The impact of demographic and socio-economic change on the living arrangements of the elderly in Sundsval, Sweden, during the nineteenth century

Abstract

The essay examines the impact of socio-economic and demographic change on the living arrangements of different groups of elderly in Sundsvall, an industrial town in nineteenth-century Sweden. The proportion of old parents having children living nearby was stable throughout the century, although the proportion living in the same households as their children decreased over time, probably because the children had the economic resources to form households of their own earlier. The proportion of elderly not having relatives at hand increased, however, due to a higher proportion of unmarried old persons, many of whom had in-migrated to Sundsvall late in life. Introduction Children's responsibility for their old parents was deeply rooted in preindustrial Sweden. In medieval legislation, it was already stressed that the main responsibility for caring for the elderly lay with the family. The fountainhead of this obligation can be found in the Fourth Commandment: “Honor thy father and thy mother.”