About Swedpop
SwedPop is a national research infrastructure with harmonized individual-level, life-course, cross-sectional and panel data, covering large populations and a variety of social and geographical settings over long time periods. Data in SwedPop covers large parts of the Swedish 19th and 20th century population, including the largest cities Stockholm and Gothenburg, with a large number of demographic and socio-economic variables. Fully developed the infrastructure will offer access to linked life-course data for c. 3.5 million individuals from the 17th to the 20th centuries in selected regions, full-count national censuses and death records from 1860-2019.
Data is collected from five of the most important historical population databases in Sweden: POPUM-POPLINK at the Demographic Data Base, Umeå University, SEDD at the Centre for Economic Demography, Lund University, SweCens at the Swedish National Archives, the Stockholm Roteman database at Stockholm City Archives and the Gothenburg Population Panel (GOPP) developed at the Department for Economy and Society, Gothenburg University.
SwedPop is developed with support from the Swedish Research Council (VR), Umeå, Lund and Gothenburg Universities, the Swedish National Archives and Stockholm City Archives. The coordination and harmonization of data in SwedPop has significant benefits for research: It improves the quality and comparability of the data, increases the spatial coverage, creates new prospects of longitudinal and multigenerational research, and bridges the gap between historical and modern population registers.
Here you find Verksamhetsplaner from 2024-2018
Verksamhetsplan 2024
Verksamhetsplan 2023
Verksamhetsplan 2022
Verksamhetsplan 2021
Verksamhetsplan 2020
Verksamhetsplan 2019
Verksamhetsplan 2018
Here you find Verksamhetsberättelser from 2021-2018
Verksamhetsberättelse 2021
Verksamhetsberättelse 2020
Verksamhetsberättelse 2019
Verksamhetsberättelse 2018
Organisation
The SwedPop research infrastructure is supported by a consortium of five organisations: Umeå University (UmU), Lund University (LU), Gothenburg University (GU), the Swedish National Archives (RA) and the Stockholm City Archive (SSA), with UmU as the administrating organisation. UmU is also the host and coordinator of the infrastructure. The terms of the collaboration and the responsibilities of the parts are set out in a joint consortium agreement (CEDAR-5.B1-26-18).
Governing board
SwedPop is managed by a national governing board, in which each part in the consortium is represented. The board is appointed by the administrating organisation for a period of 5 years, in joint consultation with the consortium partners and the Swedish Research Council. The governing board is responsible for strategic decisions regarding budget, organisation, policies and development of the infrastructure. It convenes at least two times a year and is chaired by the administrating organisation, Umeå University.
Operational board
The operative work in SwedPop is managed by an operational boardwith experienced and scientific competent experts from each partner of the consortium. It is appointed by the governing board for a period of five years. The operational board constitutes the scientific leadership of the infrastructure and organizes and supervises the operative work, ensuring that standards, tools and databases are developed according to best practice and with high scientific quality.
SwedPop Governing Board
Professor Dieter Müller, Umeå University, chair
Professor Susanna Fellman, Gothenburg University
Head of Department Pauline Tjergefors, National Archives
Head of Department Gabriel Maragweh, Stockholms stadsarkiv
Associate Professor Therese Nilsson, Lunds University
SwedPop Operational Board
PhD Elisabeth Engberg, director CEDAR/DDB, chair
Professor Christer Lundh, director GOPP
Head of Development Johan Gidlöf, manager Rotemansdatabasen
Professor Martin Dribe, director SEDD
Product Manager Anders Nordström, director SweCens
Head of Section Mats Berggren, manager SweCens
Members
Centre for Demographic and Ageing Research- Demographic Data Base, Umeå University
The Centre for Demographic and Ageing Research (CEDAR) is a multidisciplinary research centre at Umeå University, and the home of the Demographic Data Base (DDB). The centre was a Swedish pioneer in using the Swedish historical population registers for database construction, and has since 1973 been committed to building longitudinal databases and disseminating data for research and has a vast experience of database construction, data processing and software design.
CEDAR includes more than 30 scholars from the fields of history, economic history, social work, statistics, sociology, geography and epidemiology, studying demography and ageing mainly from a multidisciplinary perspective. In 2005-2009 the centre was awarded a Strong Research Environment Excellence Grant, focused on research on large databases, and 2006-2015 it was a Linnaeaus Centre of Excellence. Both excellence grants were funded by the Swedish Research Council and Umeå University.
The databases POPUM, POPLINK and TABVERK are open to academic researchers nationally and internationally, regardless of affiliation and there are established routines for user support and service. CEDAR is part of the faculty of Social Sciences at Umeå University. Long-term management and scientific development are supervised by a selected board, nominated by the faculties, the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish National Archives.
For more information about DDB: https://ehps-net.eu/article/database-future-major-contributions-47-years-database-development-and-research-demographic/2020_edvinssonengberg.pdf
Centre for Economic Demography, Lund University (CED)
Director: Professor Martin Dribe
CED includes more than 40 scholars active in the fields of economics, social sciences, and medicine who are involved in research on economic and social issues connected to demography, from modern as well as historic aspects and with international comparative perspectives. 2006-2016 CED was a Linnaeus Centre of Excellence funded by the Swedish Research Council and Lund University. CED manages two major individual-level longitudinal databases including the Scanian Economic Demographic Database (SEDD). CED is administered by the Department of Economic History at the Lund University School of Economics and Management.
The National Archives
The Swedish National Archives is the official archival institution for the Swedish government and its public authorities. Its main task is to preserve and ensure future access to information in a manner which guarantees content, context and authenticity. In accordance with Swedish law, most documents are available to the public.
The archive holdings – in 2020 amounting to approximately 738 shelf kilometers – consist mainly of paper documents, but it also includes large collections of parchment, maps, drawings and audiovisual collections. The digital media collection consists, among other things, of 215 million digitally stored images. The amount of documents is increasing continuously as new documents are delivered by the Cabinet Office and other central agencies. In addition, the National Archives stores personal archives, as well as archives of associations and companies.
As such, the National Archives is a key player in the national research infrastructure. Academic research is increasingly using digital tools for analysis. This means that researchers need access to the National Archives material in novel ways. Since 2017, the National Archives prioritizes digital accessibility and digital information infrastructures in its research program.
Stockholm City Archives
The Stockholm City Archives has been the municipal archive for the city since the middle ages. In 1930 it became the regional archive for Stockholm with the Swedish National Archives organization. Today, state records, including church and tax records, make up about half of the holdings. The City Archives also keeps records from associations, corporations and private individuals. In total, almost 100 km of documents and millions of drawings and maps are stored and made accessible to about 50.000 visitors a year, as well as hundreds of thousands of web users.
The Stockholm City Archives has been actively cooperating with the scientific community since the 1970s, mainly in the history, economic history and human geography fields. A number of largescale digitizing, transcription and indexing projects have been undertaken, for scientific purposes as well as for improving public access to the archives, first and foremost the Roteman database. In recent years the scope has widened to include new methods for web publishing, text and image recognition, digitization of large objects and participation in infrastructure projects like SwedPop.
Unit for Economic History, Department of Economy and Society, University of Gothenburg
Head of Unit: Professor Susanna Fellman