crimes and nationalism, in the form of the Sweden Democrats, has increased in Sweden and if there was any link between them. By mapping the proportion of reported hate crimes and the proportion of eligible voters who voted for the Sweden Democrats in Sweden between 1997 and 2009 the study's main aim was to investigate whether there was any link between the proportion of reported hate crimes and the proportion of voters for Sweden Democrats in Sweden. The results question whether an actual increase of hate crime occurred due to methodological changes in the Swedish Security Service, the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention and the police. Also the dark figure is large regarding this crime. Sweden Democrats has had strong success in recent years, but whether this is a sign of increased nationalism can’t be impugned. 1998 and 1999 revealed a relationship between hate crime complaints and voting on the Sweden Democrats, but after 1999 the relationship is weak.