Modern Family – Adoptees in the 21st Century

Tomas Johansson , Statistics Sweden

By the end of 2018 there were 137 954 adopted persons in the Swedish population. For the past 50 years, most adoptees have been foreign-born persons with two adoptive parents, but in recent years, adoptions of Swedish-born persons and stepchildren has been the most common. Over the past 20 years, the number of couples who adopt together has decreased significantly while the number of adoptions done by one adoptive parent has increased slightly. In addition, the number of surrogate children is said to increase. With data from the Swedish Total Population Register (TPR) from 2000 and forward will we describe the changed patterns for adoptees and their biological and adoptive parents. The results shows that adoptions of partners’ children have increased and mostly for women in same-sex relations. The results also indicate that adoptees born in Georgia and the United States probably often have surrogate mothers. Register data about adoptees is a valuable source of information when studying adoptees and their adoptive parents. When examining surrogate children, it is problematic that there is no information about it in the population register. It is possible to make certain estimates as long it is adoptions of stepchildren's born outside Sweden. However, when comparing the number of probable surrogate children based on information in the population register, it is fewer cases than the numbers stated by organizations that support surrogacy. For example, it is very difficult to detect surrogate children adopted by a person who is not in a registered relationship.

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 Presented in Session P1. Poster Session Fertility, Family and the Life Course