“Fading Family Lines—Women and Men Without Children, Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren in 19^th, 20^th and 21^st Century Northern Sweden”, Martin Kolk, Vegard Skirbekk2022-05-23 (sociology)⁠:

• Nearly half of men and women born in northern Sweden 1885^–₁₄1899_125ya did not have any great-grandchildren

• Lineage extinction is considerable also in a population with strong population growth

• Differences in lineage extinction by occupation and sex

• Only small differences between individuals not having any grandchildren, and the share not having great-grandchildren

• Mortality in adulthood contributes substantially to lineage extinction for the study cohorts

We studied to what extent family lines die out over the course of 122 years based on Swedish population-level data.

Our data included demographic and socioeconomic information for 4 generations in the Skellefteå region of northern Sweden from 1885^–₁₂₂2007_17ya. The first generation in our sample consisted of men and women born 1885^–₁₄1899_125ya (n = 5,850), and we observed their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

We found that 48% of the first generation did not have any living descendants (great-grandchildren) by 2007. The risk of a family line dying out within the 4-generational framework was highest among those who had relatively low fertility in the first generation. Mortality during reproductive years was also a leading reason why individuals in the first generation ended up with a greater risk of not leaving descendants. We identified socioeconomic differences: both the highest-status and the lowest-status occupational groups saw an increased risk of not leaving any descendants. Almost all lineages that made it to the third generation also made it to the 4^th generation.

[Keywords: lineages, kinship, demography, childlessness, grandparents, Sweden]

See Also:

• The relationship of major diseases with childlessness: a sibling matched case-control and population register study in Finland and Sweden

• Life-course socioeconomic differences and social mobility in preventable and non-preventable mortality: a study of Swedish twins

• Older fathers’ children have lower evolutionary fitness across four centuries and in four populations

• A Nation-Wide Swedish Cohort Study on Early Maternal Age at First Childbirth and Risk for Offspring Deaths, Accidents, and Suicide Attempts

• Sexual dimorphism in the genetic influence on human childlessness

• Contemporary selection pressures in modern societies? Which factors best explain variance in human reproduction and mating?

• Physical attractiveness and reproductive success in humans: Evidence from the late 20^th century United States

• Familial risk and heritability of intellectual disability: a population-based cohort study in Sweden

• High consanguinity promotes intergenerational wealth concentration in socioeconomically privileged Krummhörn families of the 18^th and 19^th centuries

• Assortative mating and differential fertility by phenotype and genotype across the 20^th century