Barnafödandet i Karlshamn : En demografisk studie 1870 – 1990

Sammanfattning

This bachelor thesis investigates long-term patterns of childbearing in the Swedish port town of Karlshamn between 1870 and 1990. Drawing on digitised parish registers in the form of birth records, the study applies a quantitative content analysis to examine temporal changes in fertility, social differentials by paternal occupation, and age patterns at parenthood. An analytical framework is constructed in advance, in which each birth record is coded for number of births, fathers’ occupations and parents’ ages. Theoretically, the analysis is anchored in the classical demographic transition model and the European marriage pattern, supplemented by the second demographic transition and Gary Becker’s economic theory of fertility. These perspectives are used to interpret both long-term fertility decline and shorter periods of recovery. The results show that childbearing in Karlshamn broadly follows the Swedish and Western European demographic transition, while displaying local specificities linked to the town’s role as a harbour and industrial centre. High and relatively stable fertility in the late nineteenth century is followed by a pronounced decline around the 1910s and 1920s and a strong post-war increase with a peak in the 1960s, before a renewed downturn towards 1990. Over the entire period, the social carriers of fertility shift from maritime and harbour-related occupations to crafts, industry and logistics, and eventually to trade, services and white-collar work. Age at parenthood remains remarkably stable: most mothers have children at ages 20–29, particularly 25–29, while fathers are generally 25–34, with men consistently a few years older than women. The study concludes that the decline and restructuring of fertility in Karlshamn cannot be explained solely by one factor. Instead, it reflects the combined effects of changing occupational structures, welfare state expansion, transformed gender roles and value change, as emphasised in both transition theory and economic fertility models.