Marriage and cohabiting pattern in Sweden - Cohorts born in the 20th Century

Lena Lundkvist, Statistics Sweden
Karin Lundström, Statistics Sweden

This is an extract from a report that describes the demographic development and development of society in Sweden through comparisons of the cohorts born during the 20th century. The demographic behaviour changes when society changes and during the 20th century several events, changes in the law and in attitudes in society have occurred and they have influenced life for those born during the 20th century. In this paper the focus is on the change from marriage to cohabitation. The data is from different register and publications from Statistics Sweden, from 1911–2013. Those born in 1935 are the birth cohort that married at the youngest ages, and it is also the cohort with the largest share ever married. At age 24, half had married and at age 60, nine out of ten has ever been married. Those who were born earlier than 1935 started a family later. In terms of the proportion of married born in 1945 followed the pattern of the generation before roughly until the age of 25. Then marked a clear break in the trend and the percentage of ever married is no longer increasing at the same rate as for those born in 1935. It is the 1970s and the increasing frequency of cohabitation situation that has put its mark. The trend toward marrying later in life and a lower proportion of married continuing with the generations born in 1955 and 1965it was also more common for them to never start a family. Maybe, the development of a reduced share cohabiting has stalled. The youngest generation in the study was born in 1985, at age 25 they were cohabiting in a somewhat greater extent than those born 1965.