The announcement brings only a partial closure to one of the greatest mysteries of the Cold War -- the fate of the so-called "Swedish Schindler" -- as his body was never returned to his family.
Wallenberg issued Swedish papers to tens of thousands of Jews, allowing them to flee Nazi-occupied Hungary and likely death.
But months before the war ended, the Soviets invaded Budapest and summoned the Swede to their headquarters in January 1945.
He disappeared, and his fate became a flashpoint issue between the West and the Soviet Union.
"The official date of his death is July 31, 1952", said Pia Gustafsson, an official from Sweden's tax authority, which registers birth and deaths.
"This date is purely formal. Legally, we must choose a date at least five years after his disappearance and there were signs of life until the end of July 1947," she said.
The decision came after a representative of Wallenberg's family asked for a death certificate from Sweden, which published search notices for him and received no new information on his whereabouts.
