Planning for the housing situation of an ageing population is one of the challenges of many countries. To increase our understanding of the needs of the ageing population, a nationwide survey stratified on age and municipality type was conducted. Research questions referred to the current housing situation and plans. The aim was to investigate how preferences, location, and/or the type of housing preferred changes with age and if they are housing market dependent. Results of 10-year cohorts show that the most marked change is between the cohort 75-84years old and the oldest cohort 85+. There is a gradual change over time of moves from large to small housing, from owner-occupation to rented housing. Respondents in the major cities and in the rural or tourism-dependent municipalities are less inclined to move compared to those from other types of municipalities. The study predicts a shortage of rented apartments.

The increasing proportion of elderly in European populations has prompted debate about where and how they will reside. Our main hypothesis is that when moving in this phase of life the most common move would be one from a suburban location in owner occupation to a more central location. This would be in line with the belief that older people, when they retire or when the children have moved out, want to take part in the culture of city living, such as concerts, theatres and museums in addition to enjoying a more convenient type of housing. This, we argue, is the assumed residential pattern during the third age and a possible part of a mobility cycle as described by Rossi (1955). The aim of this study was to examine the local geographical mobility and tenure of older people. The analysis was made using a register database, Geoswede, comprising the total Swedish population. Moves of the cohorts born in the 1920s, 1930s and the 1940s were followed between 2001 and 2006. Using five distances to the municipal population core a centralized mobility pattern could be observed. The two older cohorts made such moves, whereas the majority of the youngest cohort moved to peripheral destinations. From analysis of three case municipalities, it was shown that movers from owner occupation in the cohort born in the 1940s moved within owner occupation to a greater extent and made short distance moves. Such increased knowledge will have an impact on planning issues.

One hypothesis is that, in Sweden, the elderly today are more willing to change residence to accommodate for changing lifestyles and poorer health than in earlier generations. If so, the elderly will change their type of tenure from owner occupation to tenant co-operative or rental housing, which includes more services for residents. The aim of this study is to discover if elderly people move to apartments after leaving single-family housing that they own. Mobility patterns of those born in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s are analysed to identify characteristics of stayers and movers, and to determine to what extent the elderly move to rental and tenant cooperative apartments. The analysis is cross-sectional using a register database comprising the Swedish population. Moves were followed between 2001 and 2006. The majority remained in their current dwelling but almost one-quarter moved. Of those, a smaller number moved from owner-occupied housing to a tenant co-operative or rental apartment.

The lifestyle of the baby boomers as retirees has been assumed to differ from older cohorts due to them being financially more stable and having grown up during the welfare state expansion. Many baby boomers live in large houses with gardens that require maintenance and labour. Recent studies have indicated that a growing share of those born in the 1940s in Sweden express a wish to change residence at retirement or in old age. A need to verify such results statistically was identified to confirm whether there has been an increase in residential mobility among older people. As a result, moves that took place during 2001–06 of the total cohort born in the 1940s were compared to similar moves by those born in the 1930s, ten years earlier during 1991–96, i.e. those aged 57–66 in 1996 and 2006. The study used a register database, Geoswede, containing the entire Swedish population. The study showed increased residential mobility rates among the 1940s cohort compared to the cohort born in the 1930s. However, explanations for the differences between the cohorts were not evident.

Against the background of a liberalization of Swedish compulsory education, this paper analyses post-1991 shifts in the way compulsory education performance in Sweden has been shaped by parental background, residential context and school context. We can document increasing school and residential segregation of foreign background students and, after 2008, increasing segregation by income, employment status, and social allowance reception. Over time, educational performance has become increasingly linked to family, neighbourhood and school context. The greatest change has been for parental background, but the importance of school context and neighbourhood context has also increased. A noteworthy finding is that residential context consistently has a stronger effect on student performance than school context. Student grades were found to be most strongly influenced by the closest (12 or 25) residential peers of the school leavers as compared to larger peer groups. The increase in the influence of family, neighbourhood and residential context has been accompanied by a dramatic increase in the between-school variation (ICC) in student performance, but it was not until after 2005 that this increased variability became clearly linked to the social composition of the schools. This study’s results suggest that the restructuring of Swedish compulsory education has had consequences for equality, possibly because disadvantaged social groups have not been as able as advantaged groups to navigate and benefit from the educational landscape created by the school reforms.

Studies of neighbourhood effects typically measure the neighbourhood context at one specific spatial scale. It is increasingly acknowledged, however, that the mechanisms through which the residential context affects individual outcomes may operate at different spatial scales, ranging from the very immediate environment to the metropolitan region. We take a multi-scale approach to investigate the extent to which concentrated poverty in adolescence is related to obtained education level and income later in life, by measuring the residential context as bespoke neighbourhoods at five geographical scales that range from areas encompassing the 200 nearest neighbours to areas that include the 200k+ nearest neighbours. We use individual-level geocoded longitudinal register data from Sweden and the Netherlands to follow 15/16-year-olds until they are 30 years old. The findings show that the contextual effects on education are very similar in both countries. Living in a poor area as a teenager is related to a lower obtained educational level when people are in their late 20s. This relationship, however, is stronger for lower spatial scales. We also find effects of contextual poverty on income in both countries. Overall, this effect is stronger in the Netherlands than in Sweden. Partly, this is related to differences in spatial structure. If only individuals in densely populated areas in Sweden are considered, effects on income are similar across the two countries and income effects are more stable across spatial scales. Overall, we find important evidence that the scalar properties of neighbourhood effects differ across life-course outcomes.

