Stockholm University Demography Unit - SUDA, Department of Sociology, Stockholm University, Stockholm (2026)

Our research concentrates on family dynamics - childbearing, partnerships, households - as well as migration and ageing, and the cultural, social, economic, and political conditions that underlie these demographic processes. Much of the work we do is comparative, engaging data from countries troughout Europe and the rest of the world. As an acknowledgement of SUDA’s success, demography has officially become a leading research area at Stockholm University.

23/04/2026

Employment rate among people with foreign backgrounds in Sweden is higher than previously calculated. This is according to a new model for population estimates which has now been applied to Swedish register data. The study also shows that fertility and mortality estimates for migrants should be adjusted.

Statistics Sweden’s calculations of the population size are based on a model which retrieves information from different registers. If individuals who are deceased or have left the country appear active in some of the registers, the model interprets this as a so-called sign of life, and includes said individuals in the statistics.

“Their method is deterministic. You are either here or not; it is either one or zero. There is no in-between. But our model calculates the probability of being in the country”, says Eleonora Mussino, one of the researchers who have developed and tested the new model.

Since the model is based on probabilities, it gives estimates that are closer to reality. After developing the method, the researchers have now applied it to Swedish registers for the period 2003–16.

The study has resulted in numbers that differ from the calculations conducted by Statistics Sweden. Because people who have left the country are still counted in the population, rates calculated from uncorrected figures are systematically too low. After correction by the new model, the employment rate among immigrants turns out to be higher than previously estimated. The fertility rate is also higher. Additionally, mortality rates increase after correction, especially at older ages, likely because some migrants die abroad without their deaths being recorded in Swedish registers.

Eleonora Mussino explains that correct estimates are important for the public discourse. If the assumption is that more people are in the country than is actually the case, it might lead to policy decisions based on a misleading picture.

“From that perspective, it is important to have correct information about the population”, says Eleonora Mussino.

The Study "Invisible emigrants: A research note on over-coverage bias from unrecorded migrant departures in socio-demographic rates and summary measures" is published in Population Studies.

12/12/2025

Son preference remains stable in many low- and middle-income countries, despite recent development toward gender equality and urbanisation, a new doctoral thesis in demography reveales. This illustrates the complexity of how the world is changing, according to the author Konstantin Kazenin.

https://www.su.se/english/divisions/department-of-sociology/news/articles/2025-12-12-parents-in-many-low--and-middle-income-countries-tend-to-prefer-sons

05/09/2025

A new presearch project about sexual and reproductive outcomes of violent crime in Mexico is recruiting two PhD students. The project is lead by Signe Svallfors who has received the five year starting grant from European Research Council.

Sexual and reproductive health is a broad term that encompasses many concrete elements. It includes childbirth, pregnancy, family planning, contraceptive, LGBTQ issues and other matters related to reproduction, sexuality and decisions about one’s own body.

“So, this project is about a very large aspect of human life. It is something that affects all people in the society. All people have a sexuality and all people relate to reproduction in different ways”, says Signe Svallfors.

Mexico is a suitable case to study because of its unique combination of data. Besides having large amounts of register data, where it is possible to study homicide statistics at the municipality level, there are also surveys that are more comprehensive and answer more questions than in many other countries.

“Typically, low-income countries have access to surveys but not register data, and high-income countries have register data but not surveys. And in Mexico, because it is a medium-income country that invests a lot in data collection, there are data resources that simply don’t exist anywhere else.”

The project will include both quantitative and qualitative methods, and is now looking for two PhD students. Last application date is 1 October.

https://www.su.se/department-of-sociology/news/researchers-to-explore-how-violent-crime-affects-health-1.844058

13/02/2025

Swedish-born individuals with immigration background face a greater risk than the majority population of working at jobs for which they are overqualified, according to a new doctoral thesis in sociological demography. This qualification mismatch can lead to detrimental career and health outcomes for this group, says Wooseong Kim, the researcher behind the study.

While the thesis reveals that the second generation is more likely to be overqualified for their jobs, overqualification in this group does not necessarily lead to better-matched positions compared to staying unemployed. In fact, Swedish-born children of immigrants working in roles beneath their qualifications are prone to a greater risk of unemployment than those without immigration background.

This is especially the case for individuals whose parents are from non-European countries. Wooseong Kim explains that labour market discrimination has an impact on the affected person’s job searching behaviour. They widen their job search to maximise their chances of being employed, which naturally means that they apply for jobs that they are overqualified for.

“Discrimination doesn’t stop at the higher unemployment risk, but it actually affects the job searching behaviour and then it might lead to overqualification”, says Wooseong Kim.

Another finding shows that the second generation is more likely to experience decreased well-being. While the risk remains similar across all groups among the unemployed, employed individuals in the second generation are prone to poorer mental health.

Overqualification’s detrimental influence on various life outcomes is the most important contribution to the field, according to Wooseong Kim. Although he believes that it is important to examine these challenges, in his further research, he would like to explore the more positive aspects of integration – a topic that has not yet been studied in Europe.

“I think we should also give attention to the immigrant’s agencies, how they deal with the problems and what the society can learn, because integration happens from two sides. It affects both the immigrants and the destination country, and they form the new society together. If there is something to learn from the immigrant experience, then why not?”

06/02/2025

Do you want to shape the future of social research? Apply for a PhD position at the Department of Sociology and the Swedish Institute for Social Research at Stockholm University. Here you will find expertise in demography, ethnic relations and migration, gender, family sociology, political sociology, social policy regimes, social networks and social stratification. Welcome to a creative environment with a strong international research profile.

14/11/2024

AI models perform inconsistently in predicting employment. The models fail to capture the life course patterns of people who end up unemployed. This is according to a new study that utilised Finnish population data.

"This deficiency of AI models means that government organisations should be careful when using AI in social policy making", says Sanni Kuikka, PhD student in sociological demography, who conducted the study.

The study finds that AI models perform inconsistently across various groups. They are accurate in predicting the employment status of the already employed while incorrectly predicting most of the unemployed.

Additionally, the predictions varied significantly based on socioeconomic background. The outcomes for individuals with low parental education were overall more difficult to predict than the outcomes for individuals with mid or high parental education.

The study "The (Un)Predictability of Early (Un)Employment: A Machine Learning Approach" is published in Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World.

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