Objective: To investigate annual prevalence of disability pension (DP) from 1992 to 2007 and associations with sociodemographic factors in 1992.

Methods: All twins born between 1928 and 1958 were identified from the Swedish Twin Registry and linked to national records on DP. Descriptive statistics and logistic regressions were applied.

Results: The annual prevalence of DP was 10.7% (9.6% to 11.3%). High age (odds ratio [OR] 9.17; 95% confidence interval [CI] 8.43 to 9.98), low education (OR 4.84; 95% CI 4.31 to 5.42), and being unmarried (OR 2.36; 95% CI 2.22 to 2.50) were associated with DP. The associations remained after adjusting for familial factors.

Conclusions: The fact that the associations remained after control for familial factors indicates that factors not shared by family members, such as choices in adulthood, are of relevance for the associations found.