TY - JOUR
T1 - The Swedish Kinship Universe
T2 - A Demographic Account of the Number of Children, Parents, Siblings, Grandchildren, Grandparents, Aunts/Uncles, Nieces/Nephews, and Cousins Using National Population Registers
AU - Kolk, Martin
AU - Andersson, Linus
AU - Pettersson, Emma
AU - Drefahl, Sven
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors.
PY - 2023/10/1
Y1 - 2023/10/1
N2 - Given that surprisingly little is known about the demography of human kinship, we provide a demographic account of the kinship networks of individuals in Sweden in 2017 across sex and cohort between ages 0 and 102. We used adminis-trative register data of the full population of Sweden to provide the first kinship enu-mer ation for a complete population based on empirical data. We created ego-focused kinship networks of children, parents, siblings, grandchildren, grandparents, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, and cousins. We show the average number of kin of dif-fer ent types, the distribution of the number of kin, and changes in dispersion over time. A large share of all kin of an individual are horizontal kin, such as cousins. We observe the highest number of kin—on average, roughly 20—around age 35. We show differences between matrilineal and patrilineal kin and differences in the kinship structure arising from fertility with more than one childbearing partner, such as half-siblings. The results demonstrate substantial variability in kinship within a population. We discuss our findings in the context of other methods to estimate kinship.
AB - Given that surprisingly little is known about the demography of human kinship, we provide a demographic account of the kinship networks of individuals in Sweden in 2017 across sex and cohort between ages 0 and 102. We used adminis-trative register data of the full population of Sweden to provide the first kinship enu-mer ation for a complete population based on empirical data. We created ego-focused kinship networks of children, parents, siblings, grandchildren, grandparents, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, and cousins. We show the average number of kin of dif-fer ent types, the distribution of the number of kin, and changes in dispersion over time. A large share of all kin of an individual are horizontal kin, such as cousins. We observe the highest number of kin—on average, roughly 20—around age 35. We show differences between matrilineal and patrilineal kin and differences in the kinship structure arising from fertility with more than one childbearing partner, such as half-siblings. The results demonstrate substantial variability in kinship within a population. We discuss our findings in the context of other methods to estimate kinship.
KW - Extended family
KW - Genealogy
KW - Kinship
KW - Relatives
KW - Sweden
U2 - 10.1215/00703370-10955240
DO - 10.1215/00703370-10955240
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85174454899
SN - 0070-3370
VL - 60
SP - 1359
EP - 1385
JO - Demography
JF - Demography
IS - 5
ER -