Household overcrowding in Stockholm
A study of its spatial distribution and associations with socio-economic, demographic and housing characteristics at a small-scale neighborhood level
Sanna Falk
Department of Human Geography Master’s Degree 30 HE credits
Master’s Programme in Urban and Regional Planning Spring term 2021
Supervisor: Karen Haandrikman
Falk, Sanna (2021)
Household overcrowding in Stockholm: a study of its spatial distribution and associations with socio-economic, demographic and housing characteristics at a small-scale
neighborhood level
Urban and Regional Planning, advanced level, master thesis for master exam in Urban and Regional Planning, 30 ECTS
Supervisor: Karen Haandrikman Language: English
Key words: Household overcrowding, neighborhood characteristics, cluster analysis, segregation, housing policy, urban planning, Stockholm.
Abstract
Existing studies of household overcrowding in Sweden are often descriptive and examine patterns at a large scale. Levels of overcrowding have increased since the mid-1980s and the highest shares are found in the largest cities among residents with a low income, a migration background, living in rental apartments, and often with children. The aim of this thesis is to increase the understanding of the measurements of household overcrowding, its development over time, its spatial patterns and its determinants at a small-scale neighborhood level with application to the City of Stockholm. It examines how the associations between
overcrowding and other neighborhood characteristics can be understood in different
neighborhood settings and what the implications are of using different scales and definitions of overcrowding. Cluster, correlation and regression analyses have been conducted using administrative data aggregated to key code areas and city districts. The results demonstrate that there are two types of overcrowding within the City of Stockholm, which are spatially separated and associated differently with socio-economic, demographic and housing
characteristics of neighborhoods. It is suggested that explanatory segregation theories related
to preference and economic and discriminatory structures are needed to understand the
uneven spatial distribution of overcrowding in the City of Stockholm.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my supervisor Karen, for being so supportive and for guiding me
throughout the process of writing this thesis. I would also like to thank the City of Stockholm
and Sweco for providing me with all the data used for the research.
Contents
1. Introduction ... 4
2. Background ... 6
2.1 Overcrowding in an international context ... 6
2.2 Overcrowding in a Swedish context ... 7
2.3 Overcrowding and urban planning ... 8
2.4 The inconsistency of overcrowding definitions in policy and research ... 11
3. Theoretical perspectives and previous studies ...12
3.1 The effects of household overcrowding ... 12
3.2 The associations between overcrowding and socio-economic, demographic and housing characteristics ... 13
3.3 The spatial variance of overcrowding ... 14
3.4 Socio-economic, ethnic and housing segregation in Stockholm ... 16
3.5 Measuring segregation at different scales ... 19
4. Hypotheses ...20
5. Methodology, methods and data ...21
5.1 Research design and methodological approach ... 21
5.2 Geographical scale ... 22
5.3 Data ... 24
5.4 Methods of analysis ... 27
5.5 Reliability and validity ... 30
5.6 Limitations ... 31
5.7 Ethical considerations ... 32
6. Results and analysis ...32
6.1 Household overcrowding over time ... 33
6.2 The spatial distribution of overcrowding ... 36
6.3 The formation of neighborhood clusters ... 38
6.4 Correlation analyses ... 42
6.5 Regression analyses ... 44
7. Discussion ...48
7.1 The importance of scale ... 49
7.2 The importance of overcrowding definition ... 50
7.3 The importance of neighborhood composition ... 51
7.4 The relation between overcrowding and segregation ... 56
8. Conclusions...58
List of references ...60
Appendix 1 ...65
1. Introduction
Almost a year into the Covid-19 pandemic, Sweden appears to have been more severely affected by the disease compared to the other Nordic countries. Both mortality rates and number of infected cases are higher in Sweden compared with its neighboring countries. The Public Health Agency in Sweden has stated that the high shares of household overcrowding in Sweden compared with the other countries may be one underlying factor explaining these differences partially (Yohannes 2021). Early into the pandemic, both the Public Health Authority and the media reported on the connection between high mortality rates of Covid-19 and living in socio-economic disadvantaged areas. The high share of overcrowding in such areas was pointed out to be one out of the risk factors (Blomdahl 2020; Kerpner 2020).
Thereby, the Covid-19 pandemic has intensified the public debate on both segregation and the high shares of overcrowding in Sweden.
