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Divorce increased throughout the twentieth century across Western nations. Procyclical divorce, i.e. following macroeconomic cycles, is often suggested and women’s increased economic independence is considered a contributor to increasing divorce rates. Research has, however, overlooked that different factors may drive divorce rates across time horizons. Macroeconomic conditions, like unemployment, covary with divorce in the short term, while processes like women’s economic independence, correlate with the long-term divorce trend. Most studies focus on post-war United States, neglecting historical perspectives and Nordic countries that pioneered high divorce rates. To address these gaps, we used band spectrum regression to analyse time series capturing macroeconomic conditions, women’s economic independence, welfare state expansion, and divorce rates in Sweden, 1915–2010. This method differentiates between short- and long-run associations. Results show that this is important because most variables only covary with the divorce rate within one horizon. Results show that context matter. Contrasting U.S. findings, including novel estimates for 1930–2010, our results suggest countercyclical divorce and positive correlations between government expenditure, female-to-male relative wages, and the divorce trend in Sweden. This likely reflects the stabilising effect of the growing welfare state, which lessened financial barriers to divorce and promoted economic independence through female employment, transfers and services.

Today, more people than ever live in one-person households (OPHs). Sweden’s OPH population started to grow in the 1960s, and today the country has one of the highest proportions in the world, reaching almost 40% of all households. However, despite an internationally high share of OPHs, little is known about the longterm changes in the Swedish OPH population’s composition. By utilizing register data covering the entire Swedish population at 5year intervals the current study elucidate changes in the demographic characteristics and socioeconomic status (SES) of the working-age (30–64) OPH population from 1960 to 2018. Our findings show that there have been substantial changes over time in the associations between gender, civil-status and SES and the probability of living alone. A sharp increase in divorce rates in the 1970s was an important driver in the increased share of OPHs in working-age, especially for men aged 30–45 years. We also found a shift in the trends of associations between SES and the probability of living alone, from a positive to a negative association for women and an increasingly negative association for men. Today, low-SES men and women in Sweden are increasingly selected into OPHs, and the SES patterns across the sexes have converged.

This chapter traces the changes in family diversity within the social, cultural and legal context of the Swedish welfare state. We focus on three distinctive features, deeply rooted in Swedish law and policy that have shaped family law, discourses and practices of doing a family: (1) the framing of gender equality; (2) the construction and privileging of biological fatherhood; and (3) the mother/father binary in the heteronormative family. The gender equality framework has allowed for agency and choice in the doing of family. The latter two have impeded LGBTQA+ couples and single women from forming families through access to MAR and ultimately from achieving the full legal recognition of their parenthood. Throughout the chapter, we reveal the complexities, contradictions and ambivalent positions in Swedish policy and law by tracing the barriers that had to be overcome and the challenges that remain for the recognition of diverse family forms.

The increase in one-person households (OPHs) in the developed world is often seen as the result of a trend in which individualistic values and behaviors are replacing family solidarity. Nordic countries have been identified as frontrunners in this development. In Asia, equally developed countries like Japan retain elements of a strong-family system and an asymmetrical gender regime, simultaneously as they are experiencing rapid increases in OPHs. This article aims to uncover how the demographic and socioeconomic composition of OPHs have developed since the 1990s among working-age women in Sweden and Japan. Our results show that, in particular, civil status and income play different roles for OPH-living in Sweden and Japan. In contrast to Japan, the level of OPHs remained stable over time in Sweden, and even declined among women with high incomes. This suggests that the negative association between family formation and women’s economic activity is temporary and only prevails as long as society has not adapted to the convergence of men’s and women’s socioeconomic roles. The findings are discussed in light of the "second demographic transition" and "dual equilibrium theory".

Sweden is among the countries with the highest share of single households in Europe, but not all are truly partnerless. We examine the potential vulnerability of individuals in living-apart-together relationships at age 30 and above, analyzing data from the Swedish GGS. We apply multinomial logistic regression. The results show that individuals engaging in LAT occupy an intermediate position in terms of socioeconomic resources (homeownership and economic situation), being less advantaged than co-residents but better-off than singles, especially men. We find no association between ill-health and living in a LAT arrangement. Having previous family experiences (unions with or without children) is positively associated with LAT, but childhood family composition does not matter. The majority of LAT individuals claim to be constrained to living-apart-together rather than LAT being their preferred alternative. Women and the elderly (aged 70+) are, however, more likely to engage in LAT by choice and appreciate their non-residential partnerships.