Interest in neighbourhood effects has been increasing. This article is a contribution to the field, directed towards the entire areas of three municipalities in Sweden, not only their distressed areas, and to their total population with data from the Statistics Sweden register. The aim of the study is to analyse the significance of surroundings to an individual's socioeconomic career in the form of education, occupational status and income. Guided by a theoretical framework of social justice, the study proposes places of good fortune and places of few opportunities. The survey cohort is individuals born in 1970, who lived at least 5 years in the same area during their adolescence. Their careers are analysed 10 years later, in 1995. The most important finding is that the socio-demographic and physical context of the residential area of adolescence affects the subsequent socioeconomic career.

This study applies a housing market perspective to hot spots in rural Northern Sweden. Here, the concept of a hot spot is defined as a place with rising house prices and in-migration of households with higher than average education and income. Perceptions and performances in these particular housing markets are studied using interviews. Three locations are explored through interviews with footloose households. The aim is to explore factors that shape rural housing market hot spots, using narratives from footloose in-migrants. There is a need for greater understanding of the spread and maintenance of hot spots and rural housing markets in regional planning. Also, housing markets in the countryside are more scantily investigated than in urban areas. In an unbalanced housing market, with higher prices and limited supply in the urban areas, hot spots in rural areas are anomalies that do not follow traditional housing market theories. Results show that hot spots are locations with natural beauty to which households moved upon finding employment. Footloose in-migrants are thus discovered to indicate a hot spot development. The hot spot areas have the extra natural beauty, cheap housing in combination with a high status, as well as it is a location suitable for commuting. Hot spots have a rare combination of factors sought after by footloose in-migrants.

This study applies a housing market perspective on hotspots in northern, rural Sweden. It uses the concept ‘hotspot’ defined as places with rising house prices and in-migration of households with higher than average education and income. The focus rests on three places having the ideal characteristics of being a rural hotspot, located in three Swedish northern municipalities. These places are explored through ten interviews with ‘footloose’ households. The aim is to explore factors that shape rural housing market hotspots using stories from hotspot population households. The first reason for this study is that regional planning requests understanding to develop different regions and places for the future. Here the origins of hotspots are explored to understand the spread and sustainability of such developments. Second, housing markets in the countryside are more scantily investigated than in urban areas. In the unbalanced housing market with higher prices and limited supply in the urban areas hotspots in rural areas are not following traditional housing market theories, they are rather anomalies. Interviews with a specific footloose group of recent hotspot in-migrants are used in combination with knowledge about the housing market. Results show that although hotspots are locations with beautiful nature most households moved there because of finding jobs. The three areas have the ‘extra’ nature values and high status required for being a hotspot and a location for commuting to larger labor markets. The ‘footloose’ non-return migrants did find nice, cheaper housing that made them chose the area despite being strangers to the place. I suggest hotspots are the rare combination of footloose migrants and special places which make them difficult to develop elsewhere.

Earlier research on residential mobility has demonstrated a tendency for the young old of the 55+-population to prefer peripheral locations, whereas older age groups choose central locations. Here, we present survey results indicating that such late-adulthood differences in preferences are supported by age–related shifts corresponding to differences in housing preferences expressed by individuals in peripheral as well as central locations in Sweden. A sample of 2,400 individuals aged 55 years and over was asked to select the seven most important characteristics of a dwelling from a list of 21 alternatives (SHIELD survey 2013). The preferences expressed were used as dependent variables in logistic regressions to determine to what extent the housing preferences of older people are linked to age, gender, socio-economic status and type of geographical area. The results demonstrated a close link between neighbourhood characteristics and housing preferences. Owning the dwelling, having a garden, and access to nature were stressed as important by individuals living in non-metropolitan middle-class areas and in suburban elite areas. The youngest cohort expressed similar preferences. Older age groups instead stressed the importance of an elevator, single-storey housing, and a good design for independent living; preferences that have similarities to those expressed by individuals living in large cities and smaller urban centres where such housing is more readily available.

The aim of the article is to use survey evidence of school choice and educational attitudes in Sweden to explore how spatial polarization and liberal school reforms have affected the way parents, pupils, and school management think about education. The authors identify a possible polarization of attitudes in Sweden towards the importance of education in general and schools in particular, against the background of a highly liberalized school market, including school choice and rural-urban regional differences in the population’s education level. The basis for the analysis is TIMSS 2015 data for pupils in Grade 4 (age group 10–11 years). The results showed that localization of the school was a very important factor in school choice and that localization was more important than parental education and social class. Additionally, the authors tested the association between maths results and the variables attitudes, location, school, and household, and found that a household with a lower proportion of tertiary-educated parents in less central locations could make it difficult for pupils to perform well in mathematics. The authors conclude that in Sweden neoliberalization has been a geographically uneven process with a concentration in the metropolitan areas.

It can be argued that a society is never better than how Individuals on its social and spatial fringes are faring. This motivates the purpose of this paper, which is to study how vulnerable groups can be identified, defined and explored in a spatial perspective using latent class analysis (LCA) on the whole Swedish population. We use space to refine meanings of vulnerability in individuals and groups, by contextualizing their vulnerability. This knowledge is fundamental for creating equal living conditions and for promoting the social cohesion needed for socially sustainable societies. Thus, equality and spatial integration are basic ideas in welfare policy but in recent years, the idea of integration has met various challenges with new population groups, rural–urban polarization, and disadvantaged housing areas. Using register data, we here identified life course trajectories associated with vulnerability, applying LCA to the total Swedish population aged 25 to 59 years. We identified latent classes of life courses, and detected and explored some classes with more vulnerability than others. The spatial patterns of vulnerable individuals were analysed using individualized neighbourhoods including the proportion of closest neighbours belonging to a latent class. A second LCA of vulnerable individuals refined the findings into different types of distress; extra distressed life courses were found in the metropolitan areas in Million program areas in urban outskirts, and other distressed life courses were more often found in unattractive (low housing price) rural areas, rural fringes. 

