More common for separated parents to live close by to each other
Statistical news from Statistics Sweden 2015-06-25 9.30
Children with separated parents now live closer to the parent they do not live with. Today one in three children live within 2 km to their other parent. The trend towards shorter distances was sharp up until the end of the 1990s, but in the 2000s this trend has levelled off.
One in four children in Sweden has parents that do not live together. For these children, the distance to the parent that the child does not live with can have great significance for the child's possibility to meet the parent he or she does not live with. The report Living close by or far away? describes how the geographical distance between children and parents has changed since 1975.
More and more children have a short distance of less than 2 km to the parent they do not live with. This proportion has increased from 18 percent in 1975 to 32 percent in 2013. Most of this increase occurred before 2000.
Parents' level of income has greater significance
A short distance is more common if both parents are foreign born and if they have high levels of education or income. It is also more common with a short distance directly after separation, and the percentage with a short distance is lower the longer since the separation.
During the 2000s the increase in the share of children who live close to the parent they do not live with has levelled off; in some groups we also see a decrease in how common it is with a short distance. This applies to younger children, children whose parents have recently separated, children with two foreign born parents and children whose parents have lower income levels. However, among children with parents who have higher incomes, the share who have a short distance has continued to increase. The income levels of parents thus seem to be increasingly significant.
Today a short distance is more common if the parents have high incomes
In 1975, it was about as common with a short distance regardless of the income level of the father. Today it is considerably more common with a short distance if the father belongs to the group with the highest incomes, compared to if he has a low income.
Definitions and explanations
Income level: The parents are divided into five income categories where the total earned income of the parents in this study is related to the income level for the population aged 20–64 for each year. The division is done separately for women and men respectively. The lowest income level for fathers corresponds to an income for the 20 percent of men aged 20–64 who have the lowest total earned income, the next income level corresponds to income for the following 20 percent and so on. In 2013 the fathers with the lowest incomes had less than SEK 120 700 in total earned income, while the fathers with the highest incomes had more than SEK 446 200.
Publication
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