Illegitimacy in Sweden and Australia: 1911-1974

"Despite the long standing interest in illegitimacy as well as the importance of its consequences, and the concern which the post war upturn has generated, researchers know surprisingly little about the social, economic, demographic, and cultural factors that influence temporal variation in illegitimacy. By using annual time series data for Sweden and Australia, [the authors] examine trends in and levels of illegitimacy over a sixty year period and assess the impact of various social, economic, demographic, and cultural factors on change in illegitimacy rates. [The] primary focus is the extent to which cultural differences between Australia and Sweden explain differences in illegitimacy and the effects of particular economic, demographic, and social factors. "Sweden and Australia have both reported the annual number of illegitimate births and bridal pregnancies since 1911. These are the longest annual time series available for these two measures. The Australian and Swedish data have never been subjected to statistical analyses which test assumptions about similarities and differences in causes of trends and fluctuations in illegitimacy across these two nations."