High income is increasingly associated with stable marriages among older people, a new study in demography reveals. Previously, the trend was the opposite – the higher the income, the greater the risk of divorce, especially among older women.
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The study focuses on individuals born between 1930 and 1956. Among men and women in the younger cohorts, the trend is clear – high income is associated with more stable marriages after age 60. However, for those born before 1939, the pattern is reversed.
This is the first study to explore the link between income and divorce among people aged 60 and older.
– We wanted to show the change over time and see which groups are currently at the greatest risk of divorce, says Linda Kridahl, who conducted the study together with Sofi Ohlsson-Wijk and Ann-Zofie Duvander.
Photo: Leila Zoubir
There are several reasons why it is important to know more about who gets divorced, Linda Kridahl says.
– Economic conditions are strongly linked to so many other aspects of life, for example the ability of older people to afford a high standard of living in the short and long term, as a divorce affects their close relationships and social networks. Then there is an economic issue at a societal level. We need to know the composition of the older population in order to be able to plan for people getting older, says Linda Kridahl.
For example, this could mean that social security, pension systems and housing benefits need to be designed to better support older adults who may face financial challenges after a divorce.
Since the study is based on Swedish register data covering the entire population, the researchers have been able to map the complex relationship between income and divorce among older adults. This is still unique when compared to other countries where similar trends among older people have been noted but where access to longititudal registers is limited.
Over the last 20 years, the divorce rate has doubled among women and men aged 60 and older in Sweden, in contrast to the flat trend in the rest of the adult population. The project is examining reasons to and consequences of late life divorces on living conditions.
The Department of Sociology is home to the Stockholm University Demography Unit (SUDA), an international group of scholars and doctoral students, working on many facets of population dynamics. It offers a Master’s program in Demography and a PhD program in Sociological Demography.
