Demographic changes

Question 1

What is demography?

Answer 1

• the study of population
• this includes studying how factors such as fertility and mortality affect the size and makeup of the population
• this section considers some of the key demographic changes in the UK population and how they have affected family life

Question 2

What is births and family?

Answer 2

• through immigration can add to the size of the population of a country in most countries the main reason for population increase is births
• demographers use a number of ways of measuring births and fertility

Question 3

What is the number of births?

Answer 3

• this is simply the number of births per 1,000 of the population per year and gives us a measure of how fast the population us producing children
• the crude birth rate is useful for comparing the rate of growth of different countries populations
• ion general, more developed industrial countries have lower birth rates than poorer less developed countries but in recent years many developing countries but in recent years many developing countries across the world have started to experience a decline in birth rates

Question 4

What are the trends in births and fertility?

Answer 4

• there has been a significant decline since the late nineteenth century
• for example, in 1901 there were nearly 1.1 million births, whereas in 2012 there were 812, 970 from a much larger population
• this decline in fertility has been a feature of most societies that have undergone industrialisation
• demographers have put forward the following explanations for this

Question 5

What is declining mortality?

Answer 5

• from around 1830 onwards, the death rate in the UK decreased and life expectancy increased
• infant mortality in particular declined, in 1901 25% of all deaths were babies under one year whereas in 2005 they accounted for less than 1% of deaths
• this means that families no longer need to have large numbers of children to ensure that some of the survive until adulthood

Question 6

What are economic factors?

Answer 6

• in the 19th century, children were regarded as an economic asset by many working class parents, as they could go out to work to bring in money for the family and provide support for parents in old age
• children have arguably become a financial burden on parents as they have been excluded from paid work and the period in which children are financially dependent on parents has been extended as the school-leaving age has increased more and more young people go on to further and higher education
• according to the annual cost of a child report sponsored by the insurer LV, the cost of raising a child from birth to 21 in 2013 was £227,266
• it also suggested that one in five parents are delaying having another child due to cuts to child benefit and the increasing cost of parenting

Question 7

What are women opportunities?

Answer 7

• over the last century, and especially since the 1970s there has been a huge expansion in opportunities for women, both in education and employment
• woman have many other options a[art from marriage and child bearing and therefore tending to delay having children until they become established in their careers, meaning that they are likely to have fewer children or in some cases remain childless

Question 8

What are changing social attitudes?

Answer 8

• up until the late 19th century, large families were seen as desirable, but from the 1870s onwards, first middle-class and later working-class families began to see smaller families as a way of improving their living standards
• by the mid 20th century, small families of up to three children became the social norm
• while the status of childlessness was seen as unfortunate in the past, many couples now describe themselves as child free, emphasising their lack of children as a freely chosen lifestyle option

Question 9

What is individualisation?

Answer 9

• a number of these factors, such as women desire for careers over children and the notion of being child-free, link in with the individualisation thesis of writers such as Beck and Beck-Gernswheim (1995)
• individuals increasingly seek a life of their own lifestyle and relationship and are no longer tied to traditional social norms that for example, might dictate that at a particular stage in life a person should get married and then start a family
• Beck and Beck-Gernswheim also refer to the importance of risk in modern society, suggesting individuals seek to control and avoid risk
• just as more people now avoid the risks of commitment and possible divorce by cohabitating or even staying single, so some people feel children are an added risk factor, both to their relationship and to their economic wellbeing
• they seen to minimise these risks by delaying or avoiding having children

Question 10

What is infant immortality?

Answer 10

-the number of babies dying in their first year per 1,000 live births

Question 11

What is fertility?

Answer 11

-the rate at which children are being born

Question 12

What is mortality?

Answer 12

-the rate at which people are dying

Question 13

What are the trends of fluctuations in birth rates?

Answer 13

• the fall in births over the last century has not been continuous and the number of births, along with the birth rate, has fluctuated considerable
• for example, the number of births fell during both world wars and then there were baby booms after the wars and again in the late 1950s and early 1960s with smaller booms in the late 1980s and early 1990s

Question 14

What is an explanation of fluctuations in birth rates?

