One-person household trends in Sweden 1900–2017

The project challenges current thinking on the reasons for the large proportion of one-person households. Explanations emphasizing “individualism” and “weak family systems” in contemporary Sweden will be examined in the light of historical developments.

Sweden has more people living alone than most other parts of the world – almost 40 percent of all households consist of a single person. The percentage is mainly rising among 40–65-year-olds, in parallel with social change. A growing proportion of those living alone are low-educated and low-paid. They are also risk poor health and higher mortality.

The researchers have found that as far back as the turn of last century nearly one household in five was a person living alone. At that time Sweden was still a poor agricultural nation. The researchers consider that this contradicts the theory of “weak family systems”, since this was a time when survival often depended on the sum total of a household’s resources.

Since then Sweden has evolved into a rich industrial nation, with a very high standard of welfare. The researchers will be studying whether this transformation has created “individualism” and “weak family systems”, and if so, how this has happened. They will also be studying the factors in societal transformation that have led to the huge rise in the number of one-person households, and the people who have lived, and live now, in one-person households in Sweden.

It used to be difficult to obtain data on the period prior to 1960, but digitization of Swedish censuses from 1900 through 1950 by the SWEDPOP consortium offers a unique opportunity to study trends in living alone in a one-hundred-year perspective.

The aim of the project is to provide an input of new information about the composition of one-person households and changes over time, and how those living alone were impacted financially, socially and in health terms. The researchers also intend to examine the implications of a further increase in one-person households for the individual and for society as a whole.
 

Project:
The power of one? – The long-term increase in one-person households in Sweden, 1900–2017

Principal investigator:
Glenn Sandström

Co-investigator:
Anders Brändström

Institution:
Umeå University

Grant:
SEK 4 million