Against the background of a liberalization of Swedish compulsory education, this paper analyses post-1991 shifts in the way compulsory education performance in Sweden has been shaped by parental background, residential context and school context. We can document increasing school and residential segregation of foreign background students and, after 2008, increasing segregation by income, employment status and social allowance reception. Over time, educational performance has become increasingly linked to family, neighbourhood and school context. The greatest change has been for parental background, but the importance of school context and neighbourhood context has also increased. A noteworthy finding is that residential context consistently has a stronger effect on student performance than school context. Student grades were found to be most strongly influenced by the closest (12 or 25) residential peers of the school leavers as compared to larger peer groups. The increase in the influence of family, neighbourhood and residential context has been accompanied by a dramatic increase in the between-school variation (intra-class correlation) in student performance, but it was not until after 2005 that this increased variability became clearly linked to the social composition of the schools. This study's results suggest that the restructuring of Swedish compulsory education has had consequences for equality, possibly because disadvantaged social groups have not been as able as advantaged groups to navigate and benefit from the educational landscape created by the school reforms.

This paper analyses whether a multi-scale representation of geographical context based on statistical aggregates computed for individualised neighbourhoods can lead to improved estimates of neighbourhood effect. Our study group consists of individuals born in 1980 that have lived in Sweden since 1995 and we analyse the effect of neighbourhood context at age 15 on educational outcome at age 30 controlling for parental background. A new piece of software, Equipop, was used to compute the socio-economic composition of neighbourhoods centred on individual residential locations and ranging in scale from including the nearest 12 to the nearest 25,600 neighbours. Our results indicate that context measures based on fixed geographical sub-divisions can lead to an underestimation of neighbourhood effects. A multi-scalar representation of geographical context also makes it easier to estimate how neighbourhood effects vary across different demographic groups. This indicates that scale-sensitive measures of geographical context could help to re-invigorate the neighbourhood effects literature.

Will the consequences of residential segregation, that is, spatial concentration of marginalized populations on the one hand, and spatial concentration of affluent populations on the other hand, generate a situation where individual life trajectories are influenced by where individuals grow up? Our aim is to analyze how poverty risks and early income career at adult age are influenced by different neighborhood contexts in early youth. We use Swedish longitudinal register data, and follow individuals born in 1980 until 2012. Residential context is measured in 1995 at age 15 by expanding a buffer around the residential locations of each individual and, by computing statistical aggregates of different socio-demographic variables for that population. The results show that poverty risks increase for individuals growing up in areas characterized by high numbers of social allowance recipients living nearby, whereas elite geographical context is favorable for both women’s and men’s future income.

This paper finds convincing evidence of upward progress out of poor Swedish neighbourhoods for individuals with a Swedish background, individuals with a European background, and those with a non-European background. We use the 1986 cohort of the Swedish population and follow them from age 15 when they are living at home to age 30. We find that by age 30, they live in a neighbourhood that in terms of the poverty level is relatively distant from the initial neighbourhood where they grew up. Mobility into less poor neighbourhoods is clearly linked to higher income, but interestingly, initial context is even more important. Mobility to less poor neighbourhoods is found for those starting in high-poverty neighbourhoods and vice versa for those starting in low-poverty neighbourhoods. Moreover, large-scale context and regional context strongly influence neighbourhood mobility along the poverty gradient. The analysis shows that a large proportion of individuals with a non-European background improve their neighbourhood status from where they were living as teenagers, to where they live after leaving home. Individuals who stay in the poorest neighbourhoods come from less favourable backgrounds, from large-scale poverty contexts, have low school grades, tend to have children early, and have low incomes and lower educational attainment. Individuals with a non-European background are overrepresented in this group. Thus, despite the overall gains in neighbourhood quality, the process of spatial sorting still contributes to an increased spatial concentration of vulnerable populations.

In this paper, we use geo-coded, individual-level register data on four European countries to compute comparative measures of segregation that are independent of existing geographical sub-divisions. The focus is on non-European migrants, for whom aggregates of egocentric neighbourhoods (with different population counts) are used to assess small-scale, medium-scale, and large-scale segregation patterns. At the smallest scale level, corresponding to neighbourhoods with 200 persons, patterns of over- and under-representation are strikingly similar. At larger-scale levels, Belgium stands out as having relatively strong over- and under-representation. More than 55% of the Belgian population lives in large-scale neighbourhoods with moderate under- or over-representation of non-European migrants. In the other countries, the corresponding figures are between 30 and 40%. Possible explanations for the variation across countries are differences in housing policies and refugee placement policies. Sweden has the largest and Denmark the smallest non-European migrant population, in relative terms. Thus, in both migrant-dense and native-born-dense areas, Swedish neighbourhoods have a higher concentration and Denmark a lower concentration of non-European migrants than the other countries. For large-scale, migrant-dense neighbourhoods, however, levels of concentration are similar in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Thus, to the extent that such concentrations contribute to spatial inequalities, these countries are facing similar policy challenges.