Household overcrowding can be defined as a lack of housing space in relation to the size of the household. There are different definitions of what counts as a lack of space, and these definitions are used inconsistently within both research and policymaking. According to the two most common definitions, overcrowding has increased in Sweden since the mid-1980s (The National Audit Office 2019) and the highest shares of overcrowding are found in the largest cities, particularly in the Stockholm region (The National Audit Office 2019; The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2016). A lack of sufficient living space has been associated to negative health effects, both in relation to Covid-19 (Brandén et al. 2020; Raisi-Estabragh et al. 2020) but also to other physical health issues (Nkosi et al.
2019). In addition, it has been found to negatively impact residents’ mental health (Evans et al. 2002; Popoola 1999) and children’s school results (Contreras et al. 2019). Therefore, overcrowding is a matter of the right to adequate housing (WHO 2018).
In Sweden, it is the responsibility of the municipalities to ensure that citizens have the prerequisites to live in adequate dwellings (law 2000:1383, The Swedish Parliament 2020).
The municipal guidelines for physical planning “shall be based on an analysis of the demographic development, the housing demand, the housing need for certain groups and market conditions” (The Swedish Parliament 2020, second paragraph, my translation).
Therefore, household overcrowding is one of the indicators when calculating the future housing needs in the City of Stockholm (Karlsson et al. 2020). Furthermore, in the most recent City plan for Stockholm, in which the overall goals of urban development and planning are formulated, overcrowding is pointed out as a growing problem which
specifically affects socio-economically vulnerable groups. Proposed preventative solutions are to construct housing of different sizes and tenure types (Stockholm city plan, 2018). In addition, the development of household overcrowding has been chosen as the indicator of Stockholm’s implementation of the 11th global Sustainable Development Goal which focuses on sustainable cities (Hållbarhetsrapport 2021).
Despite the intensified public debate on overcrowding and the goal for the City of Stockholm to decrease household overcrowding, little is known about how it is associated with socio- economic, demographic and housing characteristics. Studies have found that there are clear segregation patterns in Stockholm, based on income (Andersson & Kährik 2016; Malmberg et al. 2016; Haandrikman et al. 2020) and ethnic background (Andersson & Kährik 2016;
Andersson et al. 2020b; Malmberg & Clark 2020). But it is unexplored how overcrowding
can be understood in relation to these patterns.
Most studies on overcrowding have been descriptive and based on quite large-scale areas. It has been found that certain population groups are overrepresented within the statistics on overcrowding, such as residents with a migration background (The National Audit Office 2019; The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2016; Myers et al.
1996), low-income households (The National Audit Office 2019; The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2016; Myers et al. 1996) and single parents
(Karlsson et al. 2020; The National Audit Office 2019). Due to the descriptive and large-scale focus of these studies, they might conceal small-scale dynamics, local variations, and how possible determinants may influence each other in their associations with overcrowding.
From the limited literature examining overcrowding at a smaller scale level, there are indications of a divided distribution pattern of overcrowding within the City of Stockholm.
One report found high shares both in suburban areas with low median incomes and in inner- city areas with high median incomes (The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2016). Another small-scale study of two spatially separated areas in Stockholm with high shares of overcrowding, found that overcrowded residents had different socio-economic, demographic and housing characteristics, depending on the area (Ekstam 2015). The
conclusion was that there exist a ‘distressed overcrowding’ and ‘gentrified overcrowding’.
Whether these findings are valid and can be scaled up to include all areas of Stockholm is yet to be explored.
Based on the identified gaps in previous research on household overcrowding, the aim of this thesis is to increase the understanding of the measurements of household overcrowding, its development over time, its spatial patterns and its determinants at a small-scale neighborhood level with application to the City of Stockholm. This will be done using administrative data on the share of overcrowding according to three definitions, as well as socio-economic, demographic and housing characteristics at neighborhood level. The following research questions will be examined:
1. What are the implications of using different scales and definitions of overcrowding for understanding the development of overcrowding over time, its spatial distribution, as well as how it is associated with neighborhood socio-economic, demographic and housing characteristics?
2. In which way does the spatial distribution of overcrowding, and its associations with other neighborhood characteristics, depend on neighborhood composition?
3. In which way can overcrowding in Stockholm be understood through explanatory theories of segregation?
I will thereby contribute to the literature by (I) examining small-scale dynamics related to overcrowding within different geographical divisions for the City of Stockholm; (II) testing the results from previous small-scale studies for a large number of areas in the City of
Stockholm; (III) examining how well the determinants that previous studies using descriptive statistics have found to be connected with overcrowding performs as determinants of
overcrowding in multivariate analyses; and (IV) comparing the three most commonly used measurements of overcrowding.
