Tobias Karlsson

In this chapter, we describe the city of Gothenburg in the first half of the twentieth century. The chapter is mainly based on reviews of official statistics and previous research, and starts with an account of how the size and composition of Gothenburg’s population changed. We establish that the city doubled in population between 1910 and the end of the Second World War, partly as a consequence of a birth surplus and inmigration, but also due to a couple of expansions of the administrative borders by incorporating surrounding parishes. Throughout much of our period of investigation, Gothenburg was characterized by shortage of housing. Many working-class households dwelled in small rental apartments, although production of new houses increased towards the end of the period. The structure of men’s labour market in Gothenburg was relatively stable in the period but also characterized by temporary downturns in industrial activity and high unemployment. On women’s labour market, the share of domestic work decreased but was still substantial in the 1940s. We also include a brief review of the literature on income inequality in Gothenburg, reporting the magnitude of the earnings gap between various occupations.