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118

(1904) Author: Gustav Sundbärg
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118 II. TH B SWEDISH PEOPLE.

Table 18. Percentage of married within different ages.*

Average for the years Harried men per 100 in the ages of 1 Married women per 100 in the ages of
20/50. 20/25. 25,30. 30/50. 20/45. 15,20. 2025. 25,30. 30 35. 35 40.1
1751/75.............. 64-6 144 52-4 860 59-2 41 24-5 550 70-5 78-9
1776/00.............. 60-7 120 454 81-9 56-7 37 22-7 51-6 675 76-6
1801/25.............. 698 11-6 45-4 81-6 57-2 27 2-2-6 52-2 69-7 76-6
1826,50.............. 591 9-9 44-1 821 57-6 14 203 53 1 71 7 78-4
1851/75.............. 561 7-3 38-7 781 5*8 l-o 17-4 47-2 66-5 74-2
1876/95.............. 54-5 73 39-6 76-7 52-4 1-1 17-8 47 s 64-6 720
In 1895 ............. 53-7 7-5 381 74-6 524 1-1 17-6 46-6 63-8 70-2

l-i % and in the latter from 17-4 to 17-6 Even if no importance can be
attached to these small- changes, it is at least plain that the retardation of
marriages has taken an end. The same is also shown by the average age on entering
in marriage, which during the last decades has rather fallen than risen.

Even if marriages in this country are entered into at a retarded period,
still the number of those persons who do not marry at all, is comparatively
small. Of the population of Sweden above 50 years of age there were in 1890
only 8-7 % of the men and 14-6 % of the women who were not married: the
corresponding figures for the whole of Western Europe are for men 10 %, and for
women Thus, the figures for Sweden are below the average as regards

the men.

If we look for the causes of the diminished frequency of marriages
in Sweden, it is of the utmost importance first to find out when this
diminution began. Looking through Tables 18 and 19, we find that the
period 1751/75 (on the average) is marked by a very great frequency of
marriages, which, in a good many ways, must be regarded as exceptional
(and would be regarded so anywhere in Western Europe). We also find
that the half-century 1776/1825 shows little or no decrease. Thus, the
entire loss can, on the whole, be said to fall on the period after 1825
(or really after 1835).

Concerning the period 1826/50 (or really 1836/60), the very low figures can
be explained by the abnormal excess during this time of the population in youthful
ages, resulting from the great number of births after the end of the Napoleonic
wars. The scarcity of work for many people resulting from this condition very
naturally diminished the possibilities of marriage (and this same condition has
probably not an unimportant share in the troubles and disturbances on the
European continent in 1848). It is also during 1836/60 that the retardation of
marriage took place in this country.

The diminished frequency of marriages not dependent on the above mentioned
conditions, began only after 1860. Thus the real cause of this diminution can
be no other than the fact that Sweden during this time has been drawn away from
its former, more isolated, industrial life and has entered into that of universal
competition under conditions which were extremely unfavourable — as will be
shown in the section treating of the economics of Sweden. In this way, both the

* Before 1870, the numbers are by approximate estimation, made, however, on data
insuring a high degree of probability.

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