The thesis starts with a background which places overcrowding both in the international and
the Swedish context and relates the topic to physical planning. I also describe the various
definitions of overcrowding and reflect upon the inconsistency of the usage of these definitions in policy and research. This is followed by a section of previous research on overcrowding related to its effects, how it has been associated with different population groups and its spatial variance. Previous research on, and explanatory theories of, residential and housing segregation are also outlined. Based on these sections, I formulate my
hypotheses and then turn to describing my methodology, research design and methods.
Finally, the results of the thesis are presented and interpreted. In the discussion, I answer the research questions based on the hypotheses and thereby relate the findings back to previous research on overcrowding and the explanatory theories of segregation. In the conclusion I summarize my findings, reflect upon the contributions of the thesis and make some suggestions for further research on the topic of overcrowding.
2. Background
This section focuses on describing how household overcrowding can be placed and interpreted in the international and the Swedish context. The development of different definitions is outlined from a historical and discursive perspective. This is related to their practical application in planning and policy. The definitions are then summarized to provide an overview of how overcrowding is understood and used differently. This will be of value before turning to the section on previous research since there is not one agreed upon definition used in the literature.
2.1 Overcrowding in an international context
The right to adequate housing for the well-being and health of all people is one of the human rights, expressed in article 25.1 (UN 1948). The World Health Organization (WHO) has pointed out access to sufficient living space as one key factor to avoid certain negative health effects associated with inadequate housing such as respiratory infectious diseases,
gastroenteritis, diarrheal diseases, other infectious diseases and mental health (WHO 2018).
Globally, the topic of adequate housing has been connected to rapid urbanization. With an increased concentration of people in cities, the access to adequate living space risks to decrease. This arguably puts high pressure on the planning and construction sector.
Furthermore, adequate housing has been integrated into the global debate of how to develop sustainable cities. In 2015, the countries in the United Nations agreed upon 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The first target of the 11th goal on sustainable cities is to “by 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums” (United Nations 2015: 24). This raises the question of what defines ‘adequate housing’. In a synthesis report of this SDG goal, eight evaluation criteria are presented to define and monitor adequate housing internationally. Among other criteria, one is: “sufficient living area, overcrowding” (UN-Habitat 2018: 40). Thus, household overcrowding is one way to understand what ‘adequate housing’ means in practice. It is also stressed that overcrowding is an issue for health and well-being independently of a country’s economic status (WHO 2018). Therefore, it can be concluded that the position of the international community is that all people in the world ought to have enough living space to be able to live a healthy life.
To implement the SDGs, each country has the responsibility to adapt the goals to local needs
and conditions. In Sweden, one out of the three indicators for the SDG goal on sustainable
cities is the share of household overcrowding (The Swedish Association of Local Authorities
and Regions 2021). Further, for Stockholm municipality, household overcrowding is the only
indicator for the evaluation of the SDG goal of sustainable cities (Hållbarhetsrapport 2021).
In this way, the global goal to ensure adequate housing for all has trickled down to the
municipal level in Stockholm. However, the importance of overcrowding for housing policies in Sweden has its own historical roots. This will be developed upon in the next section.
2.2 Overcrowding in a Swedish context
As described above, overcrowding is directly connected to adequate housing and good living conditions. This section will describe how overcrowding can be understood in the Swedish context and how it is connected to the development of the Swedish welfare state and contemporary urban planning policies.
Consistent with the international context, the issue of overcrowding in Sweden has been related to rapid urbanization, which increased substantially in the beginning of the 20th century. This process motivated the first population- and housing census in Sweden, which was carried out between 1912 and 1914. The results indicated that the housing conditions in Sweden were among the worst in Europe and that household overcrowding was common. At the same time, there birth rates were low which in public debates was connected to the deficient housing standards. Thereby, the issue of poor housing conditions and household overcrowding was no longer viewed merely as personal problems, but became of importance for the development of the country (Ekstam 2013; The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2016). This spurred the transition of the housing conditions from the private sphere to the political arena in which overcrowding became part of the new housing policies created to improve the living conditions. During the 20th century, three norms which define overcrowding have been developed and politically adopted. It has been argued that these norms can be interpreted as welfare goals since they have had a significant impact on the development of the Swedish housing stock (Ekstam 2013).
