Births

Question 1

What is demography?

Answer 1

The study of populations and their characteristics, including population size and age structure

Question 2

What are the factors that most directly affect population size?

Answer 2

• Births (how many babies are born) and immigration (how many people enter the country) increase populations size
• Deaths (how many people die) and emigration (how many people leave the country) decrease population size

Question 3

Describe why the UK’s population has grown?

Answer 3

• Until the 1980s, the UK’s population growth was due to natural change (more births than deaths).
• Since the 1980s, most the growth has come from net migrations (more immigration than emigration)

Question 4

Define birth rate

Answer 4

The number of live births per thousand of the population per year

Question 5

Describe the changes in the birth rate over the years

Answer 5

• There’s been a long-term decline in births since 1900. In 1900, England and Wales had a birth rate of 28.7 but by 2014 it had fallen to 12.2
• There’s been fluctuations in births, with 3 ‘baby booms’ in the 20c. The first two came after the worlds wars (1914-18 and 1939-45) as returning servicemen started families that were postponed during the war
• There was a 3rd baby boom in the 1960s, after the birth rate fell sharply during the 1970s. The rate rose during the 1980s, before falling again after the 1990s, with some increase since 2001.

Question 6

What are the factors determining the birth rate?

Answer 6

• The proportion of women who are of childbearing age
• How fertile they are (how many children they have)

Question 7

Define the total fertility rate (TFR)

Answer 7

TFR is the average number of children women will have during their fertile years

Question 8

Describe the UK’s TFR

Answer 8

• It has risen in recent years (2001-14 due to the economic stability in the UK at the time, apart from 2008), but it’s still much lower than in the past.
• From an all-time low of 1.63 children per woman in 2001, it rose to 1.83 by 2014.
• However this is still lower than the of 2.95 children per woman in 1964 during the baby boom

Question 9

What do changes in fertility and birth rates reflect?

Answer 9

• More women are remaining childless than in the past
• Women are postponing having children: the average age for giving birth is now 30, and fertility rates for women in their 30s/40s are on the increase. Older women may be less fertile and have fewer fertile year remaining, and so they produce fewer children

Question 10

Outline the reasons for the decline in the birth rate

Answer 10

• Changes in women’s position
• Decline in the infant mortality rate
• Children are now an economic liability
• Child centredness

Question 11

What are the major changes in the position of women during the 20c?

Answer 11

• Legal equality with men, e.g. the right to vote
• More educational opportunities, girls now do better at school than boys
• More women in paid employment, and laws to outlaw unequal pay and sex discrimination
• Changes in attitudes to family life and women’s role
• Easier access to divorce
• Access to abortion and reliable contraception, giving women more control over their fertility

Question 12

What is the major change in the position of women that is argued to be the most important reason to cause the fall in birth and fertility rates?

Answer 12

• Harper argues the education of women is the main reason for the long-term fall in birth and fertility rates.
• It has led to a change in mind-set among women, leading to fewer children. Not only are educated women more likely to use family planning, they also now see other possibilities in life apart from the traditional role of housewife/mother.
• Many choose to delay childbearing, or to not have children to pursue a career. e.g. in 2012, 1 in 5 women aged 45 were childless, double the number of 25 years earlier.

Question 13

What happens when a pattern of low fertility lasts?

Answer 13

• Harper notes that when a pattern of low fertility lasts for more than 1 generation, cultural norms about family size change.
• Smaller families become the norm and large ones are seen as deviant or less acceptable

Question 14

Define infant mortality rate (IMR)

Answer 14

The IMR measures the number of infants who die before their 1st birthday, per thousand babies born alive, per year

Question 15

What has the fall in the IMR lead to?

Answer 15

Harper argues that a fall in the IMR leads to a fall in the birth rate. This is because, if many infants die, parents have more children to replace those they have lost, thereby increasing the birth rate. By contrast, if infants survive, parents will have fewer if them

Question 16

Describe the IMR in the UK in the past and in less developed countries now

Answer 16

• In 1900, the IMR for the UK was 154. So, over 15% of babies died with their first year.
• These figures are higher for those in less developed countries today.
• In 2014, the world’s highest estimated IMR was that of Afghanistan at 177.

Question 17

Why during the first half of the 20c, did the UK’S IMR begin to fall?

