Long-term changes in the characteristics of one-person households in Sweden, 1960-2018

Abstract

ABSTRACT 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 long-term changes in the Swedish OPH population’s composition. By utilizing register data covering the entire Swedish population at 5-year 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.