This paper addresses the meaning of housing and the perception of socio-economic security of different forms of tenure in Sweden and Finland. Household interviews reveal that, in stark contrast to Finland, Swedish respondents think that home ownership is not safer than renting. Few ‘absolutists’ can be found in Sweden who believe that one tenure is superior to the other, while home ownership is still favoured in Finland despite a major housing crash in the 1990s. However, some similarities were also present: for example, even though renting has a much more positive image in Sweden than in Finland, home ownership nonetheless was the number one housing preference. There are prima facie reasons to assume that attitudes in the two countries would tend towards convergence given the marked similarities in culture and society due to common history and cultural diffusion (usually from Sweden to Finland) and similar welfare state models producing relatively low income inequality. The paper hypothesizes that differences in attitudes are due to different institutional arrangements in connection with different cultural values attached to housing and tenure.

Sweden is today an immigrant country with more than 14% foreign born. An increasing share of the immigrants comes from non-European countries. This implies that Sweden has been transformed from an ethnically homogenous country into a country with a large visible minority. In this paper we survey the effect of this change on school segregation. Building on Schelling's model for residential segregation, we argue that establishment of a visible minority has triggered a process of school segregation that in some respects can be compared with the developments in the United States. In order to test the validity of a Schelling-type process in Swedish schools we compare segregation levels in regions with different shares of visible minority students. We use data from the PISA 2003 survey in combination with register data on the ethnic composition of student population in different parts of Sweden. We find that school segregation is higher in regions with a large visible-minority population. We also find that, controlling for student background, there are smaller differences in performance across schools in regions with low shares of minority students.

The aim of this study is to estimate the impact of neighbourhoods on educational outcome for adolescents in Sweden. Using a multilevel statistical approach and the PLACE database that consists of a census of individuals in 1990-2000 in Sweden, the paper explores different domains of neighbourhood characteristics that predict educational outcomes in adolescents. Educational achievement in year 2000 was measured for three cohorts, geocoded to their neighbourhood environments. It was found that neighbourhood characteristics related to socioeconomic resources and demographic stability are predictors of individual educational outcomes. A strong association between neighbourhood socio-cultural capital variables and education were also observed. Despite national policies on availability and access to education in Sweden, there are substantial inequalities in educational outcomes that are not simply a result of differences in individual characteristics.

We examine the 'overlap' or to which degree tenure form patterns are similar to socio-economic segregation patterns. The issue has been discussed concerning mixing policies; does mixing of tenure hinder socio-economic segregation? If mixing tenure is to be an effective policy against segregation, the overlap has to be understood. Using Swedish register data, we cross tenure-type landscapes with patterns of high/mixed/low-income and with European/non-European/Swedish-born. To what degree is there overlap among tenure, income and country of birth? Is the overlap related to geographical scale and polarization? Is the overlap of tenure forms with socio-economic characteristics consistent across regions? We find strong overlap of large-scale cooperative tenure landscapes with very high incomes as well as with Swedish-born. Small-scale tenure-landscapes provide mixing opportunities for incomes wherever they are located; however, these landscapes have a small non-Swedish-born population nearby. Some tenure-type landscapes vary in characteristics depending on location; e.g. public rental concentrated areas are high-income in urban cores but low-income in urban peripheries.

In this paper we use geo-coded, individual level register data on four European countries to compute comparative measures of segregation that are independent of existing geographical sub- divisions. The focus is on non-European migrants, and using aggregates for egocentric neighbourhoods with different population counts, small-scale, medium-scale, and large-scale segregation patterns are assessed. At the smallest scale level, corresponding to neighbourhoods with 200 persons, patterns of over- and under-representation are strikingly similar. At larger scale levels, Belgium stands out as having relatively strong over- and under-representation. More than 55% of the Belgian population lives in large-scale neighbourhoods with moderate under- or over- representation of non-European migrants. In the other countries, the corresponding figures are between 30 % and 40%. Possible explanations for this pattern are differences in housing policies and refugee placement policies. Sweden has the largest and Denmark the smallest non-European migrant population, in relative terms. Thus, in both migrant-dense and native-born dense areas, Swedish neighbourhoods have a higher concentration, and Denmark a lower concentration of non- European migrants than the other countries. For large-scale, migrant-dense neighbourhoods, however, levels of concentration are similar in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Thus, if this pattern is linked to a high concentration of disadvantaged population groups, it shows that these countries are facing similar policy challenges with respect to neighbourhood contexts. Contexts that can have negative effects on outcomes such as employment, income and education. 

Twenty years ago the Swedish school system underwent serious change in that students were given the right to choose their school, though those living near each school had priority. Since then, there has been a new geographical debate concerning where students live and go to school and possible implications of this on student educational achievement and educational equality, as well as on students’ daily lives. In studies of changes in the school system, traveldistances to school have so far been less studied in the Swedish context. In this paper we will analyze the changes in distance to school for 15-year-olds, from 2000 to 2006, in order to identify who, and in which context, is traveling shorter/longer distances, and thus performing a school choice. We use register data from the database PLACE, Uppsala University. The focus is not on effects on achievement, nor school composition, but instead on the difference in ability/possibility of using school choice as measured by distance. A time-geography approach concerning variation in constraints between students is used. School choice may be a matter of preference for certain schools, but importantly, it might also be a matter of time and space restrictions for families with fewer resources; that is, with less spatial capital and a limited opportunity structure. Results show that travel to schooldistances have increased since the year 2000. Foreign-born students are traveling shorter distances, except for those with highly educated parents. Shorter distances are also travelled by students from families with social assistance and for visible minorities in areas where such minorities exist.

