Long-Term Changes in the Demographic and Socioeconomic Characteristics of One-Person Households in Sweden 1960-2018

Glenn Sandström, Centre for Demographic and Ageing Research (CEDAR), Umeå University
Anders Brändström, Umeå University

Today, more people than ever before are living as a one-person households (OPH). Swedens OPH-population started to grow in the 1960s and today the country exhibits one of the highest proportions of OPHs) globally, reaching almost 40% of all households. Despite the tendency to put forward Sweden and the other Scandinavian countries as forerunners in the long-term growth of OPHs, surprisingly little is known about how the composition of the OPH-population has changed since the 1960s up until today. Using large-scale register data covering the entire population of Sweden with 5-year intervals we analyze the development of the demographic and socioeconomic (SES) characteristics of one-person households (OPHs) in Sweden from 1960 to 2018. In the analyses, we focus on how the composition of the OPH population has changed in terms of age, gender, civil status, parental status, education, income, and urban/rural context. Our preliminary findings show that there have been substantial changes over time in how factors such as age and socioeconomic status are associated with the probability of living alone and, in particular, changes over time in how SES is related to OPH-living for men and women.

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 Presented in Session 133. The Impact of Cohesion: Single Households, Marriage Premium and in-Laws.