Population registration in Sweden ( sv, folkbokföring) is the

civil registration Civil registration is the system by which a government records the vital events (births, marriages, and deaths) of its citizens and residents. The resulting repository or database has different names in different countries and even in differen ...

of vital events (e.g.

birth Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring, also referred to in technical contexts as parturition. In mammals, the process is initiated by hormones which cause the muscular walls of the uterus to contract, expelling the f ...

death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

s, and

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

s) of the inhabitants of

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. The data is kept in the population registry () and is administered by the

Swedish Tax Agency The Swedish Tax Agency ( sv, Skatteverket) is a government agency in Sweden responsible for national tax collection and administering the population registration. The agency was formed on 1 January 2004 through the merger of the Swedish Nationa ...

(). The registry spans several centuries and is thus often used by

genealogists Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinsh ...

. One can order a registry extract about oneself, and one is entitled to obtain all records of oneself in the registry according to Section 26 of the Personal Data Act. The information is publicly available, except for people needing secrecy, such as people threatened with violence.

History

The population registration in Sweden was originally maintained by the

Church of Sweden The Church of Sweden ( sv, Svenska kyrkan) is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with around 5.6 million members at year end 2021, it is the largest Christian denomination in Sw ...

, on the orders of the crown, and it remained the duty of the church until 1991. The oldest preserved records date from the early 17th century - though rolls of farmsteads, estates and local taxation with the names of peasants and nobles dwelling in the places in question have sometimes survived from the later Middle Ages on; these do not belong with the later program of population record keeping though, but are land/tax records. Complete archives are usually found from the mid 18th century onwards, unless records have been lost or destroyed by fire or the like. The first

decree A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used for ...

s regarding person registration by local parishes came in 1608. A royal decree in 1631 required the names and dates of those born and passing away to be noted in the parish registry books. The scope of the record keeping was expanded through the 18th and 19th century and the archival corpus today constitutes one of the most in-depth records of an entire national population over centuries to be found anywhere in the world, not least through the records of local hearings of people's knowledge of the

catechism A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult c ...

(''husförhör'', the record books are called ''husförhörslängder''); these were held annually in every parish and often provide valuable information on families, on the state of education, living conditions, individual capacity to read or write and even individual personal traits of the locals whom the parish priest would question on the faith. When other churches and congregations than the

were legally recognized (notably through the Dissenter Act of 1873 and the Liberty of Religion Act of 1951) these other congregations and confessions were required to keep records of births, deaths, marriages and so on and to share these with public authorities if it were required. The administration of the population registry was transferred from the church to the tax agency on July 1, 1991, due to the upcoming separation of church and state. The smallest geographical subdivision for this registry is the registration district. As

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

was part of the Swedish kingdom from the high Middle Ages to 1809, and its laws and administration were recognized by the Tsar after the country had been ceded to Russia, the country shared the Swedish system of population records and these have developed on lines broadly similar to Sweden into the present age.

Information registered

The following information of every person in the population registry is the following, if dates are applicable then they are stored as well. If a change is made, the old value is preserved also in the records. *

Name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A personal ...

* Personal identity number and co-ordination number *

Place of birth The place of birth (POB) or birthplace is the place where a person was born. This place is often used in legal documents, together with name and date of birth, to uniquely identify a person. Practice regarding whether this place should be a cou ...

Citizenship Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

Civil status Vital records are records of life events kept under governmental authority, including birth certificates, marriage licenses (or marriage certificates), separation agreements, divorce certificates or divorce party and death certificates. In some ...

Spouse A spouse is a significant other in a marriage. In certain contexts, it can also apply to a civil union or common-law marriage. Although a spouse is a form of significant other, the latter term also includes non-marital partners who play a social ...

children A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...

parents A parent is a caregiver of the offspring in their own species. In humans, a parent is the caretaker of a child (where "child" refers to offspring, not necessarily age). A ''biological parent'' is a person whose gamete resulted in a child, a male t ...

guardians Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Uni ...

, and

adoption Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

data *

Address An address is a collection of information, presented in a mostly fixed format, used to give the location of a building, apartment, or other structure or a plot of land, generally using political boundaries and street names as references, along w ...

Property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

, and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in which one is registered *

Immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

to Sweden *Deregistration **

Emigration Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

from Sweden and address abroad **

Death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

and place of burial The address shall be where the person usually sleeps. For a person having two such places, the one where the family lives should be selected. People who have a temporary residence for less than six months do not need to register a movement to that address. All residence longer than that, including education and temporary work assignment, shall be registered as address (unless living regularly with the family).Svar på vanliga frågor - Flyttning och folkbokföring
(in Swedish)

External links

* https://youtube.com/watch?v=C6DjVrBUbXc

References

{{reflist Society of Sweden Vital statistics (government records) Civil registries

History

Information registered

See also

External links

References