Socio-economic status and the rise of divorce in Sweden: The case of the 1880–1954 marriage cohorts in Västerbotten

Figures & data

Figure 1 (a) Crude divorce rate in Sweden and (b) three-year moving average of crude divorce rate in Västerbotten County, 1911–2019

Source: Statistics Sweden (1911, 1963, 1967, 2022).

Figure 2 Study area in Västerbotten County

Source: Demographic Data Base, Umeå University.

Table 1 Descriptive statistics of couples in analytical sample (numbers and percentages): men and women who married in 1880–1954 in Västerbotten County, Sweden

	Broad marriage cohort			Total
	1880–1919	1920–29	1930–54
Marriage cohort
1880–89	2,367 (14.4)	–	–	2,367 (5.0)
1890–99	3,508 (21.4)	–	–	3,508 (7.4)
1900–09	4,728 (28.8)	–	–	4,728 (10.0)
1910–19	5,793 (35.3)	–	–	5,793 (12.2)
1920–29		7,135 (100.0)	–	7,135 (15.0)
1930–39	–	–	9,914 (41.4)	9,914 (20.9)
1940–54	–	–	14,015 (58.6)	14,015 (29.5)
Age at marriage
<20	955 (5.8)	344 (4.8)	1,333 (5.6)	2,632 (5.5)
20–24	6,640 (40.5)	2,913 (40.8)	11,018 (46.0)	20,571 (43.3)
25–29	5,464 (33.3)	2,398 (33.6)	7,325 (30.6)	15,187 (32.0)
30–34	2,062 (12.6)	923 (12.9)	2,512 (10.5)	5,497 (11.6)
35–39	774 (4.7)	335 (4.7)	965 (4.0)	2,074 (4.4)
40+	501 (3.1)	222 (3.1)	776 (3.2)	1,499 (3.2)
Number of children
Childless	1,723 (10.5)	1,069 (15.0)	5,079 (21.2)	7,871 (16.6)
One child	1,717 (10.5)	1,391 (19.5)	6,884 (28.8)	9,992 (21.1)
Two children	2,070 (12.6)	1,635 (22.9)	6,249 (26.1)	9,954 (21.0)
Three or more children	10,886 (66.4)	3,040 (42.6)	5,717 (23.9)	19,643 (41.4)
Socio-economic position man
Unskilled workers	4,760 (29.6)	2,425 (34.5)	9,657 (41.1)	16,842 (36.2)
Skilled workers	1,771 (11.0)	1,015 (14.4)	4,104 (17.5)	6,890 (14.8)
Farmers	6,558 (40.8)	1,780 (25.3)	3,095 (13.2)	11,433 (24.5)
Middle class	1,900 (11.8)	1,179 (16.8)	4,130 (17.6)	7,209 (15.5)
Elite	1,088 (6.8)	627 (8.9)	2,492 (10.6)	4,207 (9.0)
Socio-economic position woman
No occupation	5,848 (35.7)	3,128 (43.8)	10,405 (43.5)	19,381 (40.8)
Unskilled workers	5,160 (31.5)	1,634 (22.9)	7,191 (30.1)	13,985 (29.5)
Skilled workers	341 (2.1)	329 (4.6)	1,657 (6.9)	2,327 (4.9)
Farmers	4,472 (27.3)	1,625 (22.8)	2,627 (11.0)	8,724 (18.4)
Middle class and Elite	575 (3.5)	419 (5.9)	2,049 (8.6)	3,043 (6.4)
Parish
Skellefteå rural	10,038 (61.2)	3,599 (50.4)	11,428 (47.8)	25,065 (52.8)
Skellefteå urban	704 (4.3)	787 (11.0)	3,171 (13.3)	4,662 (9.8)
Umeå rural	3,677 (22.4)	1,397 (19.6)	4,904 (20.5)	9,978 (21.0)
Umeå urban	1,977 (12.1)	1,352 (18.9)	4,426 (18.5)	7,755 (16.3)
N	16,396	7,135	23,929	47,460
Events	142	176	373	691

Note: Figures in parentheses are percentages. Woman’s occupation (if any) is at the time of marriage but is updated in the analysis when new information is provided in the parish register at the time of vital events, such as changes of address, births of children etc.

Source: POPLINK database, Demographic Data Base, Umeå University.

Figure 3 Kaplan–Meier marriage survival estimates by marriage cohort as a function of time since marriage for couples married 1880–1954 in Västerbotten County, Sweden

Source: POPLINK database (Demographic Data Base, Umeå University).

Figure 4 Kaplan–Meier marriage survival estimates by socio-economic status for men married 1880–1954 in Västerbotten County, Sweden

Source: As for Figure 3.

Figure 5 Kaplan–Meier marriage survival estimates by socio-economic status for women married 1880–1954 in Västerbotten County, Sweden

Source: As for Figure 3.

