Ageing, Work, and Family : The conditions and survival strategies of the older adults in 19th-century Stockholm

This dissertation investigates how the ageing process affected income, work, and family structures, and how broader economic forces shaped the living standards of older adults in 19th-century Stockholm. It situates individual life cycles within the wider context of 19th-century economic and demographic change. Through an integrated micro-historical analysis of household earnings, savings, poverty and family support, the study identifies strategies by which households tried to sustain their living standards in old age, during an era in which formal publicly funded pension provisions were absent, and kin networks and property holdings carried primary weight. The dissertation advances three key questions with respect to ageing male-headed households: What happened to living standards, income, and occupational status in old age? What roles did other household members and children play in mitigating old-age impoverishment? And to what extent could various forms of consumption smoothing be employed in later-life? These questions are considered alongside the ways in which local economic structures, the guild system, early industrialisation, income dispersion, and demographic change, shaped the outcome for ageing households. Drawing on modern panel data methods and record-linkage techniques applied to historical tax records from 19th-century Stockholm, the analysis reveals distinctive ageing trajectories. Some older adults- maintained autonomy through continued labour, while others relied on multigenerational support or were forced to turn to the wider community. The findings illuminate the interplay between ageing, family, and economic context in shaping survival strategies in pre- and early industrial urban Stockholm and underscore the importance of adopting a full life-cycle perspective which also accounts for the wider kin network when analysing historical living standards.