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FIGURE 5. Age-sex distribution, Sweden and the United States, 1970 (U/OU) (chart)

reflected both the high living and medical standards, permitting the less robust male infants and old people better chances of survival, and the relatively insignificant emigration, which normally involves a larger proportion of able-bodied males. The proportions of children, able-bodied persons, and aged held fairly constant from at least 1750 to the end of the 19th century. During the first two-thirds of the 20th century, however, significant changes occurred (Figure 6). The proportion of children dwindled from one-third to one-fifth, while the proportion of aged nearly tripled, to make up 13% of the total, and by 1980 a projected 17%. The average age of the population in 1970 was one of the highest in the world—36.6 years.

5. Vital rates

Sweden's birth rate, conforming to the Western European and North American norm, declined markedly with the industrialization of the 19th and 20th centuries, falling from 31.5 per 1,000 in the decade 1830-40 to 14.5 in the period 1930-40. After an upsurge during World War II, followed by a further decline to 13,7 in 1960, the birth rate rose again until 1965 but then declined fairly steadily to 13.6 in 1970, one of the lowest rates in the world (Figure 7). The rate of illegitimate births in high, particularly in relation to non-Nordic European countries. It has increased from 10% of all births in 1959 to 18% in 1971. This is a somewhat higher incidence than in neighboring Norway (5%), Finland (5%), and Denmark (10%), but lower than in Iceland, where approximately 30% of all births occur out of wedlock.

Sweden has experienced a virtually uninterrupted decline in the infant mortality rate. The 1970 rate of 11.7 per 1,000 live births, the lowest in the world, compares with rates of 21.0 in 1950 and 16.6 in 1960. Figure 8 shows selected international comparisons. The average life expectancy at birth for Sweden's population—71.85 years for males and 76.54 years for females in 1967—is the highest in the world. As elsewhere in Western Europe, the death rate has declined almost steadily in the past 100 years, dropping from 21.7 per 1,000 in the mid-19th century to 9.5 per 1,000 in 1959. Since that year it has remained relatively constant at about 10.0 per 1,000 in the population. Sweden's relatively constant death rate and declining birth rate since the mid-1960's have meant a decrease in the excess of births over deaths from 46,003 in 1964 to 30,213 in 1970.

The marriage rate in Sweden is one of the lowest in Europe. It declined steadily from a high of 9.9 per 1,000 inhabitants during World War II to 6.7 in 1960. It then rose in 1966, but that was followed by a downward turn to 6.0 per 1,000 in 1969. The number of divorces in Sweden, as in most other Western countries, increased sharply between 1940 and 1950, but, unlike the situation in many other Western nations, the rate did not subsequently decline. From 1955 to 1965 it remained static, averaging 1.2 per 1,000 population, and then increased to 1.4 per 1,000 in 1968.

FIGURE 6. Percentage distribution of age groups (U/OU) (chart)

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