This is how we map “The New Single Norway” – NRK Lifestyle – Tips, advice and insight
NRK has for a long time investigated changes in our cohabitation habits. For the first time, we have now mapped singles in Norway in 40 years.
Since 1980, much has gone in the right direction in this country, but unmarried people have not taken part in the same positive development in public health as married people. What are the reasons for that?
Dear child has many names. While some say they are alone, others call themselves single or single. We have chosen to use the term single in our article.
I «The new Single-Norway» on NRK.no you meet five singles in different phases of life.
Common to all is that they represent a trend. Singelboomen. More and more of us live long periods of life alone, but no one has previously been able to give a figure on how many there are.
We therefore asked Statistics Norway to count. They landed on 1.4 million singles over 18 years.
Here you get an insight into how Statistics Norway proceeded, and the questions we have asked both professionals and singles during the research for «The new Single-Norway».
How does SSB tell single?
This is the first time that Statistics Norway has received such an assignment.
We asked them to find out how many Norwegians do not live in established conditions. Whether we live in a collective or alone. We asked for the figures from 1980 to 2020, at ten-year intervals.
We sorted the numbers by gender, age and whether we are parents. We then took into account population growth in the same period, and calculated how large proportions of each group are single.
Senior Consultant Karstein Kristiansen Sørlien at Statistics Norway explains the calculation as follows:
- We have easily separated from those who live in a relationship by means of the stated family type and marital status in the old censuses and the new register data. Then we connected to family data to see if the people in the sample were parents in the relevant years.
- In the data base, there will always be some under-coverage of children’s fathers. This caused some single men to fall into the childless category, when in reality they are parents.
- There will also be some people who have boyfriends and in reality live in relationships, but who we are unable to capture.
- This is therefore not entirely accurate, but there is as much as we can get from the available data we have from 1980 to 2020.
- Inadequate registration in the oldest age groups in 1980 can lead to weaknesses in the data.
- One source of uncertainty surrounding the data from 1980 is that the collection method was different before. In the old days, we sent out questionnaires that people filled out themselves, while we later switched to using register-based data. When the collection method changes along the way, this can naturally affect the results.
In “The New Single Norway”, gender is divided into women and men. Second gender divisions is not included in this count for Statistics Norway.
When we write that there are historically many singles, it is based on a review of numbers that can be compared. In 1980, there were approximately 700,000 singles over the age of 18 in Norway. In 2020, the figure was 1.4 million. The proportion of the adult population registered as single in 1980 was just under 24 per cent. Today it is about 33 percent.
Social change since 1980
Ola (22), Anne Berit (36), Stefan (46), Jevi (40) and Jorunn (86) live single life. They describe in the article how societal changes in these areas have affected them:
- Equality
- The parenting role
- School and education
- Labor market
- Housing market
- Fertility
- Assisted fertilization
- Cohabitation and marital breakdown
- Health services
- Dating and digitization
- Love
- Economy
When single life goes to health loose
We have used figures and reports from, among others SSB, National Institute of Public Health (FHI), University in Bergen, OsloMet and NTNU, in meetings with cases and professionals.
Øystein Kravdal is a researcher at FHI and a professor at the University of Oslo. He is one of the researchers who, based on these findings, has sounded the alarm.
At the Center for Fertility and Health at FHI, Kravdal contributes to gaining new knowledge about what the changes we see in fertility and family patterns mean for people’s health.
Among other things, his research has shown that the difference in mortality between unmarried and married people has increased sharply in the last 40 years. Kravdal points out that the marriage may have had a more protective effect due to factors related to, for example, finances, lifestyle and use of health services. At the same time, there may have been a change in who is getting married.
Kravdal’s research is closely followed by, among others, Forskning.no, which is an online newspaper for Norwegian and international research news. They have discussed his findings in the article “Unmarried people die much earlier than married people”.
In NRK’s article, we describe changes in the housing market over the last 40 years. The information is based, among other things, on reports on housing policy, the housing market and the history of the welfare state by historian Jardar Sørvoll at OsloMet.
The widow Jorunn Rasmussen (86) is worried about people’s debt level. When we write about the housing market and debt, and how this affects the singles for better or worse, it is because we know that Norwegian households are in the world top in private debt.
Jorunn Rasmussen is also concerned about the proportion of the population who are active members of political parties and trade unions gone down the last 20 years. In the last year, fewer people have also signed up volunteering. Several share her concern that it could have long-term consequences.