In this study, we examine the development of age at leaving the parental household in Sweden between the years 1830-1959. We utilize individual-level longitudinal data from two geographically and socioeconomically different regions: the county of Scania in the very south of Sweden, and Västerbotten to the north. We use descriptive and multivariate analyses to investigate how determinants, such as age at marriage and socioeconomic status, affected the age at leaving the parental household over time and between different subgroups, such as sex and rural-urban setting. We show that the age at leaving the parental household was initially low but increased strongly during industrialization but fell again during the interwar period and onwards. Regional and subgroup differences in age at leaving the parental household were small throughout the investigated period, indicating that the development was general in nature. Therefore, we argue that our results indicate that different models governed the structures and norms of home leaving during our investigated period. More specifically, a pre-industrial model gradually shifted into an industrial model, with the latter one becoming dominant in the 1920s. In the pre-industrial model, leaving home was shaped by the life-cycle service system. In the industrial model, age at marriage instead became a main determinant of home leaving.

An established negative association between socio-economic status (SES) and divorce has applied to most Western nations since 1960. We expected a positive association between SES and divorce for low-divorce contexts historically because only individuals in higher social strata had the resources to overcome barriers to divorce. According to Goode’s socio-economic growth theory, this relationship was reversed as industrialization and modernization began removing the economic and normative barriers. Making use of longitudinal data from parish registers, we investigated SES and other micro-level determinants of divorce among men and women in northern Sweden who married between 1880 and 1954. Results indicated a positive association between SES and divorce among those who married 1880–1919, with the middle class, not the elite, featuring the highest divorce risks. This association changed for couples who married in the 1920s, for whom divorce became more common and the working class faced similar divorce risks to the higher social strata.

This study examines the impact of hip fractures on trajectories of home care, care home residence, and mortality among individuals aged 65 and older and explores the impact of living arrangement, cohabitation, frailty, and socioeconomic position on these trajectories. Based on a linkage of nationwide Swedish population registers, our study included 20,573 individuals with first hip fracture in 2014-2015. Care trajectories during two years following the fracture were visualized and compared to two hip fracture-free control groups drawn from the general population; age-and-sex-matched controls and health-matched controls identified through propensity score matching. Multistate modeling was employed to identify sociodemographic and health-related factors associated with care trajectories among hip fracture patients. Already before their fracture, hip fracture patients had worse health than the general population. However, when controlling for pre-fracture health, hip fractures still had a considerable impact on care use and mortality. Comparisons to the health-matched controls suggest that hip fractures have an immediate, yet short-term, impact on care trajectories. Long-term care needs are largely attributable to poorer health profiles independent of the fracture itself. This emphasizes the importance of adequate comparison groups when examining the consequences of diseases which are often accompanied by other underlying health problems.

Since the 1990s, Sweden has implemented aging-in-place policies increasing the share of older adults dependent on home care instead of residing in care homes. At the same time previous research has highlighted that individuals receive home care at a higher age than before. Consequently, services are provided for a shorter time before death, increasing reliance on family and kin as caregivers. Previous studies addressing how homecare is distributed rely primarily on small surveys and are often limited to specific regions. This study aims to ascertain how home care services are distributed regarding individual-level factors such as health status, living arrangements, availability of family, education, and socioeconomic position. To provide estimates that can be generalized to Sweden as a whole, we use register data for the entire Swedish population aged 65 + in 2016. The study's main findings are that home care recipients and the amount of care received are among the oldest old with severe co morbidities. Receiving home care is slightly more common among women, but only in the highest age groups. Childlessness and socioeconomic factors play a small role in who receives home care or not. Instead, the primary home care recipients are those older adults living alone who lack direct support from family members residing in the same household.

Aims: All Swedish municipalities are legally obliged to provide publicly funded eldercare to individuals in need. The Swedish Social Service Register collects data on such care. It is the only nationwide source of information on care home residency and use of home care but has rarely been used for research. This study aims to present the content and coverage of the Social Service Register and to provide guidance for researchers planning to use these data.

Methods: For each month between 2013and 2020, we examined which of Sweden’s 290 municipalities reported data to the Social Service Register. We calculated proportions of the population (restricted to ages 80–89 years to enable comparison) that were reported to the Social ServiceRegister in each municipality and presented the types and amount of care recorded in the register.

Results: The proportion of municipalities reporting to the Social Service Register increased from 82% to 98% during the study period but several municipalities reported fragmentarily and inconsistently, particularly during earlier years. Among municipalities reporting to the Social Service Register, 9% of the population aged 80–89 years resided in care homes and 19% received home care, but the registered amount and types of care varied substantially between municipalities and over time.

Conclusions: The Swedish Social Service Register provides valuable data for research on aging and eldercare utilization, but data should be selected and vetted carefully, especially for earlier years. The amount and types of care may not always be comparable between geographical regions and different time periods. In recent years, however, the coverage of the Social Service Register is good.