Answer 17

• Improved housing and better sanitation, e.g. flush toilets and clean drinking water, reduced infectious disease. Infants are much more susceptible to infection due to their less developed immune system
• Better nutrition. including that of mothers
• Better knowledge of hygiene, child health and welfare, often spread via women’s magazines.
• Improved services for mothers and children, like antenatal and postnatal clinics

Question 18

Describe the medical factors effect on the IMR

Answer 18

• Before the mid-20c, it was doubtful whether specifically medical factors had an effect on the IMR, although indirectly, the medical profession had a significant impact through its campaigns to improve public health measures
• However from the 1950s, medical factors began to play a greater role. e.g. mass immunisation against childhood diseases like whooping cough and later measles, antibiotics to fight infection and improved midwifery all contributed to a continuing fall in the IMR

Question 19

Describe the IMR trend in the UK

Answer 19

By 1950s, the UK’s IMR had fallen to 30 and by 2012 it was 4, and in 2021 it was 3.7

Question 20

Describe the IMR trend to the fall in birth rates

Answer 20

-While many sociologists claim that the falling IMR led to a fall in in birth rates. Brass and Kabir argue that the trend to smaller families began in not in rural areas, where the IMR first began to fall, but in urban areas where the IMR remained higher for longer

Question 21

Describe how children were economic assets

Answer 21

Until the late 19c, children were economic assets to their parents because they could be sent out to work from an early age to earn an income.

Question 22

Describe how children are now an economic liability and the effects on the family

Answer 22

• Since the 19c children have gradually become liability
• Laws: banned child labour, introduced compulsory schools and raised school leaving age meaning children remain economically dependent for longer
• Changing norms: about what children have a right to expect from their parents, meaning the cost of bringing up children has risen
• Due to these financial pressures, parents now feel less able or willing than in the past to have large family

Question 23

Describe child centredness as a reason for the decline in the birth rate

Answer 23

• Increasing child centredness, both of the family and of society means that childhood is now socially constructed as a uniquely important period in the individual’s life.
• In terms of family size, this has encouraged a shift from ‘quantity’ to ‘quality’, parents have fewer children and give more attentions and resources on these few

Question 24

Why was there a slight increase in births since 2001?

Answer 24

• A reason for this is the increase in immigration because, on average, mothers from outside of the UK have a higher fertility rates than those born in the UK.
• Babies born to mothers from outside of the UK accounted for 25% of all births in 2011

Question 25

Describe the future trends in birth rates

Answer 25

The projections for the period up to 2041 expects the annual number of births to be fairly constant, at around 800,00 per year

Question 26

Outline what is affected by the changes in fertility

Answer 26

• The family
• The dependency ratio
• Public services and policies

Question 27

How is the family affected by the changes in fertility?

Answer 27

• Smaller families means that women are more likely to be free to go out to work, creating the dual earner couple typical of many professional families.
• However, family size is only 1 factor. e.g. better off couples may be able to have larger families and still afford childcare that allows them both to work full-time

Question 28

Define the dependency ratio

Answer 28

The relationship between the size of the working or productive part of the population and the size of non-working or dependent part of population

Question 29

How is dependency ratio affected by the changes in fertility?

Answer 29

• Earnings, savings and taxes of the working population must support the dependent population. Children make a large part of the dependent population, so a fall in the number of children reduces the ‘burden of dependency’ on the working population
• But in the long term, fewer babies born means fewer young adults and a smaller working population, so the burden of dependency may begin to increase again

Question 30

What is meant by ‘vanishing children’?

Answer 30

• Falling fertility rates means fewer children. So, childhood may become a lonelier experience as fewer children will have siblings, and more childless adults may mean fewer voices speaking up in support of children’s interests.
• Conversely, fewer children could mean they will come to be more valued

Question 31

How are public services and policies affected by the changes in fertility?

Answer 31

• A lower birth rate affects public services. e.g. fewer schools and maternity and child health services may be needed. It also affects the cost of maternity and paternity leave and the types of housing that need to be built
• However many of these are political decisions. e.g. instead of reducing the number of schools, government could decide to have smaller class sizes

Question 32

Describe an ageing population

Answer 32

• There are more old people relative to young people
• This is an effect of women having fewer babies is that the average age of the population rising.

Question 33

Give evidence from an article for the changes in fertility

Answer 33

An article in 2016 states:
- ‘ Women aged 40 and over now have higher fertility rate than women aged under 20.’
- ‘The older age group had the largest percentage increase (3.4%) in fertility rates in 2015, while the younger age group had the largest percentage decrease (7.1%)