Answer 14

• one explanation is that there is usually a baby boom about 25 years after the previous baby boom as there are more young people of childbearing age in the population
• similarly, there was a drop in the number of births in the later there was a drop in the number of birth rates in the later 1990s because the birth rate a generation earlier has a reached an all time low in the 1970s
• baby booms also tend to coincide with periods of economic prosperity, for example, the rise in the number of births in the late 1950s coincide with a period of full employment and rising wages, encouraging more people to start families

Question 15

Why have the number of births and the TFR have been climbing since 2001?

Answer 15

• Children of the last baby boom in the late 1980s are beginning families themselves
• more women went to university in the 1990s and delayed having children until the 2000s
• immigration levels have risen in recent years, immigrants tend on average to be younger than the UK population as a whole and therefore more fertile, plus larger families are more commonplace among certain immigrant groups

Question 16

What are the trends of family size?

Answer 16

• in Victorian England, families were much larger than today, with families of up to ten children not uncommon
• there was a decline in birth rates in England from around 1870 to 1920
• in 1871 the average woman had 5.5 children, but bu7 1912 this had fallen to 2.4 children families today are even smaller, with an average number of 1.71 dependent children in 2012
• married or civil partnered couples had a higher average number of depended children in their families than other family types, at 1.79 dependent children per family, meanwhile lone-parent families had 1.59 dependent children on average and cohabiting couples had an average of 1.62 (ONS 2012)
• these patterns reflect the fact that married couples tend to be older and are more likely to have completed childbearing
• according to a report by the ONS (2013), the main reason that the average family size has got smaller n recent decades is that more women are remaining childless
• by their 30th birthday, almost half of all than a third of their mothers’ generation (1995) were childless by their 30th birthday, and just over a quarter of their grandmothers generation (1927) were childless by their 30th birthday

Question 17

What are possible reasons for decline in family size?

Answer 17

• increase participation in higher education
• delayed marriage and partnership formation
• establishing a career
• getting on the household ladder
• ensuring financial stability before starting a family

Question 18

What did Susanne Whiting (2012) say about family size?

Answer 18

-she said there are only small social class differences in family size today, unlike the early 20th century, when working-class families were generally larger than those of family size, with black and Asian ethnic groups especially Pakistanis and Bangladeshis having larger families than white and Chinese ones

Question 19

What are the trends of births outside marriage?

Answer 19

• up until the mid 20th century, having children outside marriage was still considered shameful and unmarried mothers were often encouraged to have their babies adopted
• in 1971 only 8% of children were born outside marriage
• the percentage has risen steadily since then, reflecting the rise in lone parenthood and also in cohabiting couples having children
• in 2012 nearly half of al babies were born outside marriage or civil partnership (47.5%), compared with 40.6% in 2002
• this continues the long term rise in the percentage of births outside marriage and civil partnership, which is consistent with increases in the number of couples cohabiting rather than being married or in a civil partnership (ONS 2012)

Question 20

How is the age of marriage changing?

Answer 20

• in the section on marriage, we considered how fewer people are getting married, and how there has been an increase in the popularity of cohabitation and singlehood in Britain
• those who do marry are also getting married later
• in 1970 in England and Wales, on average women married at the age of 22.0 and men at 24.1
• according to the ONS 2012 the average age at which men get married was 30.8 years, while women were typically aged 28.9 years when they tie the knot

Question 21

What is the reason for the change in age of marriage?

Answer 21

• more couples cohabitation before marriage
• changing social norms and attitudes meaning there is less social pressure to marry young
• extension of education, particularly for women
• the cost of weddings according to a survey by you and your wedding magazine, the average cost of a wedding in 2013 was just under £22,000, so many couples are waiting until they have saved up enough to marry

Question 22

What are the trends in the changes in age of childbearing?