Mental health
The student Ola Mæle (22) talks about loneliness. National Institute of Public Health examined in 2018 students’ health and well-being at three student organizations. In the wake of the pandemic showed Students’ health and well-being survey (SHoT) This year, 45 percent of students are struggling mentally and more than half feel lonely.
During the Psychology Congress in Oslo this autumn, the theme was “exclusion and discrimination”. Studies of sex, cohabitation and loneliness in students, was presented here by, among others, researcher and professor at the Department of Psychology at NTNU, Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair.
Divorced Stefan Jonsson (46) tells in the article about his father’s alcohol problems and death. At the National Center for Suicide Research and Prevention, studies have shown that children and young people who lose their mother or father in suicide, accidents or homicide have a significant risk of having difficulty later in life.
Divorce and divorce
Figures from Statistics Norway show that divorces usually take place between 4 and 15 years of marriage. For men is divorce rate highest aged 45–49 years, while for women most are aged 40–44 years.
For the article, we asked Statistics Norway to sort the single numbers by gender, age and whether we are parents.
This is because the divorce statistics only show part of the picture in terms of marital breakdown, then fewer now marry. By telling the number of single parents with children, we get a better picture of how many are single parents.
In a meeting with the interview subjects Jevi Majid (40) and Stefan Jonsson (46), we have discussed how the family dynamics one grows up in affect us.
The National Institute of Public Health has in surveys revealed at Divorced children are at greater risk of divorce than couples who have married parents.
A breakup is a turning point, for better or worse, that can present both emotional and practical challenges. Stefan and Jevi talk about the collaboration with their former spouses around child distribution because many struggle with this. About a third of the cases that go to the country’s district courts concern children and young people. These are often child distribution cases.
We have talked to a number of couple and family therapists about today’s parental roles in the wake of gender equality, and about marital breakdown and child distribution. We have also put on the mistakes that break the love and how to best handle a divorce, with both adults and children in mind.
Psychologists Sissel Gran and Catrin Sagen, known from NRK’s podcast series on marital breakdown «Accident Investigation Board Norway», Has been central in this part of the work.
Childlessness as a societal problem
Anne Berit Sørensen (36) talks about life as an involuntarily single and childless person, and difficulties in getting pregnant through assisted reproduction.
Statistics Norway has pointed out at fertility continues to decline. This is a trend that has been going on for several years.
Norway has extensive data on the population. Associate Professor Astrid Louise Grasdal and Professor Kjell Erik Lommerud at the Department of Economics at the University of Bergen have used this data to examine developments. They point out that few people choose a life without children, and that we can thus have to do with a societal problem.
Statistics Norway has pointed out the connection between cohabitation stories and infertility. They also ask the question «I rather than us?».
To NRK, Associate Professor Thorgeir Kolshus at OsloMet and Per Magnus, Director of the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) have previously commented on how the increase in childless people, and they are further researching this. NRK has also previously written about involuntary single and childless men.
At the same time, more people are now researching the consequences for their health of living a life without their own children. We have discussed this development with, among others, Thorgeir Kolshus, Per Magnus and adviser Espen Andersen in Statistics Norway’s section for population statistics.
Assisted conception and single mothers
Anne Berit Sørensen has been trying to become a single mother since 2017.
In 2004, the Biotechnology Act came into force. On July 1, 2020, the law was amended so that too single women can be offered assisted reproduction in Norway. This has been available for singles in Denmark since 2007.
Anne Berit Sørensen was told at one point that she needed a so-called double donation to get pregnant. That is, both donor eggs and donor sperm. January 1, 2021 was egg donation allowed in Norway, but not to single women because double donation is not allowed.
Lone Schmidt is an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen, at the Department of Social Medicine, Department of Public Health Sciences. For 20 years she has researched involuntary infertility and fertility treatment.
Among other things, Schmidt points out surveys that show that 90 percent of single women seeking assisted reproduction in Denmark, had preferred to start a family in the traditional way. Furthermore, two out of three women had been in a relationship, where they wanted children with their partner. But some of the partners had children in advance and did not want more.
In working on the article, we have talked to a number of players in fertility counseling in Norway. «Desired children» is a Norwegian interest organization that focuses on involuntary infertility.
Family therapist Tone Bråten specializes in involuntary infertility and runs Fertility Aid, which works closely with Klinikk Hausken. Fertility advisor Katinka Thors is a solo mother advisor, educator and course leader.
They all confirm that the demand for single women has increased significantly after the change in the law. There are also increasingly younger women who make contact.
Tone Bråten confirms that the financial situation rarely gets in the way of the women who make contact, despite the process of assisted reproduction is costly.