Exploring Life-Course Trajectories in Local Spatial Contexts Across Sweden

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics, variables for latent class analysis and background variables

Latent class analysis variable	Observations	Minimum	Maximum
In education	93,355	11%	96%
Employed, > 40% of median income from work	93,355	6%	84%
Married/partnered with child/ren	93,355	0.02%	37%
Background variable	Proportion
Geographical background of parents	Sweden (78.771)	Europe (15.187)	Outside Europe (8.293)
Gender	Male (52.529)	Female (49.702)
Single-mother household (2001)	Yes (22.029)	No (80.222)
Social allowance household (2001)	Yes (7.435)	No (94.816)
Employed parents (2001)	Two (59.473)	One (35.554)	None (9.224)
Parents with tertiary education (2001)	Two (60.966)	One (26.150)	None (15.135)

Figure 1 Trajectory profiles for latent classes.

Table 2. Latent trajectory classes identified

Trajectory class	Description	No. of individuals	Proportion of cohort	Average posterior probability (most likely LC)
1	Postsecondary education after a gap year	17,382	19.3%	91.4%
2	Secondary education, employment, then establishing a family	9,348	10.4%	93.5%
3	Low activity	7,551	8.4%	94.8%
4	Establishing a family early	6,904	7.7%	94.2%
5	Employment only	24,564	27.3%	94.9%
6	Postsecondary education, work, family	10,624	11.8%	91.8%
7	Mix of postsecondary education and work	13,738	15.2%	90.3%
Total		90,111	100.0%

Note: Latent class (LC) based on 93,355 observations, but for some of these information on covariates is lacking.

Table 3. Proportion with social allowance at age 30

	Trajectory class
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Post- secondary education after gap year	Secondary education, employment, then family	Low activity	Establish family early	Employment only	Postsecondary education, work, family	Mixed postsecondary education and work	Overall
Proportion with social allowance at age 30	0.4%	0.2%	18.4%	2.4%	0.7%	0.2%	1.5%	2.3%

Table 4. Demographic characteristics of trajectory classes

Trajectory class	Description	Swedish background (%)	European background (%)	Non-European background (%)	Women (%)
1	Postsecondary education, work	76.8	13.9	9.4	51.6
2	Work, then starting a family	84.5	11.9	3.5	42.3
3	Low activity	67.1	20.7	12.2	44.1
4	Establishing a family early	77.4	15.1	7.5	78.0
5	Employment only	81.5	13.2	5.4	33.3
6	Postsecondary education, work, family	80.8	13.0	6.3	70.3
7	Mixed postsecondary education and work	77.2	14.2	8.6	52.9
	Overall proportion	78.6	14.1	7.3	49.5

Note: Bold represents overrepresentation, italics represents underrepresentation.

Table 5. Socioeconomic characteristics of individuals in trajectory classes at age 15

		Family/parental background at age 15
Trajectory class	Description	Proportion from postsecondary education households	Proportion from single- mother households	Proportion from households without employment	Proportion from households receiving a social allowance
1	Postsecondary education, work	57.7%	16.1%	5.9%	4.2%
2	Work, then establishing a family	22.8%	19.6%	6.5%	5.1%
3	Low activity	33.8%	31.1%	17.2%	13.9%
4	Establishing a family early	24.3%	25.1%	13.1%	11.3%
5	Employment only	29.7%	21.9%	6.9%	5.3%
6	Postsecondary education, work, family	47.8%	17.7%	6.2%	5.0%
7	Mixed postsecondary education and work	61.5%	20.2%	6.5%	4.3%
	Overall proportion	41.3%	20.8%	7.9%	6.0%

Note: Bold represents overrepresentation, italics represents underrepresentation.

Table 6. Distribution of sample individuals across trajectory classes, by type of municipality

Municipality type	Trajectory class							Gender difference in distribution across classes, DI
	7	1	3	5	6	2	4
	Mixed postsecondary education and work	Postsecondary education, work	Low activity	Employment only	Postsecondary education, work, family	Work, then establishing a family	Establishing a family early
Metropolitan cities	20.2%	22.7%	11.6%	24.0%	10.1%	6.0%	5.4%	17.0%
Suburbs of metropolitan cities	16.6%	21.5%	7.8%	28.4%	11.1%	9.0%	5.7%	18.5%
Major cities	16.7%	20.3%	8.3%	25.3%	12.5%	9.5%	7.4%	20.6%
Suburbs of major cities	13.3%	16.5%	7.6%	29.9%	11.4%	12.4%	9.0%	22.9%
Commuting	12.5%	17.0%	7.8%	29.3%	11.8%	12.6%	9.0%	24.4%
Tourism	13.4%	15.2%	7.8%	31.7%	10.3%	13.4%	8.3%	25.9%
Manufacturing	10.7%	16.7%	7.1%	29.3%	13.0%	13.4%	10.0%	25.6%
Low density	11.0%	15.4%	8.5%	29.4%	11.9%	13.6%	10.3%	25.8%
In dense regions	12.8%	17.6%	8.1%	27.9%	12.1%	12.8%	8.7%	23.4%
In low-density regions	13.3%	16.6%	7.8%	28.2%	12.8%	11.5%	9.8%	25.3%
Overall	15.2%	19.3%	8.4%	27.3%	11.8%	10.4%	7.7%
Proportion of women in class	53.0%	52.0%	44.0%	33.0%	70.0%	42.0%	78.0%
Proportion with Swedish background	77.2%	76.8%	67.1%	81.5%	80.8%	84.5%	77.4%

Note: Bold represents overrepresentation, italics represents underrepresentation.

