Same-Sex Marriage in Sweden 1995-2021: A Research Note on Changing Patterns in Gender, Parenthood, and Socioeconomic Composition

Same-sex marriages have become an increasingly large share of all marriages in many high-income countries, but little is known about how their prevalence and sociodemographic composition have changed over time. Using administrative data from Swedish population registers covering 27 years since same-sex unions were legalized, this research note found that same-sex union formation increased fourfold over 20 years following legalization, outpacing different-sex union formation. After 2016, the decline in same-sex marriages mirrored that among different-sex marriages. We show that the characteristics of people entering same-sex marriages have become increasingly similar over time to those entering different-sex marriages with respect to age, parenthood, and residential and socioeconomic patterns. This convergence is particularly marked for women entering same-sex unions, and we argue that increasingly liberal policies related to parenthood for lesbian women may explain this pattern. Same-sex marriages between men were relatively rarer by the end of our study period, and several of their sociodemographic characteristics were distinct from those of other people entering marriage. Future research should consider how gender, childrearing, and current and future policies around same-sex parenthood are stratifying the experience of entry into same-sex marriage.