demographics

Question 1

reasons for decline in birth rate

Answer 1

changes in women’s position
decline in infant mortality rate
children are no an economic liability
child centredness

Question 2

changes in womens position definition

Answer 2

-legal equality with men, increased educational opportunities, women in paid employment, changes in attitude to family life, easier access to divorce, access to abortion/contraception

Question 3

decline in infant mortality rate definition

Answer 3

-if many infants die then parents have more children to replace those that are lost which increases birth rate
-IMR in UK showed over 15% of babies died within their first year, these figures are higher than those of less developed countries
decrease in IMR could be due to:
improved housing and sanitation, better nutrition, better knowledge of hygiene and improved services

Question 4

children are now an economic liability definition

Answer 4

until late 19th century children were economic assets which theyve now become a liability
due to:
-laws banning child labour, compulsory schooling, raising school leaving age so children remain economically dependant on their parents for longer
-changing norms about what children expect from parents in material terms so cost of children has risen
=parents are less able to have more children

Question 5

child centredness definition

Answer 5

childhood is now socially constructed as a uniquely important period of someones life so this has encouraged a shift from quantity to quality so parents have fewer children and lavish more attention and resources on the children they already have

Question 6

dependency ratio definition and what does this mean in terms of children

Answer 6

relationship between the size of working or productive part of the population to the size of non-working part of population - children increase the ‘dependent’ part of population so a fall in the number of children = reduces ‘burden of dependency’ on working population
-however fewer babies mean less working population in the future

Question 7

consequences of lower birth rate

Answer 7

problems for public services e.g fewer schools, maternity and child health services ma be needed - also it affects cost of maternity and paternity leave and types of housing that need to be built however we should remember that many of these are political decisions e.g instead of reducing numbers of schools the gov could create smaller class sizes

Question 8

reasons for decline in death rate

Answer 8

improved nutrition
medical improvements
smoking nd diet
public health measures
other social changes