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

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.