Book Review: Population Ageing – A Threat to the Welfare State? The Case of Sweden
| Author | Daniel Rauhut |
| DOI | 10.1177/138826271101300206 |
| Published date | 01 June 2011 |
| Date | 01 June 2011 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book Reviews
286 Intersentia
Tommy Bengtsson (ed.) Population Ageing – A reat to the Welfare State? e Case
of Sweden, Dordrecht, London and New York, Springer Verlag, 2010, 123 pp., ISBN
978–3–642–12611–6
is book claims to be ‘the rst to take a comprehensive view of the cha llenges that
population ageing wil l, in future, present’, with Sweden as the ma in case study. e
edited volume by Molander and Andersen (2002) and the study by A ndersen et al.
(2007) seem either to have been disquali ed from discussion or to have been erased
from memory. Bengtsson’s edited volume focuses on pensions, ta xes, elderly and
health care; t he implications of population ageing on, for example, education and the
labour market (unemployment insurance, rehabilitation/vocational training, long
term sickness etc.), but family-related social insu rance issues (parental insu rance,
child allowance s etc.), as wel l as child care, are not analysed .
ere is a disturbing postulate in the study: population ageing in Sweden is
evenly distributed geographically. is is simply not true. Areas around the major
metropolitan areas face no problems with regard to population ageing, whereas
the regions of Stockholm, Västra Götaland and Skåne wil l have an increasing and
relatively young population. e major problems wit h population ageing are found in
the rural a nd peripheral areas, especial ly in Norrland (Rauhut et al. 2008).
In the chapter by Bengtsson a nd Scott, the general fertilit y decline is alluded to as
the prime driver of population ageing. At an aggregate level this is probably correc t,
but not at a regional level. In the regions expected to face the most severe e ects of
population ageing, general fer tility decline is not t he problem: the emigration of young
adults – especially young women – makes the population age even faster, limits the
reproduction potential, and narrows t he tax base (Rauhut et al. 2008).
Elderly care in Sweden is a matter for the loca l authorities. It is also, as a ser vice, both
locally nanced and produced. P.G. Edebalk concludes, in his contribution, that local
authorities wil l be under tremendous pressure to maintain elderly care in t he future.
e li kelihood that indiv idual municipalities w ill have vary ing abilities as rega rds
handling th is situation is, however, simply not contemplated. Municipalities in the
rural and per ipheral north with a n unfavourable population struct ure will su er badly
from the emigration of young adu lts and a narrower tax base, while municipa lities in
the south, and especia lly around the metropolitan area s, will experience a favourable
population structu re and a wider tax base. Consequently, population ageing wil l not
be a problem in these areas (Rau hut et al. 2008).
Lindgren and Lytt kens point at two interesting inst itutional aspects of t he
na ncing healthcare: all t hree levels of governance are involved in the production and
nancing of healthcare in Sweden, and none wants to be burdened with increasing
future costs. e authors question the organisation and institutional setting of the
Swed ish he alt hcar e sys tem. Po pula tion a gein g wil l ma ke th ings worse but, c ontra ry to
their supposition, demographic cha nge has not caused these problems.
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