Unveiling the social fabric through a temporal, nation-scale social network and its characteristics

Abstract Social networks shape individuals’ lives, influencing everything from career paths to health. This paper presents a registry-based, multi-layer and temporal network of the entire Danish population from 2008 to 2021. Our network maps the relationships formed through family, households, neigh...

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Main Authors: Jolien Cremers, Benjamin Kohler, Benjamin Frank Maier, Stine Nymann Eriksen, Johanna Einsiedler, Frederik Kølby Christensen, Sune Lehmann, David Dreyer Lassen, Laust Hvas Mortensen, Andreas Bjerre-Nielsen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-05-01
Series:Scientific Reports
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-98072-2
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author Jolien Cremers
Benjamin Kohler
Benjamin Frank Maier
Stine Nymann Eriksen
Johanna Einsiedler
Frederik Kølby Christensen
Sune Lehmann
David Dreyer Lassen
Laust Hvas Mortensen
Andreas Bjerre-Nielsen
author_facet Jolien Cremers
Benjamin Kohler
Benjamin Frank Maier
Stine Nymann Eriksen
Johanna Einsiedler
Frederik Kølby Christensen
Sune Lehmann
David Dreyer Lassen
Laust Hvas Mortensen
Andreas Bjerre-Nielsen
author_sort Jolien Cremers
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Social networks shape individuals’ lives, influencing everything from career paths to health. This paper presents a registry-based, multi-layer and temporal network of the entire Danish population from 2008 to 2021. Our network maps the relationships formed through family, households, neighborhoods, colleagues and classmates for approximately 7.2 million individuals with more than 1.4 billion relations between them over the course of a decade. We outline key properties of this multiplex network, introducing both an individual-focused perspective as well as a bipartite representation. We show how to aggregate and combine the layers, and how to efficiently compute network measures such as shortest paths in large administrative networks. Our analysis reveals how past connections reappear later in other layers, that the number of relationships aggregated over time reflects the position in the income distribution, and that we can recover canonical shortest-path-length distributions when appropriately weighting connections. Along with the network data, we release a Python package that uses the bipartite network representation for efficient analysis.
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id doaj-art-cac7f81c0acd4e6cb95bb5430124f754
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spelling doaj-art-cac7f81c0acd4e6cb95bb5430124f7542025-08-20T02:00:00ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-05-0115111510.1038/s41598-025-98072-2Unveiling the social fabric through a temporal, nation-scale social network and its characteristicsJolien Cremers0Benjamin Kohler1Benjamin Frank Maier2Stine Nymann Eriksen3Johanna Einsiedler4Frederik Kølby Christensen5Sune Lehmann6David Dreyer Lassen7Laust Hvas Mortensen8Andreas Bjerre-Nielsen9Methods and Analysis, Statistics DenmarkMethods and Analysis, Statistics DenmarkMethods and Analysis, Statistics DenmarkMethods and Analysis, Statistics DenmarkMethods and Analysis, Statistics DenmarkMethods and Analysis, Statistics DenmarkCenter for Social Data Science (SODAS), University of CopenhagenCenter for Social Data Science (SODAS), University of CopenhagenMethods and Analysis, Statistics DenmarkCenter for Social Data Science (SODAS), University of CopenhagenAbstract Social networks shape individuals’ lives, influencing everything from career paths to health. This paper presents a registry-based, multi-layer and temporal network of the entire Danish population from 2008 to 2021. Our network maps the relationships formed through family, households, neighborhoods, colleagues and classmates for approximately 7.2 million individuals with more than 1.4 billion relations between them over the course of a decade. We outline key properties of this multiplex network, introducing both an individual-focused perspective as well as a bipartite representation. We show how to aggregate and combine the layers, and how to efficiently compute network measures such as shortest paths in large administrative networks. Our analysis reveals how past connections reappear later in other layers, that the number of relationships aggregated over time reflects the position in the income distribution, and that we can recover canonical shortest-path-length distributions when appropriately weighting connections. Along with the network data, we release a Python package that uses the bipartite network representation for efficient analysis.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-98072-2
spellingShingle Jolien Cremers
Benjamin Kohler
Benjamin Frank Maier
Stine Nymann Eriksen
Johanna Einsiedler
Frederik Kølby Christensen
Sune Lehmann
David Dreyer Lassen
Laust Hvas Mortensen
Andreas Bjerre-Nielsen
Unveiling the social fabric through a temporal, nation-scale social network and its characteristics
Scientific Reports
title Unveiling the social fabric through a temporal, nation-scale social network and its characteristics
title_full Unveiling the social fabric through a temporal, nation-scale social network and its characteristics
title_fullStr Unveiling the social fabric through a temporal, nation-scale social network and its characteristics
title_full_unstemmed Unveiling the social fabric through a temporal, nation-scale social network and its characteristics
title_short Unveiling the social fabric through a temporal, nation-scale social network and its characteristics
title_sort unveiling the social fabric through a temporal nation scale social network and its characteristics
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-98072-2
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