1.3.4 Families and households: Demography

Question 1

What are the two main trends in birth and fertility rate?

Answer 1

• Women are having fewer children.
• Women are having children later (average age now over 30)

Question 2

What are the reasons for the fall in birth rate?

(4)

Answer 2

1. Changes in the position of women.
2. Fall in the infant mortality rate
3. Children as an economic liability
4. Child centredness

Question 3

What are the four main reasons for the decline in death rate?

Answer 3

1. Improved nutrition
2. Medical improvements
3. Public health improvements
4. Other social changes (e.g greater public knowledge, decline in traditional manual labour jobs, smaller families)

Question 4

What are the four main effects of an ageing population?

Answer 4

1. More strain on public services.
2. More one-person pensioner households.
3. The rising dependency ratio.
4. Ageism and viewing the elderly as a burden