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Population and social structure in Sweden, 1530–1600

https://doi.org/10.5878/52ga-wr68
This dataset was developed for studies of the population history of sixteenth-century Sweden, including its social and occupational structures, on national and local levels. The aim was to be able to study annual change on both national and local levels. The data may be used for further historical studies regarding these issues, especially on the local level (e.g., concerning royal estates, institutions, and towns), and for comparative histories of medieval and early modern population, agrarian, and economic change. The dataset contains information from cadastres, accounts, wage lists and taxation registres. They contain the number of cadastral farms (including ownership status), the number of cottagers, craftsmen, and servants, division of farms, the number of employees at crown, church, and nobility estates, castles, hospitals, shipyards, metal industries etc., the number of people living in towns. All occupational titles are includes (from wage registres and from subsidy taxation records of 1535, 1571, and 1599–1600). The collection also includes the royal courts, as well as all nobility manors. The dataset includes calculations of the population of Sweden for each year 1530–1600 on the level of the hundred and the province, as well as calculations of the degree of urbanisation, the population share employed at crown and nobility estates, the population share that was cottagers, and the number of male servants in husbandry. For a more detailed overview, please see the README file, as well as the main publication of the project (M. Andersson, A population history of sixteenth-century Sweden, Uppsala 2025). The manuscript sources for the database are listed below. Riksarkivet (RA, Swedish National Archives), Stockholm Acta angående ridderskapet och adeln, vol. 14–17 Älvsborgs lösen 1571 Arv och eget Bååtska familjepapper, E 3388 Bergsbruk: Salbergets räkenskaper Bielkesamlingen, E 1991–1992 Blå nummer 690 Diplomatica Danica 730 Fogdarnas räkenskaper Furstendömenas räntekammare Gärder och hjälper 1535 Hogenskild Bielkes samling, E 1982–1984 Kammarkollegiets ämnessamlingar: Adeln och dess gods Kammarkollegiets ämnessamlingar: Bergsbruk Kammarkollegiets ämnessamlingar: Kyrkors, skolors och hospitals akter Kammarkollegiets ämnessamlingar: Slott och gårdar Kammarkollegiets ämnessamlingar: Städers akter Kungliga arkiv (K) Landskapshandlingar Landskapshandlingar: supplement Leijonhufvudska samlingen, E 4587 Lokala tullräkenskaper, vol. 439 Oxenstiernska samlingen, E 517–518, 520 Prostarnas tionderäkenskaper Provianträkenskaper Räntekammarböcker Riksarkivets ämnessamlingar: Bergverken Riksarkivets ämnessamlingar: Städers acta Riksarkivets ämnessamlingar: Topographica Rydboholmssamlingen, E 7446 Röda nummer Rosenbladska samlingen, vol. 3 Sandbergska samlingen Silverskatten 1560 Skeppsgårdshandlingar Strödda räkenskaper och handlingar t o m 1630: Brudskatten 1563 Strödda räkenskaper och handlingar t o m 1630: Brudskatten 1579 Strödda räkenskaper och handlingar t o m 1630: Förläningsregister Strödda räkenskaper och handlingar t o m 1630: Handlingar angående bördsrättsköpen under Johan III:s tid Strödda räkenskaper och handlingar t o m 1630: Köpsilverskatten 1573 Strödda räkenskaper och handlingar t o m 1630: Länsregister Strödda räkenskaper och handlingar t o m 1630: Löningsregister Strödda räkenskaper och handlingar t o m 1630: Silverskatten 1569 Strödda äldre räkenskaper, ny serie: Gärderäkenskaper Strödda äldre räkenskaper, ny serie: Mantalsregister Strödda äldre räkenskaper, ny serie: Oxregister Strödda kamerala handlingar Strödda militiehandlingar före 1631, C 1 Wijksamlingen, E 2741 Krigsarkivet (KrA), Stockholm Militieräkningar Slottsarkivet, Stockholm Hovförtäringsräkenskaper: Furstliga personers hovförtäringsräkenskaper Landsarkivet i Göteborg (GLA) Ulricehamns rådhusrätt och magistrat, AIa:1 Landsarkivet i Härnösand (HLA) Västernorrlands landskontor, GIIIa:1 Landsarkivet i Vadstena (VLA) Vadstena rådhusrätt och magistrat, HV:1 Stockholms stadsarkiv (SSA) Borgmästare och råds arkiv före 1636, serie G Kungliga biblioteket (KB) X 953 (Räkenskapsbok från Vreta kloster)  Uppsala universitetsbibliotek (UUB) X 265g–h (Papper rörande släkten Gera) Lunds universitetsbibliotek (LUB) de la Gardiesamlingen: Topographica Linköpings stiftsbibliotek N 28 (Joen Petri Klints järteckensbok)
Download data and documentation (138 files / 15.57 MiB)

Data files

Documentation files

Citation and access

Data access level:

Creator/​Principal investigator(s):

Research principal:

Principal's reference number:

  • SLU.sol.2021.4.4.IÄ-1

Data contains personal data:

No

Citation:

License:

Language:

Method and outcome

Unit of analysis:

Time period(s) investigated:

Data format/​data structure:

Data collection

Time period(s) for data collection:

2021 - 2025

Data collector:

Source of the data:

  • Registers/Records/Accounts: Administrative
  • Registers/Records/Accounts: Historical
  • Registers/Records/Accounts: Legal
  • Registers/Records/Accounts: Economic/Financial
  • Registers/Records/Accounts: Personal
  • Registers/Records/Accounts

Geographic coverage

Geographic location:

Geographic description:

The dataset concerns the western part of what was then Sweden (excluding Finland): Öland, Småland, Västergötland, Dalsland, Värmland, Östergötland, Södermanland, Närke, Västmanland, Uppland, Dalarna, Gästrikland, Hälsingland, Medelpad, Ångermanland, Västerbotten, Lappmarkerna.

Administrative information

Responsible department/​unit:

Department of Urban and Rural Development

Funding

Funding agency:

Award number:

2020-06423_VR

Award title:

The Rural Working Poor in Sweden, 1300–1600

Funding information:

This project aims at studying how coercive labour institutions structured the rural economy in medieval and early modern Sweden, and will answer the questions of how such institutions were created, upheld, and ideologically justified, as well as how the occupational structure of the rural working poor varied over time and between different regions. The studies will be based on e.g. legislation, court records, and taxation lists, which will be analysed through the theoretical lens of labour coercion, recently developed in the international research field of labour history. The project will combine qualitative methods of language and ideology analyses with quantitative methods using a classification system, developed at Campop, to study changes in the occupational structure of the working poor. The research will consequently be carried out at Campop at the University of Cambridge (2 years), a leading research group studying premodern European labour and economic history, and at the Division of agrarian history at SLU (1 year), with experts on Swedish rural history. The results of the research project will challenge the dominant narrative of premodern Sweden as a homogenous ‘peasant society’ through demonstrating the continuous presence of coercive labour institutions which formed the lives of the landless rural population, hereby opening up new research areas concerning the political, economic, and social history of the working poor in medieval and early modern Europe.

Topic and keywords

CESSDA topic classification:

Swedish Standard Classification of Research Subjects 2025:

Keywords:

Publications

Citation:

Andersson, M. (2025). A Population History of Sixteenth-Century Sweden. (Agrarhistoria nr 10). Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. https://res.slu.se/id/publ/142060

SwePub:

oai:slubar.slu.se:142060

Contact

Martin Anderssonmartin.a.andersson@slu.se

Metadata

Version 1
doris
slu
Version 1 published: