Research group
Stockholm University Demography Unit (SUDA)
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.
What is Demography? In this video, our researcher Siddartha Aradhya explains more.
Photo: Mostphotos
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Photo: Mostphotos/Desislava Vasileva
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Demography is an interdisciplinary science that focuses on the study of the population, its size, composition and change. Populations change over time through the interaction of three central demographic processes: fertility, mortality and migration. In demographic research, this focus is expanded to include processes related to family dynamics, health and integration.
Demography is a quantitative science in which advanced statistical methods are used to analyze large data sources, often register data.
SUDA is home to an internationally competitive program of research and training. Much of the work we do is comparative, engaging data from countries throughout Europe and the rest of the world. In addition, the subject of demography at Stockholm University often has a sociological focus, in the sense that our research focuses on the relationship between population processes and various social, economic, cultural and political factors.
As evidence of SUDA’s success, demography has become a leading research area at Stockholm University. The unit maintains active links to some of Sweden’s leading research institutions, including the Institute of Enviornmental Medicine at Karolinska institutet (IMM) and The Department of Public Health at Stockholm University.
The Stockholm University Demography Unit (SUDA) was established in 1983, under the chairmanship of Professor Jan M. Hoem. Between 2004-2013, the unit was headed by Professor Elizabeth Thomson and since 2013 by Professor Gunnar Andersson. Since 2001 it has been located within the Department of Sociology, at the University Campus at Frescati, Stockholm.
A lot is known about the inequalities experienced by refugees, but much less is known about their children’s lives. This project will study the inequalities that are faced by the children and grandchildren of refugees living in Sweden.
The project will provide understanding of how the family decision to take leave is conditional on expectations of the gendered workplace. It may provide new insights into how policy-making may benefit from a shift from the individual and couple to the workplace.
This research program addresses long-term change in relation to ageing at the societal level as well as applying a life-course perspective on ageing as seen from the individual level.
In our project we examine how changing economic circumstances may influence different demographic outcomes, using Longitudinal micro-level data for 1800-2007 for Sweden and Taiwan. A central question in demography is the degree to which marriage, fertility and mortality is influenced by economic cycles.
Understanding how the foreign-born population perceives and responds to further in-migration in the host country is essential for evaluating social cohesion. This project studies how migrants perceive, respond to, and are shaped by further migration.
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.
This project applies a life course perspective to study socioeconomic inequalities in terms of unemployment and income poverty dynamics between second generation immigrants and ancestral Swedes.
This project researches Nordic models of fatherhood and gender equality as hotbeds of welfare innovation and explores to what extent some countries are trying to ‘import’ similar models.
The project "Exposure to Swedish society and immigrant integration: The family formation of immigrants who arrive as children" brings together four researchers with extensive experience in studying the family formation of immigrants and their children.
This project examine why fathers working in occupations requiring the highest qualifications, such as medical doctors and lawyers, claim more than twice the length of father leave than those in occupations requiring the least qualifications, such as cleaners and machine operators.
Since 2010, fertility rates in Sweden have been declining. This development is rather surprising since Swedish family policies are internationally acclaimed for facilitating childbearing and childrearing. The researchers in this project seek to identify the factors that drive these developments.
This project uses register-linked data of the new Swedish Generations and Gender Survey 2020 (GGS2020)and its predecessor, the GGS2012, to compare changes in fertility intentions of Swedish women and men over the recent decade of Swedish fertility decline.
Will the decrease in possibilities to get child maintenance support lead to an increase in parental conflicts and leading to economic issues becoming more dominant in custody issues?
This project explores the prevalence of intensive parenting norms in Sweden and their implications for childbearing, well-being and work trajectories, as well as differences in the nature of the norms across social and demographic groups.
Are older adults dependent on a good relationship for their health and well-being? What are the correlations between health and well-being, economic hardship and gender equality among older adults living in relationships in Sweden?
The worldwide migration today are at historical levels. Previous research has shown that migrants live longer than natives, but also that migrants have higher morbidity rates. In other words, they live longer, but with poorer health. This project will examine this paradox, focusing on the migrant populations of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
Inequality in the length of life is the most fundamental of all inequality, but has been overlooked in the study of international migrants. For migrants, this represents a complex mix of their previous conditions in the origin country, the migration process, and current and often disadvantageous conditions in the host country.
Migrant Trajectories is a research programme that explores the life trajectories of migrants from their arrival in Sweden to the present, focusing on the five main life domains – geographical residence and housing, family formation, labour market participation, educational careers, and social security – and the interrelationships between them.
Fewer swedes are having children and fewer couples are getting married. Previous explanations no longer seem to be relevant, so what can explain the declines? In this research project the researches will examine this, using register data and survey data.
Over the past decade fertility rates in Sweden have declined somewhat unexpectedly. This development has occurred in tandem with even greater fertility declines in the other Nordic countries. The projects explores why.
The Stockholm University SIMSAM Node for Demographic Research (SUNDEM) builds on the potential for top-class demographic research as provided by the individual, longitudinal, and spatial data available in Sweden’s population registers and the system of administrative registers that builds on the population registers.
The project analyzes how information about names contributes to our understanding of social mobility over three centuries (1750–2020). Our main purpose is to study whether the surnames capture aspects of social background beyond traditional class indicators such as occupation.
The Swedish Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) is part of an international data infrastructure, the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP). The infrastructure includes a register-linked survey of adults to which a contextual database covering their adult lives is matched.
The project "Understanding health inequalities experienced by self-identified sexual minorities, same-sex
partners, and their children", aims to broaden the knowledge about health inequalities experienced among those who identify themselves as belonging to a sexual minority and their children, as well as among those living in a same-sex relationship.
The project "Who decides on a child's health care? An interdisciplinary study on the child's right to participation in decisions concerning care and treatment" explores how the interaction between children, custodians and health care staff affects children's right to participation, determination and integrity in their own health care.
One aim of this project is to produce a Nordic overview of research and statistics on the socio-economic patterns and cultural aspects of parental leave take-up by young parents under 30 years of age. Another aim is to examine the consequences of these patterns for gender equality in the labour market and in family life.
From 2025, demography will be included in the Swedish statistical standard for classifying research topics. This was decided by the Swedish Higher Education Authority (UKÄ) recently.
A recent study utilising Finland’s population data reveals that AI models perform inconsistently in predicting employment, and are unable to capture the life course patterns for the people who end up unemployed.
Poverty has a clear impact on the mental health of children, but when and how it happens is still unknown. A new research project, led by Lisa Harber-Aschan, will fill in the knowledge gaps using unique data sources and innovative methods.
There is a slight decrease in income inequality between families with small children, according to a new study from Stockholm University. Later start of parenthood seems to be a main driving force behind the equalisation.
Mothers who took parental leave part-time or for shorter periods were more likely to engage in income-generating activities or pursue education. A new study uncovers surprising patterns in parental leave usage among newly arrived migrant women in Sweden, specifically focusing on their integration into the labor market.
Elena Pupaza, researcher in demography at SUDA and the Department of Sociology receives 3.74 MSEK as a startup grant from Forte for her project on diversity aspects of foreign-born people in Sweden.
What roles do religion and region of origin play in childbearing? In contrast to earlier research, a new doctoral thesis on the subject of sociological demography demonstrates that region of origin has a greater bearing than religion on ideal number of children, fertility intentions and achieved number of children.
The age of the youngest child impacts parental mortality, with a significant survival advantage observed for parents of newborns due to both selection and behavioral changes, while controlling for parental age. This is revealed by a Swedish study published in the scientific journal Genus.
Read the new report for The Expert Group on Public Economics (ESO) by Gunnar Andersson, Andrea Monti and Martin Kolk, researchers at Stockholm University Demography Unit.
Previous studies have shown that widows and widowers run a higher risk of dying themselves, compared to those of the same age whose partner is still alive. This is often referred to as the ‘widowhood effect’. A new thesis from Stockholm University shows that excess mortality is higher among widowers with a higher socio-economic status compared to other widowers. For widows, it is the other way around – the risk of dying is greater among those who are worse off.
In contrast to what many believe, Swedish men and women with higher incomes have more children, new research from Stockholm University shows. This pattern is particularly clear for men and grows stronger over time: the more money, the more children. But after four children, things change.
In a new study from Stockholm University and several US universities, the researchers found that children in the US aged 9-13 from different social classes spent roughly the same number of hours in front of a screen, on average. However, there were class differences in how the children spent their screen time and in parenting rules related to digital technology use.
In a new study, the researchers found large birthweight inequalities among the descendants of non-western immigrants compared to the descendants of Swedes. The largest differences were found in the third generation. The researchers warn inequalities may continue to widen in subsequent generations.
A recent study from Stockholm University investigates how immigrants’ childbearing – their age at first birth and number of children – are associated with norms and family support in their destination country. Is it easier for immigrants from countries with low fertility rates to achieve their childbearing ideals in Sweden, a country with strong support for childbearing and parenthood?
In a recent study researchers examined the relationship between a series of later health outcomes and family size in the sibling group that you grew up in, with a particular focus on ‘only children’ – children without any siblings. The researchers found that only children on average seem to do a little bit worse even after adjustments for other factors.
The Department of Sociology and Stockholm University Demography Unit (SUDA) congratulate Matthew Wallace who receives this year’s Junior European Demographer Award.
Ann-Zofie Duvander is driven by the desire to contribute to the development of society. Trying to look behind what we see as “truths,” and find what needs to be questioned. At the same time, it is important to distinguish between research and political policy decisions, stresses Ann-Zofie Duvander, Professor of Demography.
There is a connection between armed conflict and violence in intimate relationships, according to a PhD thesis in Sociological Demography from Stockholm University. The study is based on data from Colombia and shows that the risk for women of victimization to violence from their partners or ex-partners increases in areas with higher levels of conflict. The study also shows that women in these areas are more likely to stay in violent relationships.
Gunnar Andersson and colleagues from Stockholm University and the Karolinska Institute have analyzed mortality and morbidity patterns in Sweden during the Covid-19 pandemic in a report for the Swedish Corona Commission.
A new study from Stockholm University shows that occupation on its own was not linked to a higher risk of dying from Covid-19 in Sweden. However, older people who lived with adults in working age who could not work from home had a higher risk of dying from Covid-19.
We are happy to congratulate Helen Eriksson who receives 5,9 million SEK from Forte for her project "A family decision? Population studies of parental leave at the gendered workplace".
Language barriers or lack of institutional awareness do not explain why immigrants in Sweden have a higher mortality from COVID-19. These are the conclusions of a new population-based study from Stockholm University that analyzed intermarried couples--immigrants partnered with Swedes.
What would Sweden’s population development have been like if it wasn’t for the uprising against Assad and the following war in Syria? A new study in demography published in the academic journal PLOS ONE has the answer. In the study, the authors have created and calculated hypothetical scenarios to determine the demographic development in Sweden and Norway – without the immigration following the Syrian war.
A lot is known about the inequalities experienced by refugees, but much less is known about their children’s lives. Ben Wilson, a post-doctoral researcher at the Stockholm University Demography Unit (SUDA), Department of Sociology, receives a new ERC Starting Grant to study the inequalities that are faced by the children and grandchildren of refugees living in Sweden.