The three overcrowding norms defined a minimum of what was considered to be a good living standard at the time they were implemented. Households which did not fulfill the requirements of the norms were considered to be overcrowded. The first overcrowding norm was part of various political measures in the first part of the 20th century aimed to improve the housing standards in Sweden. Based on these political measures, a proposition was formulated in 1946 which stated that within a household, maximum two people could share one bedroom and the household should also have a separate kitchen. A separate living room was not considered necessary at this time. The second overcrowding norm was officially implemented in 1967 and like the first norm, it states that no more than two people should need to share a bedroom. In addition, the household should have a kitchen as well as a living room. The third overcrowding norm was first formulated in 1975. According to this
definition, each individual within the household, including children, should have a separate bedroom. The exception is partners, who are expected to share a bedroom. In addition, the household should include a living room and a kitchen. The third norm is the last norm which has been officially decided upon in Sweden (Ekstam 2013, The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2016). The norms are summarized in table 1 below.
The changing definitions of the norms can be understood to reflect both the changing political
discourse as well as the view on how much space that was considered to be a minimum for an
adequate living. The first norm was the result of various political measures sprung out of the
first population and housing census in the beginning of the century. Larger and better living
spaces were thought to enable better conditions for family life. Thereby the norm would
contribute to the goal of increased birth rates in Sweden (Ekstam 2013). It was also thought to combat the spreading of certain diseases, prostitution, incest and alcoholism (The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2016). The second norm was motivated by a perception that the population had started to demand larger living spaces, which at this time was lacking within the housing stock. Thus, the negative effects of overcrowding were no longer at the center of the discourse, but rather the housing need based on demand
(Ekstam 2013). The second standard was formulated in the beginning of the Million program and thus influenced the standards of the large construction of housing during this period of time (The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2016).
In 1975, just when the Million program finished, the third overcrowding norm was formulated. At this time, the increasing segregation and unequal access to good housing conditions were at the center of the political discourse. Both financial constraints of the lower income groups and the uneven distribution of housing where smaller households (especially elderly without children) occupied large-sized housing while larger households resided in smaller-sized housing, were used as explanations. Consequently, to construct larger dwellings was not perceived to be a viable solution of overcrowding. Instead, housing allowances were introduced to enable low-income groups to demand larger dwellings. However, the third norm was much debated since it was first formulated. The first point of view was that access to sufficient living space was a universal need and a social right. Therefore, the third norm was perceived as a mean to improve the general welfare. The second perspective was that the norm was too normative and would pose as an obstacle for the freedom of the individual to choose how to live and spend her money (Ekstam 2013).
In conclusion, the overcrowding norms have fulfilled different purposes. From being part of a solution to low population growth and health problems (norm 1) to fulfilling citizens’
demands (norm 2) to being understood as a social right and a way to combat segregation (norm 3). Throughout all definitions, however, the belief is that living in a household with sufficient space is important for the well-being of its residents and therefore it has been an important cornerstone within housing policy and the Swedish welfare project.
2.3 Overcrowding and urban planning
Whereas the first and the second norm effectively had an impact on the construction of housing, the impact of the third norm has been argued to be vaguer (The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2016). In practice, the norm was supposed to fulfill two main purposes. First, as a selection criterion for housing allowances and second, as a basis for assessing the housing need and supply, as well as the provision of rental apartments (The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2016). Regarding housing allowances, the National Board of Health and Welfare is responsible. However, today they do not use norm 3 as a basis for their eligibility decisions. Instead, they have developed their own definition of overcrowding. Compared with norm 3, this definition is more restrictive of how much living space that is considered to be needed. Adults ought to have separate
bedrooms (excluding couples) but two children do not need separate bedrooms. However,
“with increasing age and personal integrity, children should not need to share bedrooms” (the
National Board of Health and Welfare 2013, my translation). Furthermore, a threshold of the
apartment size in square meters is added in addition to the persons-per-room definition. This
definition appears to be an adaptation of the one used within the EU definition. The EU norm
differs in that it specifies an age limitation and that it depends on the genders of the children
in the household: two children under the age of 12 can share a bedroom notwithstanding their
gender. However, children of different genders aged 12 or older need separate bedrooms while children of the same gender can share one bedroom until the age of 18 (Eurostat 2014).