Answer 22

• as the section on family size shows, an increasing proportion of women in each generation born since the 1920s have remained childless until the age of 30
• the result of this is that the age at which women are bearing children has been increasing for decades
• more recent data shows that fertility levels are rising fastest among older women
• since 2001, when the total fertility rate was at a record low, fertility levels have risen for women in all age groups with the exception of those aged under 20
• the largest percentage increase in fertility rates was for women aged 40 and over, followed by women in all aged 35-39, with increases of 66% and 53% respectively
• this continues the trend of rising fertility among women aged 35 and over recorded during the 1980s and 1990s
• the number of live births to mothers aged 40 and over has more than quadrupled over the last three decades from 6,519 in 1982 in ONS 2012

Question 23

What are the reasons for the changes in age of childbearing?

Answer 23

• the changing patter of fertility has been linked by some sociologists to the cultural changes associated. With individualisation discussed earlier in this chapter
• this would suggest that women have more freedom of choice in late modernity and many are exercising this by choosing to remain childless or at least to delay having children
• however, a study by Bhrolchain and Beaujouan (2012) suggests a more straightforward explanation based on the rising levels of educational attainment among women
• more and more women are staying on longer in education and are therefore not ready to start having children until later
• this is especially so as the most educated women are also likely to be those who will seek to establish themselves in careers once they have completed their studies
• this also explains why there is a noticeable class difference in age of childbearing, with professional middle-class women tending to start families much later then working class women who are less likely to postpone childbearing to create a career

Question 24

What are the trends of the ageing population?

Answer 24

• the UK, in common with other western societies, has an ageing population
• this means the average age of the population is increasing
• from 1985 to 2010, the median age of the UK population increased from 35.4 years to 39.7 years (ONS 2012)
• it is predicted that it will reach 42.2 by 2035
• an ageing population is also associated with an increase in the proportion of the population who are elderly and a decline in the proportion of young people
• the ageing population can be seen mist clearly when the age structure of the population is represented in population pyramids
• in 1911 the age structure actually looked like a pyramid as there were generally fewer people in each age group rising up in age
• this reflected the fact that there was a high birth rate so there were large numbers of infants at the base of the pyramid but death rates at all ages were high so people died off in every age group, meaning that relatively few people survived to old age
• in the 2011 pyramid, there is much less tapering until the population is over 65, reflecting the fact that infant mortality and death rates among younger age groups are relatively low, people only start dying off in larger groups are relatively low, people only start dying off in larger numbers once they reach personable age
• the female side, of the graph also tapers off more slowly than the male side, reflecting the fact that women generally live longer than men so there are more elderly females in the population
• the 2011 pyramid also has rather ragged edges, which reflects fluctuations in the number of births, for example, there were fewer ten-year olds than 20 year olds, reflecting the fact that the birth rate slumped around 2001, whereas it was relatively high in 1991
• there are a particularly large number of people in the 40-50 year old age group, the so called baby boomers, who will enter the retired population in the next 20-30 years, causing a further ageing of the population

Question 25

What are the causes of an ageing population?

Answer 25

• lover birth rates, meaning that fewer people are being born in the younger generations than in previous generations which reduces the size of the youthful population
• increased life expectancy in 1951, life expectancy at birth in the UK was 66.1 years for men and 70.9 years for women, by 2010-12 it had increased to 7.1 for men and 82.6 for women (ONS 2014), as more people live into old age, the proportion of the population who are elderly is increasing, mortality rates at older ages have improved due to a combination of factors such as improved medical treatments, housing and living standards, nutrition and changes in the populations smoking habits

Question 26

What is the increasing age dependency ratio a problem of an ageing population?

Answer 26

• the age dependency ratio is the ratio of dependents - people younger than 15 or older than 64 - to the working age population - those ages 15-64
• the proportion of dependents per 100 of the working age population has increased from 51% to 54% between 1994 and 2013

Question 27

How is the increased public spending a problem of an ageing population?

Answer 27

-not all elderly people are a financial drain on the working population but older people, especially the very old, are much more likely to require health services and social services than younger people, while taxes paid by the working population also pay for a variety of financial benefits for the elderly such as state pensions

Question 28

How is loneliness and isolation for older people a problem of an ageing population?