Figure 2 The twenty-one NUTS3 regions in Sweden. Source: Statistics Sweden.

Table 7. Proportion of different trajectory classes in counties

	Proportion of different trajectory classes in NUTS3 regions/counties
	Mixed postsecondary education and work	Postsecondary education, work	Low activity	Employment only	Postsecondary education, work, family	Work, then starting a family	Establishing a family early
NUTS3	7	1	3	5	6	2	4	Overall
01 Stockholms län	22.1%	21.8%	19.0%	18.7%	15.7%	14.2%	13.3%	18.6%
03 Uppsala län	4.3%	3.8%	3.2%	3.7%	3.4%	3.4%	3.6%	3.7%
12 Skåne län	12.1%	12.9%	16.5%	11.9%	13.0%	11.9%	12.9%	12.7%
23 Jämtlands län	1.9%	1.1%	1.6%	1.7%	1.5%	1.6%	1.6%	1.6%
13 Hallands län	2.9%	3.3%	2.8%	3.6%	3.6%	3.4%	2.6%	3.3%
14 Västra Götalands län	17.1%	16.2%	16.2%	17.2%	17.5%	17.2%	16.2%	16.9%
24 Västerbottens län	3.3%	2.8%	2.8%	3.1%	3.3%	3.0%	3.2%	3.0%
05 Östergötlands län	4.5%	5.1%	5.2%	4.3%	5.3%	5.1%	5.2%	4.8%
17 Värmlands län	2.8%	2.5%	3.8%	2.9%	3.1%	3.4%	3.4%	3.0%
08 Kalmar län	2.3%	2.6%	2.4%	2.6%	3.4%	3.5%	3.3%	2.8%
07 Kronobergs län	1.9%	2.1%	1.4%	2.3%	2.3%	2.5%	2.1%	2.1%
09 Gotlands län	0.7%	0.5%	0.7%	0.7%	0.7%	0.9%	0.6%	0.7%
06 Jönköpings län	3.4%	3.9%	2.4%	4.4%	4.9%	5.6%	4.9%	4.2%
04 Södermanlands län	3.0%	2.9%	2.8%	3.0%	2.8%	3.5%	3.4%	3.0%
18 Örebro län	3.0%	3.0%	3.2%	3.1%	3.0%	3.4%	3.6%	3.1%
19 Västmanlands län	2.6%	2.7%	2.9%	2.5%	2.7%	3.1%	3.6%	2.7%
20 Dalarnas län	2.8%	3.2%	3.3%	3.7%	3.2%	3.6%	3.9%	3.4%
21 Gävleborgs län	2.7%	2.6%	3.0%	3.1%	3.1%	3.2%	3.8%	3.0%
10 Blekinge län	1.6%	1.8%	1.5%	1.6%	1.8%	1.8%	2.2%	1.7%
22 Västernorrlands län	2.6%	2.6%	2.8%	2.7%	2.7%	2.7%	3.2%	2.7%
25 Norrbottens län	2.5%	2.7%	2.5%	3.1%	3.1%	3.0%	3.6%	2.9%

Note: Values in bold indicate an overrepresentation of a class in a county; values in italics represent an underrepresentation.

Figure 3 Proportion in quintiles of trajectory Class 5 (employment), trajectory Class 4 (establishing a family early), and trajectory Class 7 (postsecondary) among the 100 nearest cohort peers at age fifteen.

Table 8. Proportion of different trajectory classes among the 100 nearest cohort peers, at age 15 at different percentile values

Trajectory class	Description	10th percentile	25th percentile	75th percentile	90th percentile
1	Postsecondary education, work	13%	15%	23%	27%
2	Work, then starting a family	5%	7%	13%	16%
3	Low activity	4%	6%	11%	14%
4	Establishing a family early	3%	5%	10%	13%
5	Employment only	19%	23%	31%	35%
6	Postsecondary education, work, family	8%	9%	14%	17%
7	Mixed postsecondary education and work	8%	11%	19%	24%

Table 9. Proportion of different trajectory classes among the 100 nearest cohort peers, at age 30 at different percentile values

Trajectory class	Description	10th percentile	25th percentile	75th percentile	90th percentile
1	Postsecondary education, work	8%	11%	28%	36%
2	Work, then starting a family	1%	3%	15%	20%
3	Low activity	3%	5%	12%	15%
4	Establishing a family early	1%	2%	11%	15%
5	Employment only	18%	23%	33%	37%
6	Postsecondary education, work, family	4%	7%	15%	19%
7	Mixed postsecondary education and work	5%	8%	23%	30%

Figure A.1 Akaike’s information criteria for different numbers of latent classes.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from Statistics Sweden. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for this study.