The second purpose of the third norm was to function as a basis for assessing the housing supply and provision of rentals. Regarding the provision of rentals, the housing agencies base their subletting of apartments on a queuing system. It is unclear if, or to what extent, the norm is applied as an additional criterion (The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2016). The housing supply is interconnected with the physical urban planning, which is the responsibility of the municipalities in Sweden. They have the decision-making mandate. The role of national and regional agencies is to provide guidelines and to ascertain that national and regional interests are included in the municipal physical planning. One influential actor at the national level is The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning. Their role is to provide guidelines and to produce and distribute knowledge regarding urban and regional planning, construction and housing. In their latest report on the housing shortage in Sweden, it is not the third overcrowding norm which is used, but the one formulated by The National Board of Health and Welfare. However, in addition, they specify the age limit of children that need separate rooms to the age of 12 – the same limit as defined by the EU (The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2020).
At the municipal level, the focus of the urban development and city planning is described in a city plan (översiktsplan). This plan formulates the overall goals of urban planning and
specifies how it will comply with national, regional and local interests as well as how it will contribute to a sustainable development of the municipality. The city plans are not binding.
Instead, there are detailed development plans (detaljplaner) which legally regulate the
development of the physical land use (The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2019). In the Stockholm city plan, overcrowding is indeed mentioned as a growing problem which specifically affects socio-economically vulnerable groups. The plan relates the high shares of overcrowding to an imbalance between the influx of people and the construction of new housing. Therefore, the solution presented in the plan is to construct more housing of different sizes and different tenure types. It is also mentioned that public spaces are of great importance in areas with high shares of overcrowding (Stockholm city plan, 2018). Furthermore, overcrowding is one of the variables which are included in the forecast of the city’s housing needs. The calculations are based on three definitions of overcrowding; norm 2, norm 3 and the EU norm (Karlsson et al. 2020). In addition, the third overcrowding norm is the indicator used to measure the progress of the 11th Agenda 2030 goal of developing sustainable cities. In the report, connections are made both to the housing shortage in the city, socio-economic segregation, and the negative effects of living in
overcrowded households (Hållbarhetsrapport 2021). Thus, the third overcrowding norm appears to be the most frequently used one within the urban planning sector in Stockholm.
Below is a summary of the overcrowding definitions described in this section. Note that they
define households that do not fulfill the requirements in the description as overcrowded. The
table also describes which definition has been used by each research and policy reference
within the Swedish context that figure in this thesis.
Table 1. Definitions of household overcrowding.
Label Description Year of origin Research and policies Norm 1 Maximum two persons per room. In
addition, the household has a kitchen.
1946
Norm 2 Maximum two persons per bedroom.
Additionally, the household has a separate kitchen and living room.
1967 ✓ The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (2016)
✓ “Extreme overcrowding” according to The National Audit Office (2019)
✓ The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (2021)
✓ Popoola (1999) Adjusted
norm 2
Adjustment: one-person households living in a one-room apartment are not considered to be overcrowded.
2012 (earliest numbers in the database)
✓ Karlsson et al. (2020)
Norm 3 Maximum one person per bedroom, besides married and/or registered couples that can share. Additionally, the household has a separate kitchen and living room.
1975 ✓ The National Audit Office (2019)
✓ The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (2021)
✓ Hållbarhetsrapport (2020)
✓ Ekstam (2015)
Adjusted norm 3
Adjustment: one-person households living in a one-room apartment are not considered to be overcrowded.
2012 (earliest numbers in the database)
✓ Karlsson et al. (2020)
EU norm Maximum one person per bedroom for those over the age of 18, besides married and/or registered couples that can share. Children below the age of 12 can share bedrooms. Children between the age 12 and 18 can share bedrooms if they are of the same gender. If they are of different genders, they need separate bedrooms. Additionally, the household has a separate kitchen and living room.
2011 (earliest numbers in the database)
✓ Eurostat (2014)
Adjusted EU norm (1)
Adjustment: no difference is made based on the gender of the children. All children over the age of 12 are
considered to need a separate bedroom.
2013 (latest version of The National Board of Health and Welfares guidelines)
✓ Karlsson et al. (2020)
✓ The National Board of Health and Welfare (2013)
Adjusted EU norm (2)
Adjustment: no difference is made based on the gender of the children. All children over the age of 12 are
considered to need a separate bedroom.
Inclusion of the indicator “less than 20 sqm/person” when lacking information on numbers of rooms.
2020 ✓ The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (2020)
2.4 The inconsistency of overcrowding definitions in policy and research
The previous section has provided insights of the various definitions of overcrowding. It is clear that there is an inconsistency both within policy and research of which definitions of overcrowding that are used. There are at least three norms that are still prevailing in the Swedish debate and research of overcrowding. The third norm is the latest official definition of overcrowding. This norm is indeed used in certain policy documents and reports
(Hållbarhetsrapporten 2020; Karlsson et. al 2020; the National Audit Office 2019). However, at a national level, definitions that are used are more in line with the EU norm (National Board of Health and Welfare 2013; National Board of Housing Building and Planning 2020).
In addition to these definitions, the second overcrowding norm, from 1967, is still present in various reports (The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2016;
Karlsson et al. 2020; the National Audit Office 2019). In the National Audit Office’s (2019) investigation of the effects of household overcrowding, the second norm is labeled “extreme overcrowding” with a reference to how Statistics Sweden defines a more extreme type of overcrowding. In the report from the National Board of Housing Building and Planning (2016) the usage of norm 2 instead of norm 3 is motivated by addressing critique directed towards the third norm: (I) it intervenes too much in people’s private lives; (II) it classifies one-person households living in studio apartments as being overcrowded without
acknowledging the high demand on small apartments; (III) it requires children to have their own rooms which is not considered necessary among many people; (IV) it is based on
assumptions of the relationships between members of households. Since these are not always identifiable in the register data, there is a risk for miscalculations. Norm 2 on the other hand, only calculates numbers of people per room, so knowledge of the relationships between the residents are not required (The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2016). The inconsistency of the usage of the overcrowding definitions, and the lack of clarity of how norm 3 fulfills its original purposes, has led the National Audit Office (2019) to the conclusion that the norm needs to be revised. The government has responded that it agrees in that the formulation and application of the norm needs to be revised (Skr 2019/20:4).
So, the pressing question is which definition of overcrowding best reflects the situation of overcrowding in Sweden? As has been described, it appears that there is an ongoing shift towards using adaptations of the EU definition. The appropriateness to use this definition as an indicator of overcrowding has been researched through comparing it with a subjective indicator measuring the extent to which residents perceive they have a shortage of living space. For Sweden, it appears that the EU definition indeed aligns well with the perceived shortage of space. Both indicators resulted in around 12-13% of overcrowding in 2011 (Sunega & Lux 2016). Thus, it appears that the EU definition of overcrowding is suitable for measuring overcrowding in Sweden. The second norm, on the other hand, may be suitable to measure extreme overcrowding whereas the third norm would reflect the official levels of overcrowding in Sweden.
The background section has shown the complexity of how overcrowding is defined and
which problems that are associated with overcrowding. An inconsistency of how the
definitions are used has been identified. This arguably has implications for research on the
topic. Since different definitions are used, it becomes more complicated to compare results
between different studies. However, there is an overall preference for using adaptations of
the EU definition and the second norm over the official third norm. A shift towards this
definition is arguably legitimized based on that it aligns with the perception of overcrowding.
3. Theoretical perspectives and previous studies
This section will review previous studies on overcrowding and outline some theoretical perspectives. It starts with an overview of studies focusing on the effects of living in
overcrowded households and proceeds with how overcrowding has been connected to certain socio-economic, demographic and housing characteristics. The chapter continues with a section on how overcrowding varies spatially. Further, the topic of overcrowding will be put into the context of socio-economic, ethnic, and housing segregation since similar spatial patterns are found. The last section will therefore present previous studies of segregation in Stockholm as well as the main theories of why segregation occurs.
3.1 The effects of household overcrowding
One stream of research on overcrowding focuses on the effects of living in such households.
This type of research is conducted mainly within the field of medicine and environmental psychology and generally focuses on the impacts on school results, physical health and mental health. For example, Contreras et al. (2019) studied the impact of overcrowding on children's academic performances in Latin America. Overcrowding was found to have a negative effect on school results, and even exceeded the negative impacts of other variables such as parental education, household assets and school factors. The study suggested that the negative impact of overcrowding on school results was higher for older children than for younger ones. Another study conducted in France found that the probability of being held back one year in school increased significantly with the number of persons per room in the household, while family size or socio-economic status did not matter (Goux & Maurin 2004).