Individuals tend to be most mobile when they are between 20 and 40 years of age. This pattern is relatively stable across regions and over time. For geographical mobility, less is known about their transitions between different types of housing and tenure forms. In Sweden, households may select between, principally, three different types of tenure forms, each often coupled with a specific housing type. Households may rent from either public companies (municipality owned) or private landlords in multifamily dwellings, households may own their single-family house privately, or they can cooperatively own a multifamily house as a tenant-owner in an apartment. Yet we lack knowledge of which tenure trajectories individuals tend to follow during their most mobile years, and we also lack knowledge about which factors determine tenure trajectories. Our sample consist of individuals who in 1995 were aged 18–25 and who left their parental house between 1994 and 1995. This study tracks their tenure trajectories for 21 consecutive years starting in 1995 until 2015. The cohorts in our sample were the first who encountered the conditions on the deregulated housing market that are still in place in Sweden today. We followed these cohorts until they were between 39 and 46 years old and used sequence analysis to classify tenure trajectories. One result that stands out is the outstanding and increasing emphasis on home ownership in our sample, quite unlike the traditional picture of the Swedish housing market. Additionally, we found that resources in a broad sense and spatial context have a great impact on the type of trajectory individuals follow.

It is hypothesized that self-defined mixed-race persons live in residentially mixed areas in the largest metropolitan areas in California. The hypothesis is tested by examining the distribution of mixed-race persons among ethnically and racially diverse and nondiverse neighborhoods in the San Francisco and Los Angeles Metropolitan Areas. The research confirmed that mixed-race individuals are more likely to live in areas with ethnic diversity and that the tendency is greater for the mixed-race population in the San Francisco–Oakland Metropolitan Areas than in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area. Mixed-race individuals live in neighborhoods which are diverse with mixes of all four major ethnic and racial groups, and in “well-off” (but not the most affluent) neighborhoods. The study also shows that the mixed-race population is youthful. The association of mixed-race individuals and racially integrated neighborhoods will have important implications for the evolving nature of spatial integration in California specifically, and the United States more generally.

There continues to be cross-disciplinary interest in the patterns, extent, and changing contexts of segregation and spatial inequality more generally. The changes are clearly context dependent but at the same time there are broad generalizations that arise from the processes of residential sorting and selection. A major question in U.S. segregation research is how the growth of Asian and Hispanic populations is influencing patterns of segregation and diversity at the neighborhood level. In this article we use a variant of a nearest neighbor approach to map, graph, and evaluate patterns of race and ethnicity at varying scales. We show that using a multiscalar approach to segregation can provide a detailed and more complete picture of segregation. The research confirms work from other studies that segregation is decreasing between some groups and increasing between others, and the patterns, and processes can be described as dynamic diversity. In a series of maps of ethnic clusters and population homogeneity we show how metropolitan areas, represented in this case by Los Angeles, now display patterns of complex living arrangements with multiple groups inhabiting both local neighborhoods and wider community spheres.

Based on the wide-ranging liberal reforms introduced in the early 1990s, Sweden has become one of the most prominent realizations of Milton Friedman’s proposal for market-based schooling. From 1991 to 2012, the percentage of Swedish ninth-grade students attending independent, voucher-financed, private schools increased from 2.8% to 14.2%. A recent study using municipality-level data claimed that the resulting increase in school competition positively affected student performance in both private and public schools. In this study, using data on 2,154,729 school leavers, we show that this result does not hold when controlling for individual-level background factors and differences in the peer composition of schools.

In this paper we analyse spatial and temporal variation in the risk of intensive care unit (ICU) admission for COVID-19 in Sweden. The analysis is based on geocoded and time-stamped data from the Swedish Intensive Care Registry (SIR). We merge this data with a classification of Swedish neighbourhood cluster types constructed from multi-scalar measures of socio-economic and country of birth segregation (Kawalerowicz and Malmberg in Multiscalar typology of residential areas in Sweden, 2021 available from https://doi.org/10.17045/sthlmuni.14753826.v1). We examine 1) if residence in more socio-economically deprived or diverse neighbourhood cluster types was associated with a higher risk of ICU admission for COVID-19, 2) if residence in more affluent neighbourhoods was associated with a lower risk of ICU admission for COVID-19, and 3) how these patterns changed over time during the three first waves of the pandemic. While the highest overall risk was associated with residence in urban disadvantage coupled with diversity, models where neighbourhood cluster types were interacted with waves reveal that the highest risk was associated with living in a neighbourhood cluster type characterised by rural town disadvantage coupled with diversity under the 3rd wave (February 2021–June 2021). Residence in such a neighbourhood cluster type was associated with a four times higher risk of ICU admission, compared to the reference category of living in a homogeneous rural neighbourhood cluster type with average levels of deprivation under wave 1. Looking at disparities within each wave we found that residence in most affluent urban areas was at first associated with a slightly higher risk of ICU admission for COVID-19 as compared with the reference category of living in a homogeneous rural neighbourhood cluster type, but under waves 2 and 3 this risk was no longer statistically significant. The largest inequalities between different neighbourhood cluster types could be seen during the 1st wave. Over time, the risks converged between different neighbourhood cluster types.