Table 2 Cox regressions: relative hazard of divorce for couples married in 1880–1954 in Västerbotten County, Sweden

	Marriage cohort
	1880–1919			1920–29			1930–54
Variables	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3
Socio-economic position: man
Unskilled worker	ref	ref	ref	ref	ref	ref	ref	ref	ref
Skilled worker	1.37	1.19	1.08	1.05	0.93	0.87	1.29	1.13	1.10
Farmer	0.21***	0.24***	0.25***	0.28***	0.37***	0.40***	0.52***	0.68*	0.74
Middle class	3.24***	2.54***	2.17***	0.87	0.80	0.77	1.04	0.91	0.90
Elite	0.91	0.64	0.58	1.00	0.84	0.85	0.89	0.76	0.78
Socio-economic position: woman
No occupation	–	–	0.92	–	–	1.06	–	–	0.88
Unskilled worker	–	–	ref	–	–	ref	–	–	ref
Skilled worker	–	–	2.57*	–	–	3.52***	–	–	2.11***
Farmer	–	–	0.75	–	–	0.75	–	–	0.47***
Middle class and Elite	–	–	3.46***	–	–	1.77	–	–	1.19
Age at marriage
<20	–	ref	ref	–	ref	ref	–	ref	ref
20–24	–	0.57	0.54	–	0.39***	0.40***	–	0.47***	0.45***
25–29	–	0.47*	0.43*	–	0.26***	0.26***	–	0.26***	0.25***
30–34	–	0.44*	0.35**	–	0.13***	0.12***	–	0.22***	0.19***
35–39	–	0.26*	0.22**	–	0.28**	0.22***	–	0.15***	0.13***
40+	–	0.19*	0.15**	–	0.11**	0.07***	–	0.17***	0.13***
Number of children
Childless	–	ref	ref	–	ref	ref	–	ref	ref
One child	–	0.87	0.86	–	0.84	0.81	–	0.78	0.77
Two children	–	0.49*	0.49*	–	0.53*	0.52*	–	0.31***	0.31***
Three or more children	–	0.26***	0.26***	–	0.50**	0.52**	–	0.28***	0.29***
Parish
Skellefteå rural	–	ref	ref	–	ref	ref	–	ref	ref
Skellefteå urban	–	1.13	1.18	–	2.11**	2.12**	–	1.81***	1.74***
Umeå rural	–	2.47***	2.52***	–	1.59*	1.56*	–	1.66***	1.60***
Umeå urban	–	1.91**	1.84*	–	2.20***	2.02***	–	2.81***	2.64***
Akaike information criterion	2,478.8	2,431.1	2,410.9	2,855.7	2,813.8	2,793.3	6,724.3	6,548.5	6,515.1

*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.

Note: ref indicates the reference category.

Source: As for Table 1.

Table 3 Cox regressions: relative hazard of divorce for men and women married in 1880–1954 in Västerbotten County, Sweden, including interaction between marriage cohort and SES

Variables	Men	Women
Marriage cohort
1880–1919	ref	ref
1920–29	0.69	0.62
1930–54	0.74	0.60
Socio-economic position: man
Unskilled worker	0.40***	–
Skilled worker	0.46**	–
Farmer	0.11***	–
Middle class	ref	–
Elite	0.25**	–
Socio-economic position: woman
No occupation	–	0.23***
Unskilled worker	–	0.21***
Skilled worker	–	0.58
Farmer	–	0.13***
Middle class and Elite	–	ref
Marriage cohort × Socio-economic position: man
1920–29 × Unskilled worker	3.54***	–
1920–29 × Skilled worker	2.61**	–
1920–29 × Farmer	5.08***	–
1920–29 × Elite	4.25**	–
1930–54 × Unskilled worker	2.86***	–
1930–54 × Skilled worker	2.79***	–
1930–54 × Farmer	6.81***	–
1930–54 × Elite	3.51*	–
Marriage cohort × Socio-economic position: woman
1920–29 × No occupation	–	3.09**
1920–29 × Unskilled worker	–	3.29**
1920–29 × Skilled worker	–	3.79*
1920–29 × Farmer	–	4.03**
1930–54 × No occupation	–	3.27***
1930–54 × Unskilled worker	–	4.24***
1930–54 × Skilled worker	–	3.15*
1930–54 × Farmer	–	3.22**
Akaike information criterion	12,968.2	12,988.6

*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.

Note: ref indicates the reference category. Models include controls for woman’s age at marriage, number of children, and parish.

Source: As for Table 1.

Table A1 Cox regressions: relative hazard of divorce for couples married in 1930–54 compared with those married in 1930–45 (i.e. under observation for a minimum of 15 years)

	Marriage cohort
	1930–54	1930–45
Socio-economic position: man
Unskilled worker	ref	ref
Skilled worker	1.10	1.13
Farmer	0.74	0.63*
Middle class	0.90	0.87
Elite	0.78	0.89
Socio-economic position: woman
No occupation	ref	ref
Unskilled worker	1.14	1.18
Skilled worker	2.40***	2.45***
Farmer	0.54**	0.60*
Middle class and Elite	1.35	1.42
Age at marriage (woman)
<20	ref	ref
20–24	0.45***	0.46***
25–29	0.25***	0.22***
30–34	0.19***	0.18***
35–39	0.13***	0.12***
40+	0.13***	0.09***
Number of children
Childless	ref	ref
One	0.77	0.70*
Two	0.31***	0.29***
Three or more	0.29***	0.27***
Parish
Skellefteå rural	ref	ref
Skellefteå urban	1.74***	1.73***
Umeå rural	1.60***	1.62***
Umeå urban	2.64***	2.70***
Akaike information criterion	6,515.1	5,661.8

*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.

Source: POPLINK database, Demographic Data Base, Umeå University.

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