Regarding the effects of overcrowding on mental health, one study from Austria found that not only did overcrowding have a negative impact on mental health, but also the housing type was an important factor. Children living in overcrowded households in multiple-family housing had worse mental health compared to children living in single-family detached homes or row houses (Evans et al. 2002). Overcrowding has also been found to have a negative impact on physical health. Nkosi et al.’s (2019) study of overcrowding in
Johannesburg found that living in overcrowded households was associated with higher levels of acute respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms and fever. Another study found that overcrowding was an independent risk factor for severe Covid-19 infections among Black, Asian and minority ethnic populations in the United Kingdom, which overall had a greater risk of severe Covid-19 (Raisi-Estabragh et al. 2020). Furthermore, a study on Covid-19 mortality among elderly people in Sweden found that the deaths per 1000 inhabitants increased along with a decrease in living space. For persons living in households with less than 20 square meters per person (which is defined as overcrowded according to The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning, see table 1), the mortality rate was 73 per 1000 persons, compared with 22 per 1000 persons for those living in households with more than 60 square meters per person (Brandén et al. 2020).
Negative effects of overcrowding have also been found in studies using qualitative methods.
One such study was conducted in a specific neighborhood in Malmö, Herrgården. Based on interviews and observations, it was concluded that there are various risk factors of living in overcrowded households. The study found connections to both physical and mental problems such as sleep deprivation, lack of personal space, headaches as well as feelings of uneasiness and irritation. Further, adult residents suffered from stress related to their economic situation.
For children, the physical and mental effects of living in overcrowded households had an
impact on both their school situation and their leisure time, which often was spent outside of the household. In addition, overcrowding was found to have a negative impact on the
physical conditions of the housing due to a higher degree of wear (Popoola 1999).
However, the effects of overcrowding are not clear-cut. For example, a study conducted by The National Audit Office on the effects of overcrowding (norm 3) in Sweden did not find effects on health or school results. The study included single parents living in rentals in 1996 and 2002 that were overcrowded. Health was measured based on the number of days that the studied population had been hospitalized, days of sick leave as well as care leave (caring for a child who is ill). The children’s grades from primary school and high school were the
indicator for school results. The conclusion of the report was that there is a “safety margin”
between norm 3 and the type of overcrowding that potentially is harmful (The National Audit Office 2019). However, the validity of the research can be questioned since the indicators measuring health and school performance were limited. The reliability could also be questioned due to the limited group of people that was included in the study.
In sum, the effects of household overcrowding are dependent on the methods, the indicators and which definition of overcrowding that is used. More studies on the effects of
overcrowding are arguably needed but this is beyond the scope of the research in this thesis.
However, a majority of the studies indeed do find that overcrowding has negative effects which legitimizes further research to better understand the phenomenon of overcrowding.
3.2 The associations between overcrowding and socio-economic, demographic and housing characteristics
One strand of literature on overcrowding investigates which population groups that live in overcrowded households. Commonly, the results are descriptive and presented as
categorizations of population groups where some are found to constitute a larger part of the overcrowded population compared to other groups. In Sweden, it has been found that overcrowding is most common among single parent households (The National Audit Office 2019; Karlsson et al. 2020), households with children (Sweco 2020, Popoola 1999), migrants (The National Audit Office 2019; Statistics Sweden 2018; The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2016), Swedish born with two foreign born parents (The National Audit Office 2019) and households with a low disposable income (The National Audit Office 2019; The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2016).
Furthermore, there appears to be a difference in the share of overcrowding which depends on tenure type. Households living in rentals are more often overcrowded compared to those living in cooperative or ownership housing (The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2016; Karlsson et al. 2020). The share of overcrowding is also higher in smaller apartments, especially in one-bedroom apartments (The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2016). Despite the generally consistent knowledge on which social groups and housing characteristics are overrepresented among overcrowded
households, there are few studies that systematically have examined the independent relationships between these factors and overcrowding. Therefore, the above-mentioned characteristics of which social groups and household types that are overcrowded will be used as variables in the correlation and regression analyses of this thesis.
To the best of my knowledge, there has only been one academic study which specifically
study how overcrowding statistically relates to socio-economic and housing variables. This
study examines overcrowding in the United States at different geographical scales. Through
analyzing different regression models, Myers et al. (1996) found that the key explanatory variables of overcrowding were ethnic background, migration background and the level of income for families with children. Housing characteristics were found to have a much weaker effect on household overcrowding. Furthermore, the geographical comparison of different scales indicated that the smaller the scale, the higher the concentration of overcrowding.
Consequently, a district might have a low share of overcrowded households, while neighborhoods within that district can have high shares. To only analyze household overcrowding at a large scale can therefore be misleading (Myers et al. 1996).
The research conducted in this thesis will depart from the methods used by Myers et al.
