Historical manufacturing census of Sweden: Data description and quality assessment
(2025) In Historical Methods- Abstract
- This article presents a comprehensive database featuring the digitized, cleaned, geocoded, and linked data of the Swedish manufacturing censuses between 1863 and 1900. The data covers close to the universe of Swedish manufacturing activity and includes establishment-level information on workers, the sum of production value, and toll as output value. The article describes how the data was originally collected and the steps taken to go from raw data to the digital database. We discuss each variable’s definition, how it changed over time, and provide an assessment of the reliability of the data pertaining to each variable. We also assess the quality of the data by comparing it to various other data sources from the same time period. The level... (More)
- This article presents a comprehensive database featuring the digitized, cleaned, geocoded, and linked data of the Swedish manufacturing censuses between 1863 and 1900. The data covers close to the universe of Swedish manufacturing activity and includes establishment-level information on workers, the sum of production value, and toll as output value. The article describes how the data was originally collected and the steps taken to go from raw data to the digital database. We discuss each variable’s definition, how it changed over time, and provide an assessment of the reliability of the data pertaining to each variable. We also assess the quality of the data by comparing it to various other data sources from the same time period. The level of detail in the data makes the users able to both detect and address potential weaknesses of the data. The database offers a unique resource for scholars to study the manufacturing sector during a time of significant transformation in the Swedish industry. To the best of our knowledge, this is among the earliest sources of annual, establishment-level data worldwide. We discuss potential applications for researchers and potential extensions of the database. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/7361925c-5c75-42a2-a7a7-93c16c4a611c
- author
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- epub
- subject
- keywords
- Manufacturing census, industrial revolution, longitudinal database, Sweden
- in
- Historical Methods
- publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- ISSN
- 0161-5440
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 7361925c-5c75-42a2-a7a7-93c16c4a611c
- alternative location
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01615440.2025.2527132
- date added to LUP
- 2025-07-17 08:56:04
- date last changed
- 2025-08-05 10:37:16
@article{7361925c-5c75-42a2-a7a7-93c16c4a611c, abstract = {{This article presents a comprehensive database featuring the digitized, cleaned, geocoded, and linked data of the Swedish manufacturing censuses between 1863 and 1900. The data covers close to the universe of Swedish manufacturing activity and includes establishment-level information on workers, the sum of production value, and toll as output value. The article describes how the data was originally collected and the steps taken to go from raw data to the digital database. We discuss each variable’s definition, how it changed over time, and provide an assessment of the reliability of the data pertaining to each variable. We also assess the quality of the data by comparing it to various other data sources from the same time period. The level of detail in the data makes the users able to both detect and address potential weaknesses of the data. The database offers a unique resource for scholars to study the manufacturing sector during a time of significant transformation in the Swedish industry. To the best of our knowledge, this is among the earliest sources of annual, establishment-level data worldwide. We discuss potential applications for researchers and potential extensions of the database.}}, author = {{Almås, Ingvild and Berger, Thor and Boppart, Timo and Burchardi, Konrad and Ejermo, Olof and Eriksson, Björn and Larsson, Anders and Malmberg, Hannes and Maukner, Stefan and Olsson, Mats and Ostermeyer, Vinzent Leon}}, issn = {{0161-5440}}, keywords = {{Manufacturing census; industrial revolution; longitudinal database; Sweden}}, language = {{eng}}, publisher = {{Taylor & Francis}}, series = {{Historical Methods}}, title = {{Historical manufacturing census of Sweden: Data description and quality assessment}}, url = {{https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01615440.2025.2527132}}, year = {{2025}}, }