En utjämning av människors livschanser. Det har varit en bärande tanke i det svenska välfärdsbygget. I en marknadsekonomi som inte av sig själv ser till att utjämna klyftor kan välfärdsstaten hjälpa till att ge alla människor, oberoende av bakgrund, någorlunda likartade chanser den dag de tar steget ut i vuxenlivet och på egen hand ska ställas inför marknadens krav (Lindh, Malmberg, & Palme 2005). Den är en politik som tar sin början redan under fostertiden, med en mödravård som ska se till att de nyfödda ska ha en god hälsa. Och den fortsätter från förskoletiden ända fram till myndighetsdagen, och längre för dem som söker sig till högre utbildning. Huvuddelen av denna politik riktar sig direkt mot barnet och dess familj med hälsoinsatser, föräldraförsäkring, barnomsorg, undervisning, skolmåltider, socialförsäk- ringar, arbetslöshetsunderstöd, barnbidrag, försörjningsstöd, och även en arbetsmarknad med kollektivavtal och anställningstrygghet som ska ge inkomsttrygghet för vuxna individer, men därmed också inkomsttrygghet för deras barn. Vid sidan av denna individinriktade politik har välfärdsstaten också slagit vakt om uppväxtmiljön i en vidare bemärkelse. Även de bostadsområden där barn växer upp ska erbjuda stöd för deras utveckling till vuxna individer. Bostadsområden ska vara säkra och trygga, funktionella för lek, erbjuda närhet till förskola, skola och hälsovård samt kunna erbjuda fritidsaktiviteter. Bostadsområden ska dessutom föra med sig vuxna som kan vara goda förebilder och ett socialt stöd, varför t.ex. kriminalitet ska motverkas. Om man 

inom området socialpolitik till stöd för barns uppväxt i Sverige kommit långt i likvärdighet, så gäller inte detta förutsättningar knutna till barns och ungas geografiska hemvist, t.ex. i form av det egna bostadsområdet. Det framgår av tidigare forskning om barns och ungas geografiska kontext i Sverige att det skiljer sig stort i många avseenden (Andersson 2001).

I detta kapitel belyser vi inkomstsegregation i Sverige, med särskilt fokus på fattiga områden och utrikes födda. Vi visar också vilka konsekvenser en uppväxt i fattiga områden får senare i livet vad gäller inkomst och utbildning. Vi undersöker även i vilken utsträckning unga, med och utan migrantbakgrund, bor kvar i fattiga områden som vuxna, och vilka faktorer som påverkar flyttningen bort från fattiga områden.

This paper investigates effects of neighbourhood context on first birth timing in Sweden. Analyses are on the basis of Swedish population registers and innovative methods for the construction of individualised neighbourhoods of varying sizes and a traditional measure using defined areas. The 1980 Swedish birth cohort is followed from age 13 to 36, with neighbourhood characteristics observed at age 15 to define the contexts in which the young adults were socialised and first exposed to socioeconomic opportunities for higher education and early adult careers. Young adults who lived in elite (education and income) neighbourhoods or neighbourhoods with a high proportion of foreign born were slower to have their first child in comparison with those who lived in a less socioeconomically advantaged neighbourhoods. Neighbourhoods with high levels of social assistance, as well as those with a high proportion of single-family housing had earlier births. Although the preponderance of the first evidence is consistent with a pathway from neighbourhoods to individual attainments and delayed childbearing, the availability of affordable family-friendly housing appears to provide opportunities for earlier transitions to parenthood.

This article explores typical life-course trajectories based on annual observations of educational participation, employment, and establishing a family from age sixteen to age thirty. Using latent class analysis, we identify seven different trajectory classes that capture the different life courses experienced by individuals born in 1986. Examples of trajectory classes are (1) an early partner and childbearing trajectory; (2) a trajectory that mixes employment and a long postsecondary education into the later twenties; and (3) a trajectory involving low activity, very little employment, very little postsecondary education, and not starting a family. The classes identified correspond closely to trajectories found in earlier qualitative studies using life-history interviews, but in contrast to these studies that each encompass a few dozen individuals or less, our approach identifies trajectories for the individuals of an entire birth cohort. This allows for analysis of the geographical distribution of trajectories across regions, municipality types, and neighborhoods. Individuals following long postsecondary education trajectories were heavily concentrated in metropolitan areas and university towns. At the same age, individuals following early childbearing trajectories were concentrated instead in peripheral, rural areas. Individuals from nonmetropolitan areas also tend to follow more gender-polarized trajectories. Moreover, we find that there is more trajectory-based segregation at age thirty than at age fifteen. Theoretically, our study gives support to the idea that places are structured on the basis of life-course trajectories. Local context influences how individuals are linked into different trajectories and, at the same time, the spatial sorting of trajectories will shape local contexts. 

In this article, we propose a new approach for assessing the extent to which schools are successful in mixing students from different backgrounds. It is based on a comparison of variation in the composition of the student population in small-scale residential neighborhoods with variation in the composition of the student population at local schools. From this we compute a measure that corresponds to the number of small scale neighborhoods that needs to be sampled in order to arrive at the observed mixing of students in schools. Using this measure, we can show that in 2012, in a large majority of Swedish municipalities, schools are successful in mixing students from different types of neighborhoods, but in 25% of the municipalities mixing is not so good. Three fundamental determinants of mixing are large-scale residential segregation, average school size, and number of students in the municipality. These factors are strong determinants of mixing and when they are included, other contextual factors provide very little additional explanation of why mixing varies among municipalities. With the fundamental determinants excluded the contextual factors have an effect. For example, tertiary education, many migrants, and high proportions of independent schools tend to lower the level of mixing.

