Growing More Equal and Growing Apart? Socioeconomic Status and the Rise of Divorce in Sweden

A negative association between socioeconomic status (SES) and divorce has been established for most Western nations after 1960, yet we know little about this relationship further back in time when divorce was rare. In low divorce contexts, we expect a positive association between SES and divorce because higher social strata are better equipped to overcome barriers to divorce. According to socioeconomic growth theory, this relationship reverses with
industrialization and modernization since the economic and normative barriers to divorce diminish for many. We investigate SES and other micro-level determinants of divorce among men and women in Sweden, 1880-1960, making use of longitudinal data from parish registers covering Västerbotten County. Results confirm a positive association between SES and divorce, which shifted to a negative association among couples who divorced from the mid-1930s onwards. This reversal resulted in an increase in the divorce rate as it extended to broader layers of the population.