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Modern Sweden: The declining importance of marriage

Scandinavian Review, Autumn 1998 by Tomasson, Richard F

Swedes marry less, cohabit more, live in single-person households more, and marry at later ages than the people of any other rich country in the world. They divorce almost as much as Americans, the world's champions. Re-marriage rates are low. Since the late 1980s a small majority of all births and a large majority of first births have been to unwed mothers and fathers.

This cluster of characteristics can be generalized and called the Nordic pattern of marriage and the family. It has proceeded farthest in Sweden, but Denmark and Iceland come close; Norway has moved in the same direction; and so has Finland, but at a slower pace. Marriage and fertility data, together with attitudinal surveys, show most of the rich countries have moved in the direction of the Nordic pattern of marriage and the family, but to a more modest degree.

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Marriage Rate Descends

There were 32,000 marriages in Sweden in 1997; in the early 1940s there was an annual average of 63,000. In 1997 Sweden had a population of almost 9 million; in the early 1940s barely 6.5 million. This translates into a 1997 marriage rate of 3.6 per 1,000 population; for the early 1940s a rate of 9.6 per 1,000. In recent years the U.S. rate has been around 9 per 1,000 population. That's two and half times the Swedish rate. No country in the world with adequate marriage statistics has ever reported a marriage rate as low as 3.6 per 1,000 population.

The decline in the rate of marriage since the early 1940s and the present has been interrupted twice. The first upward trend occurred in the early 1960s, the peak years in the growth of the Swedish economy, a time of unbounded optimism about the future. The second occurred between 1988 and 1989 when there was a spectacular increase from 44,000 to 109,000 marriages, an almost 250% jump in one year. This marriage boom was a singular event, a direct consequence of a decision by the riksdag (parliament) to phase out widows' pensions over thirty years. If a husband died after January 1, 1990, and he was married on this date, his widow would be eligible for a pension if the couple had under-age children and she had lower earnings than he had had. This was a unique incentive to marry.

At least since the middle of the 18th century Swedes have married late, teenage marriages having always been rare. The average age at first marriage is not normally a direct measure of the extent of marriage in a population, but in Sweden it is definitely related to it. From the early 1940s to the late 1960s there is an uninterrupted decline in the age at first marriage for both sexes. The lowest age at first marriage for both sexes ever recorded in Swedish statistics was reached in 1966 at age 25.9 for males and age 23.3 for females. From the late 1960s age at first marriage increases in tandem with the decline in the frequency of marriage. The average ages at first marriage in 1996 were 31.8 years for males and 29.3 years for females. These are extremely high average ages, more than five years higher for both sexes than among Americans. The two-and-a-half year age difference between bride and groom at first marriage in Sweden has, however, remained constant.

Living Arrangements Really Count

Sweden is one of the few countries in the world-Hungary is another-that keeps cohabitation statistics of its population. In the Swedish census, a division has been made between those who are cohabiting persons (samboende) and those who are not cohabiting persons (ej samboende).

Cohabiting persons are all those living with a person of the opposite sex, married or not. Non-cohabiting persons are those not living with a person of the opposite sex, again apart from marital status. Both these populations are then divided by sex and age into those "of which married" and "other," the latter category made up of those who have never married and those who are divorced, widowed, or separated (from someone other than the one with whom a person may be living). The Swedish census is thus one of living arrangements.

Census statistics about living arrangements have been regularly published for the entire country, the 24 counties, the 288 municipalities, and smaller places at five-year intervals since 1930. However, it was decided by the riksdag not to take the 1995 census and to rely henceforth on the Swedish population register. The next accounting of the living arrangements of the population will not be made until early in the next century.

The 1990 census figures on married and unmarried cohabitation were distorted by the marriage boom of the previous year. But I will make a rough estimate that in 1998 around 30% of cohabiting Swedish couples are not married. As might be expected nonmarital cohabitation declines with age. Regional and urban/rural differences are not great. It is least prevalent, though not negligible, in the high income suburban municipalities of the three largest cities: Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmo.

Verbalizing the New Distinctions

The distinction between married and unmarried cohabitors is conventionally recognized in everyday Swedish life and in the media. A married man's cohabitor is typically referred to as hans fru (his wife) or hans maka (his spouse), an unmarried man's cohabitor as hans sambo (perhaps best translated as "his companion"). Correspondingly, a married woman's cohabitor is typically referred to as hennes man (her husband) or hennes make (her spouse), an unmarried woman's cohabitor as hennes sambo (similarly, "her companion"). The word for the couple is the plural of sambo, sambor.

Modern Sweden: The declining importance of marriage

Scandinavian Review, Autumn 1998 by Tomasson, Richard F

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