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The aim of this thesis is to describe and analyze the dynamics of rural migration in northern Sweden,focusing on how these dynamics were influenced by and contributed to societal restructuring from 1850 to2019. During this long time period, rural living went from being the norm to exceedingly more uncommonas Sweden transitioned from an agrarian to a modern industrial and later service-based economy. To asignificant extent, this transition has been fueled by rural-urban migration and has had adverseconsequences for rural areas, particularly in northern Sweden. The study utilizes both historical populationregisters and modern national public authority registers to quantitatively investigate the development ofrural migration through more than a century and a half of societal restructuring. Specifically, the intensity,direction, timing, economic outcomes, and selectivity of migration. The results highlight how regionalspecificities, economic transformations, and structural changes have shaped rural migration patterns innorthern Sweden over time, with effects ranging from the population to the individual level.

Four main migration regimes with distinctive features were discerned by analyzing trends and patterns inrural migration over time. The thesis shows how these regimes have been produced by the interplay betweenthe specific regional conditions found in northern Sweden and the long-term economic and societalrestructuring of the country. A pre-industrial migration regime was dominant up until the late 19th centurywhen the predominantly agricultural economy of Sweden shaped rural migration. This regime wassucceeded by both an early and late industrial regime from the 1880s up until the 1960s, where theincreasing dominance of urban-industrial life and the expansion of the secondary sector of the economystarted to increasingly influence the way in which rural folk moved. From the 1970s onward, what can bestbe described as a post-industrial regime has characterized the northern rural migration, as higher educationand the tertiary sector have increasingly influenced rural migration behavior and outcomes. In essence,rural migration in northern Sweden has been shaped by economic, demographic, institutional, andnormative changes since the mid-19th century. The increasingly urban-centered society has influenced thelife trajectories of rural residents, shaping the migration dynamics in rural areas in incremental steps overthis extended period of time.