Answer 28

• in 2014 the government announced it would be commissioning research into the extent of loneliness among older people after research showed that loneliness could have long term effects on their health
• however research for the GO programme by Victor and her colleagues (2003) found that the percentage of older people reporting that they were lonely - 7% - is relatively low
• the majority of older people demonstrated high levels of contact with family, friends and neighbours and do not experience loneliness
• they also found that the extent of loneliness among older people demonstrated high levels of contact with family, friends and neighbours and so not experience loneliness
• they also found that the extent of loneliness among older people has been remarkable stable in the post-war period
• however the number of isolated older people is likely to be increasing as more people live alone and a growing number od older people are likely to be divorced or single

Question 29

How is demand on family members a problem of an aging population?

Answer 29

• older people who are cared for by family members may make considerable demands in terms of informal care
• Grundy and Henrietta (2006) have identified the emergence of a sandwich generation
• these are older middle aged people, especially women, who have taken on the responsibility for caring for older relatives (usually parents or parents-in-law), while still having some responsibility for adult children who might be living at home and particularly dependent on their parents
• this could be argues to be a feminist perspective

Question 30

What does Harper (2013) say about the ageing population?

Answer 30

• she suggests that, to some extent, the problems of an ageing society are a myth
• she points out that growing pressures on the health service are more to do with rising expectations of what the health services are more to do with rising expectations of what the health service can provide for everyone rather than the demands of the elderly
• she also suggests that a high age dependency ratio is only a problem because we force many older people to retire at an arbitrary age, when in fact many older people could go on contributing economically rather than becoming part of a dependent population

Question 31

What are negative aspects of the ageing population?

Answer 31

• demands on family members
• increased public spending
• loneliness and isolation for older people
• increasing age dependency ratio

Question 32

What are the positive aspects of an ageing population?

Answer 32

• older workers
• voluntary sector
• older people as consumers
• grandparents
• beanpole families

Question 33

How are older workers a strength of an ageing population?

Answer 33

• most older people remain healthy until towards the end of their leaves and increasingly people are working beyond official retirement age
• a report for the WRVS, Gold age pensioners (2011), found that in 2010, over-65s, through taxes, spending power, provision of social care and the value of their volunteering, made an astonishing nets contribution of £40 billion to the UK economy

Question 34

How is the volunteer sector a strength of an ageing population?

Answer 34

• retired people have time to contribute unpaid-work for example, volunteering for charities or organising local community events
• the WRVS study (2011) suggested that more than any other group in society, older people are the social glue of most communities
• their research showed that every year, each older volunteer spends an average of over 100 hours informally volunteering and more than 55 hours in formal volunteering roles
• this is worth £10 billion to the UK economy

Question 35

How is older people as consumers a strength of an aging population?

Answer 35

• a study by Kingman (2012) found that in recent years, the spending power of older people has increased while that of younger generations has declined
• he found that mean gross pensioner incomes grew by an estimated 50% in real terms between 1994/5 and 2010/1
• for example, spending on overseas travel and theatre and cinema tickets has increased among the over 50s and declined amount the under 30s
• older people also spend more on eating out than younger people and while car and petrol sales have fallen in all age groups, this seems to have affected 65-74 year olds least
• in view of this, some commentators have referee to the importance of the grey pound in helping to sustain the UK economy

Question 36

How are grandparents a strength of the ageing population?

Answer 36

• grandparents now make a huge contribution to family life
• in most two parent families, both parents are now employed and one in three families depend of grandparents can be seen as pert of the reserve army of labour
• Marxists use this term to describe a group of workers who replace paid workers when there is a shortage of labour, helping to keep down the cost of wages
• grandparents also make a large financial contribution to families, including helping grandchildren to get on the property ladder, setting up child trust funds for grandchildren and passing on their assets to children and grandchildren when they die

Question 37

How are beanpole families a strength of an ageing population?

Answer 37

• according to Brannan (2003), we are witnessing the emergence of beanpole families
• these are extended families of three, four or even five generations
• however, unlike traditional extended families, members may not necessarily all live in the same households, but may live close together and see one another regularly
• such families are like beanpoles because they are tall and thin, low birth rates mean only one or two children may be born in each generation so children may be born in each generation so children may have few brothers and sisters or cousins in their own generation
• this means intergenerational ties are weak but individuals tend to have more likely to be alive today because of longer life expectancy
• according to Brannan, such relationships can offer valuable support to families going through divorce or to lone parents