(1996). I will construct regression models which include similar socio-economic,
demographic and housing variables, but these will be based on the findings of the descriptive Swedish studies outlined above. The purpose will be to analyze the relationship among the variables and overcrowding and to determine which of them are key determinants of
overcrowding in the City of Stockholm. Furthermore, the thesis aligns with the perspective of the importance of geographical scale that Myers et al. (1996) put forth. This thesis will both use larger-scale and smaller-scale neighborhoods, with the intention to provide a more detailed understanding of the relationship between neighborhood socio-economic, demographic and housing characteristics and the shares of overcrowding. The following section will outline what previous studies have found regarding the spatial distribution of overcrowding at different scales.
3.3 The spatial variance of overcrowding
To understand where overcrowding occurs, different geographical scale-levels can be looked at. Most research, and most available statistics, are limited to a national or municipal scale (for example Statistics Sweden 2018, The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2020, Andersson et al. 2020a). Studies at a municipal scale are consistent and it can be concluded that in Sweden, high shares of overcrowding are concentrated in the larger cities (The National Audit Office 2019; The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2016; The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2020;
Sweco 2020). However, it has also been found that there are spatial variations within the cities. Some studies have therefore focused on understanding the variation in overcrowding in specific areas within a city (Popoola 1999; Ekstam 2015). One example is Popoola’s (1999) study of a socio-economically distressed neighborhood in Malmö with a high share of overcrowding (Herrgården). In Herrgården, 35% of the households were overcrowded according to norm 2. All of these households included children and the majority, 94%, consisted of households with two parents while only 6% were single-parent households (Popoola 1999). This is in contrast with the previous mentioned finding that single parents tend to be overrepresented among the overcrowded households. Furthermore, the study showed that most of the overcrowded households had a migration background. However, this was also the case for the entire neighborhood. Regarding the housing characteristics, most overcrowded households lived in three-bedroom apartments, but two- and four-bedroom apartments were also common. The connection to three-generational living was found to be low (Popoola 1999).
A few studies have focused on describing the spatial variations of overcrowding within a city
through analysis at a smaller scale than municipal. For example, a report from The Swedish
National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (2016) examines overcrowding at the
parish scale in the three largest cities in Sweden. Another study describes the spatial variation
at a city district scale within the City of Stockholm (Karlsson et al. 2020). The findings indicate that within Stockholm, there is clustering of high shares of household overcrowding in some of the North-West and South-West parishes/city districts but also in the center of the city. However, in the center parishes, the share of overcrowding is lower than within the clusters of overcrowding in the North-West and the South-West parishes. Furthermore, it was found that high shares of overcrowding in the suburban parishes overlap with patterns of low median income, whereas overcrowding in the center overlaps with patterns of high median income. This is a pattern which was not found in the other two larger cities, Gothenburg and Malmö (The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning 2016).
Thus, it appears that residents in overcrowded households belong both to low and high- income groups within the City of Stockholm. This may indicate that former studies which found a connection between overcrowding and low income is not necessarily associated to overcrowding in all places when examining overcrowding at a smaller scale. This topic has been researched by Ekstam (2015). Based on survey data, two areas in Stockholm, which both had high shares of overcrowding, were compared based on the characteristics of the overcrowded and non-overcrowded households. The variables used to describe the
characteristics were migration background, household type, tenure type, number of rooms and income. Based on an analysis of these characteristics of the population in each area, Ekstam created a place-specific overcrowding typology. She labelled the first type “distressed overcrowding” and the second “gentrified overcrowding” (Ekstam 2015). The two types are not defined in detail but are rather based on commonly used categorizations of the two areas.
The suburban area of Hallunda is perceived as a “distressed” neighborhood characterized by households with relatively low income, low occupational levels, and poor health. The inner- city area of Katarina-Sofia is perceived as a “gentrified” neighborhood, having had an influx of middle-class households and a decrease of lower income groups. The overcrowded population in the suburban area (distressed overcrowding) and the inner-city area (gentrified overcrowding) is described in table 2 below.
Table 2. Characteristics of the overcrowded population in Ekstam’s (2015) typology.
Variables ‘distressed’ overcrowding ‘gentrified’ overcrowding
Migration background
Mix of people born in Sweden, Europe and outside of Europe. More common with non- European migrants.
Majority is born in Sweden.
Household type Majority have children.
20% are extended families.
Majority are single households.
40% have children.
Number of rooms Two-bedroom apartments. Studios and one-bedroom apartments.
Income Low- and mid-income earners. Mid- and high-income earners.
Tenure type Rentals are most common. Rentals are most common.