The aim of this paper is to analyse if recovery from ill-health is influenced by geographical context using a multi-scalar approach to context measurement and Swedish longitudinal register-based data on sickness benefit recipiency as an indicator of onset of and recovery from illness. Our sample consists of individuals that have stayed healthy and in work for a three-year period (2000–2002) and then falls ill during the fourth year (2003), some of who recover to good health in the fifth year (2004). The results show that in areas with above-average percentages of people receiving sickness-benefit there is a reduced probability of recovery. In contrast, high levels of employment in the neighbourhood and in the local area have a positive effect on the chances of recovery. These contextual effects are statistically significant but relatively weak in comparison to the influence of individual level factors such as age, sex, marital status, and income. Our conclusion is that individualised scalable neighbourhoods constitute a potentially valuable addition to the toolbox used in neighbourhood effect studies.

This article contributes both to the expanding literature on the effect of school choice and to the literature focusing on how to measure and conceptualize neighborhood effects. It uses a novel approach to the measurement of geographical context to analyze neighborhood influences on school choice attitudes among Swedish parents. Data on attitudes come from a survey of 3,749 families with children in upper primary school. Geographical context is measured using multi-scalar contextual factors based on socioeconomic indicators for individually defined, bespoke neighborhoods that incorporate from 12 to 12,800 people. The results show that parental motives for choosing schools in Sweden are strongly influenced by the social and ethnic composition of their own and their adjacent neighborhoods. Contrary to most other studies, we find effects of socioeconomic context stronger than the effects of the parents' own social and ethnic background. Thus, parents living in academic, high-income areas put little stress on attending an assigned school, close-to-home schools, or stating that the municipality has influenced their decision. Furthermore, these attitudes become even stronger if nearby neighborhoods are dominated by visible minorities and disadvantaged groups. Supported by Sampson's ideas of coordinated perceptions among inhabitants in the same neighborhoods, we explain these surprisingly strong contextual effects with the idea that school choice motives are especially sensitive to neighbors' ideas and easily influenced as measured preferences in a survey.

In this paper, we analyse how a migrant population that is both expanding and changing in composition has affected the composition of Swedish neighbourhoods at different scales. The analysis is based on Swedish geocoded individual-level register data for the years 1990, 1997, 2005, and 2012. This allows us to compute and analyse the demographic composition of neighbourhoods that range in size from encompassing the nearest 100 individuals to the nearest 409,600 individuals. First, the results confirm earlier findings that migrants, especially those from non-European countries, face high levels of segregation in Sweden. Second, large increases in the non-European populations in combination with high levels of segregation have increased the proportion of non-European migrants living in neighbourhoods that already have high proportions of non-European migrants. Third, in contrast to what has been the established image of segregation trends in Sweden, and in an apparent contrast to the finding that non-European migrants increasingly live in migrant-dense neighbourhoods, our results show that segregation, when defined as an uneven distribution of different populations across residential contexts, is not increasing. On the contrary, for both European migrants from 1990 and non-European migrants from 1997, there is a downward trend in unevenness as measured by the dissimilarity index at all scale levels. However, if segregation is measured as differences in the neighbourhood concentration of migrants, segregation has increased.

There are few reasons to believe that social segregation is restricted to the working age population. Still, attempts to analyse social segregation among old age individuals have been lacking. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to explore the extent to which old age individuals who follow different sociodemographic trajectories are geographically segregated. We analyse residential segregation among older age adults, based on an identification of typical sociodemographic life courses in longitudinal, geo-coded, register data for three life phases: young old, 65-79 years, middle old, 75-89 years and, oldest old, 85-99 years. The results show great life-course heterogeneity in these age groups. In each life phase, we distinguish seven different trajectory types that also display distinct geographical patterns. The first group of trajectories is characterized by a high proportion of married individuals with high income concentrated in suburban, single-family housing areas. The second group consists of trajectories with many widows/widowers in small-scale, apartment areas. The third group consists of singleton trajectories in metropolitan areas. The fourth group is overrepresented in low-income areas and consists of trajectories including individuals of nonsurvival in the life phase. The fifth group is composed of trajectories with married or widowed low-income individuals in owner-occupied areas mainly found in rural areas. Thus, there is pronounced geographical variation in what type of neighbourhood life old age individuals live. This indicates that social segregation in the old age population deserves to be given more attention in geographical research.

There are few reasons to believe that social segregation is restricted to the working age population. Still, attempts to analyse social segregation among old age individuals have been lacking. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to explore the extent to which old age individuals who follow different sociodemographic trajectories are geographically segregated. We analyse residential segregation among older age adults, based on an identification of typical sociodemographic life courses in longitudinal, geo-coded, register data for three life phases: young old, 65–79 years, middle old, 75–89 years and, oldest old, 85–99 years. The results show great life-course heterogeneity in these age groups. In each life phase, we distinguish seven different trajectory types that also display distinct geographical patterns. The first group of trajectories is characterized by a high proportion of married individuals with high income concentrated in suburban, single-family housing areas. The second group consists of trajectories with many widows/widowers in small-scale, apartment areas. The third group consists of singleton trajectories in metropolitan areas. The fourth group is overrepresented in low-income areas and consists of trajectories including individuals of nonsurvival in the life phase. The fifth group is composed of trajectories with married or widowed low-income individuals in owner-occupied areas mainly found in rural areas. Thus, there is pronounced geographical variation in what type of neighbourhood life old age individuals live. This indicates that social segregation in the old age population deserves to be given more attention in geographical research.

