NEWS
New population data is now made available for research by the national infrastructure SwedPop adding further censuses and including data from the Swedish Death Index.
Text: Karin Johansson
The national infrastructure SwedPop, which brings together data from five of Sweden's most important historical population databases, has been significantly expanded. Previously, a census from 1880 was available via the extraction tool, now after intensive work three more censuses have been added: 1890, 1900 and 1910. The increase from one to four censuses means a significant strengthening of the data available to researchers on swedpop.se.
These data are of great importance in many areas of research, and it is very gratifying to be able to make them available in this way
By using the data contained in a census, researchers can see who was part of the population at a given time and have access to information about them at an individual level.
SwedPop has been further strengthened by data from the Swedish Death Index, which can provide information on all those who died in Sweden between 1832 and 2021.
– These data are of great importance in many areas of research, and it is very gratifying to be able to make them available in this way. SwedPop is a national infrastructure that aims to make data available for research, and the data we are presenting is adapted for researchers to make analyses of it. All data is therefore pseudonymized,' says Elisabeth Engberg, director of the infrastructure.
Standard codes enables uniqe data Before new data can be added and used by researchers, a lot of work is done to improve the quality of the data. Among other things, data from different databases need to be harmonised so that they can be used together. This means ensuring that everything is coded in the same way. To make this possible, the partners in SwedPop have developed standard codes that enable researchers to use data from several different Swedish databases for comparative studies. This has not previously been possible. The data that is now made available to researchers is therefore unique.
In the future, more data will be added and linked within SwedPop. In 2023, data from the Rotemannen database will be made available. The database covers the population of Stockholm between 1878-1926.
– There is a continuous effort to develop the infrastructure and increase the amount of data made available through SwedPop, says Maria Larsson, assistant head of unit, Demographic Data Base.
