Improved statistics on children and their families in Sweden

Anna Nyman, Statistics Sweden
Karin Lundström, Statistics Sweden

Statistics Sweden publish yearly statistics on children and their families. The statistics is based on a register with information on all children and young persons 21 years and below. The register data is generally of high quality, but the number of children who have a single parent is overestimated while the number of children who are living in a stepfamily (with one of their parents and his/her partner) is underestimated. This is due to cohabiting couples who are not married and who do not have children together not being connected in the registers. New information, where persons are registered on a dwelling unit, makes it is possible to identify persons registered in the same dwelling unit and consequently connect for example cohabiting couples even if they are not married and do not have children together. This new information gives the opportunity to improve the quality in the register on children and young persons, with a higher share of children having a correct family type in the register. For each child the information in the register on children is compared with the information on which persons that are registered in the same dwelling unit as the child. If both sources show the same information it is assumed that this information is correct. If the sources hold different information it is determined which information that best describes the child’s family type. The changes in the register will lead to: - Improved information about family type for about 120 000 children, or 5 percent of all children and young adults, - The share of children living with a single parent is ”reduced” from 21 percent to 18 percent, - The share of young persons not living with their parents who have a cohabitant “increases” from 6 percent to 31 percent