In 2009, Sweden experienced a wave of urban unrest concentrated in areas with large foreign-born populations. This episode was seen by many as reflecting a trend towards increased ethnically based residential segregation, in line with scholarly literatures that correlate inequality and rising segregation with increases in unrest or rebellion. In this paper, we analyze the empirical connection between ethnic residential segregation and episodes of urban unrest in Sweden. Unrest is measured by the number of car burnings reported to police between 2002 and 2009. We find a positive and statistically significant link between residential segregation and car burnings at the scale of municipalities and metropolitan districts. Unrest/rebellion is also correlated with high proportion of young adults and social welfare assistance.

In this paper we analyse how a migrant population that is both expanding and changing in composition has affected the composition of Swedish neighbourhoods at different scales. The analysis is based on Swedish geo-coded individual level register data for the years 1990, 1997, 2005, and 2012. This allows us to compute and analyse the demographic composition of neighbourhoods that range in size from encompassing the nearest 100 individuals to the nearest 400,000 individuals. First, the results confirm earlier findings that migrants, especially those from non-European countries face high levels of segregation in Sweden. Second, large increases in the non-European populations in combination with high levels of segregation have increased the proportion of non-European migrants living in neighbourhoods that have high proportions of nonEuropean migrants. Third, in contrast to what has been the established image of segregation trends in Sweden, and in an apparent contrast to the finding that non-European migrants increasingly live in migrant-dense neighbourhoods, our results show that segregation, when defined as an uneven distribution of different populations across residential contexts, is not increasing. On the contrary, for both European migrants from 1990 and non-European migrants from 1997, there is a downward trend in unevenness as measured by the dissimilarity index at all scale levels. However, if unevenness is measured as variation in the neighbourhood proportion of migrants across neighbourhoods, segregation has increased.

In a previous study, Andersson et al. (2018) compared the patterns of residential segregation between non-European immigrants and the rest of the population in four European countries, using the k-nearest neighbours approach to compute comparable measures of segregation. This approach relies on detailed geo-coded data and can be used to assess segregation levels at different neighbourhood scales. This paper updates these findings with results from Norway. Using similar data and methods, we document both similarities and striking differences between the segregation patterns in Norway and Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden. While the segregation patterns in Norway at larger scales are roughly comparable to those found in Denmark, but with higher concentrations of non-European immigrants in the most immigrant- dense large-scale neighbourhoods, the micro-level segregation is much lower in Norway than in the other countries. While an important finding by Andersson et al. (2018) was that segregation levels at the micro scale of 200 nearest neighbours fell within a narrow band, with a dissimilarity index between 0.475 and 0.512 in the four countries under study, segregation levels at this scale are clearly lower in Norway, with a dissimilarity index of 0.429. We speculate that this may in part be driven by Norwegian settlement policies for refugees and asylum seekers, but other explanations are possible.

In a previous study, Andersson et al. (A comparative study of segregation patterns in Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden: neighbourhood concentration and representation of non-European migrants. Eur J Popul 34:1-25, 2018) compared the patterns of residential segregation between non-European immigrants and the rest of the population in four European countries, using the k-nearest neighbours approach to compute comparable measures of segregation. This approach relies on detailed geo-coded data and can be used to assess segregation levels at different neighbourhood scales. This paper updates these findings with results from Norway. Using similar data and methods, we document both similarities and striking differences between the segregation patterns in Norway and Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden. While the segregation patterns in Norway at larger scales are roughly comparable to those found in Denmark, but with higher concentrations of non-European immigrants in the most immigrant-dense large-scale neighbourhoods, the micro-level segregation is much lower in Norway than in the other countries. While an important finding by Andersson et al. (2018) was that segregation levels at the micro-scale of 200 nearest neighbours fell within a narrow band, with a dissimilarity index between 0.475 and 0.512 in the four countries under study, segregation levels at this scale are clearly lower in Norway, with a dissimilarity index of 0.429. We discuss possible explanations for these patterns.

Discussions of tenure mix have received renewed interest as many have suggested that neo-liberalization has made way for gentrification of neighbourhoods and increasing segregation. Yet, few scholars have studied country-wide changes in tenure mix, due to the lack of data and appropriate methods. In this article, we propose to use tenure type landscapes to analyse changes in housing policy. We do so while acknowledging the evolution of housing policies in Sweden since 1990. Using individualized and multi-scalar tenure type landscapes to measure change in neighbourhoods, we analyse housing clusters in 1990 and 2012. We show that the tenure landscape in 1990 at the height of the welfare state was fairly diverse and mixed. During the next 22 years, however, the landscape changed to become more homogenized and dominated by ownership through tenure conversions and new housing. We argue that awareness of these changes is essential to understanding present and future segregation and gentrification processes.

Discussions of tenure mix have received renewed interest as many have suggested that neo-liberalization has made way for gentrification of neighbourhoods and increasing segregation. Yet, few scholars have studied country-wide changes in tenure mix, due to the lack of data and appropriate methods. In this article, we propose to use tenure type landscapes to analyse changes in housing policy. We do so while acknowledging the evolution of housing policies in Sweden since 1990. Using individualized and multi-scalar tenure type landscapes to measure change in neighbourhoods, we analyse housing clusters in 1990 and 2012. We show that the tenure landscape in 1990 at the height of the welfare state was fairly diverse and mixed. During the next 22 years, however, the landscape changed to become more homogenized and dominated by ownership through tenure conversions and new housing. We argue that awareness of these changes is essential to understanding present and future segregation and gentrification processes.