demographic trends

Question 1

define birth rate

Answer 1

-Refers to how many people enter the country from elsewhere

Question 2

death rate

Answer 2

-There are fewer young people and more old people

Question 3

Immigration

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Emmigration

Answer 4

The death of an infant before his or her birthday is highly unlikely now

Question 5

The ageing population

Answer 5

-The number of deaths per thousand of the population per year

Question 6

Declining infant mortality

Answer 6

Fewer young people are being born in relation to the number of older people in the population

Question 7

Declining fertility

Answer 7

Refers to how many people leave the country to live elsewhere

Question 8

Reasons for the decline in marriage: Changes in women’s positions

Answer 8

• Access to abortions and reliable contraception - gives women more control over their fertility
• Easier access to divorce

Harper (2010) : Education is the most important reason for the long term fall in births and fertility rates. It changed their mindsets resulting in fewer children

Question 9

Reasons for the decline in marriage: Decline in infant mortality rate

• What changed?

Answer 9

-Harper: a fall in infant mortality rate leads to a fall in birth rate

-Before: High infant mortality rate:

-Improved housing and sanitation meant that the spread of infectious diseases were reduced.
- Better knowledge of of hygiene, child health and welfare state often spread via women’s magazine
-Improved services for mothers + children: antenatal and postnatal clinics

Question 10

Reasons for the decline in marriage: Children are now an economic liability

Why did this happen?

Answer 10

Before: Children were economic assests to their parents because they could be sent to work from an early age to earn income
Since the late 19th Century: Children have become economic liability

1) Laws banning child labour, introduction of compulsory schooling and raising the school leaving age.

2) Changing the norms: about what children have have a right to expect from their parents in material terms —- cost of bringing up children has risen

Due to this financial pressure on parents , they feel less able/ willingly in the past to have a large family

Question 11

Reasons for the decline in marriage: child centredness

Answer 11

-Increasing child centredness both of family and society means that childhood is socially constructed .

• Terms of family size: encouraged a shift from ‘quantity ‘ to ‘quality’ — means parents now have fewer children and lavish more attention and resources on these

Question 12

Effects of changes in fertility : family

Answer 12

• a fall in the number of children reduces the ‘burden of dependency’ on the working population
  fewer babies being born means fewer adults and fewer working population so burden of dependency may increase again

Vanishing family: falling fertility means fewer children— so childhood would become lonelier as they’ll have fewer siblings

Question 13

Effects of changes in fertility : the dependency ratio

Answer 13

-measures the % of of dependent people (not of working age) / number of people with working age

-smaller families means women are more likely to be free to go to work— creates a dual earner couple

Question 14

Effects of changes in fertility : public services and policies

Answer 14

-lower birth rate has consequences on public services
E.g : Schools , maternity and child services may not be needed. effects the type of houses needed to be built.

-an ageing population: women having fewer babies is the average age of the population is rising: there’s more old people than young

Question 15

Reasons for the decline in the death rate: improved nutrition

Answer 15

Mckeown (1972): argues that improved nutrition accounted for up to half the reduction in death rates and was particularly important in reducing the number of deaths from tuberculosis.

Better nutrition= higher resistance to infection and increased survival chances of those who became infected.

Question 16

Criticisms of Mckeown:

Answer 16

Does not explain why females lived longer than males although they received a smaller share of the family food supply.

Fails to explain why deaths from diseases such as measles and infant diarrhoea rows at a time of improving nutrition.

Question 17

Reasons for the decline in the death rate: Medical improvements

Answer 17

-Before 1950s - medical improvements = almost no part in reduction of deaths from infectious diseases.

-After 1950s - improved medical knowledge, techniques and organisation did help reduce death rates. Things such as
antibiotics were introduced, immunisation blood transfusion and improved maternity services were also brought about.

-1948 - NHS introduced

Improved medication, introduction of bypass surgery and other developments have also reduced deaths from heart
disease by 1/3.

Question 18

criticisms of medical improvements

Answer 18

• deaths caused by covid-19

Question 19

Reasons for the decline in the death rate: Smoking and diet

Answer 19

Harper: greatest fall of death rates have come from the reduction of the amount of people who smoke.

However, in the 21st century, obesity has replaced smoking as the new ‘lifestyle epidemic’ e.g in 2012 in the UK, ¼ of the adults were obese.

Although obesity has increased, deaths from obesity have been kept low as a result of drug therapies.

Harper- we may be moving to an American health culture where the lifestyle is unhealthy but longer lifespan is achieved through the use of medication.

Question 20

Reasons for the decline in the death rate: Public health measures

Answer 20

20th Century, the government passed laws to improve public health.

Examples:
-Improvements in housing (Drier, better ventilated and not overcrowded)

-Purer drinking water

-Pasteurisation of milk

-Better sewage disposal

-Clean Air acts reduced air pollution- ULEZ

Question 21

Reasons for the decline in the death rate: Other social reasons:

Answer 21

-Decline of dangerous manual jobs e.g. mining

-Smaller families so less infection transmission

-Greater public knowledge of illness causes

-Lifestyle changes e.g. reduction in men who smoke

-Higher income so healthier lifestyle can be afforded

Question 22

Reasons for the decline in the death rate: Life expectancy

Answer 22

-Death rates have fallen so there is a higher life expectancy.

-Harper stated that if the trend towards a longer lifespan continues, ‘radical longevity’ will be achieved and there will be more centurions (people over 100). There are already 10,000 in the UK now, so it is predicted that there will be a million by 2100.

Question 23

statistics for life expectancy

Answer 23

-Males born in 1900 had a life expectancy of 50. Females had 57.

-Males born in 2013 had a life expectancy of 90.7 and females had 94.

There was a lower life expectancy in 1900 because children rarely survived early life stages.

A newborn baby now has a higher chance of reaching 65 than a 1900 baby had of reaching 1.