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Sociology - Family > Demographics > Flashcards

Demographics Flashcards

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Sociology 101 flashcards
1
Q

How are family and the population linked?

A
  • New members of the population are usually raised by their family, and the level of care they receive determines their chances of survival.
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2
Q

What factors affect population size? (4 examples)

A
  • Births - how many babies are born
  • Deaths - how many people die
  • Immigration - how many people leave the country to live elsewhere.
  • Emigration - how many people enter the country from elsewhere.
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3
Q

What is the definition for birth rate?

A
  • Number of live births per thousand of the population per year.
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4
Q

What are the patterns and trends in birth rates?

Give at least 4 examples

A
  • Long term decline in the number of births since 1900.
  • 1900 - England and Wales - birth rate of 28.7 - 2014 - fallen to around 12.2.
  • Fluctuations in the number of births - three ‘baby booms’ in the 20th century:

1) First baby boom came after the two world wars as returning service men and their partners started families.
2) Third baby boom - 1960s - birth rate fell sharply during the 1970s.

  • Birth rate rose during the 1980s
  • Fell again after the early 1990s with some increase since 2001.
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5
Q

What are the factors which determine birth rate?

A
  • Number of women who are of childbearing age

- How fertile women are

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6
Q

What is the total fertility rate?

A
  • Average number of children women have during their years of fertility.
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7
Q

What are the patterns and trends in the total fertility rate for the UK?
Give at least 4 examples.

A

At least 4 examples from:

  • Risen in recent years but much lower than the past
  • 2001 - women had an average of 1.63 children
  • 2014 - women had an average of 1.83 children
  • 1964 - during the 1960s baby boom - women had an average of 2.95.
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8
Q

What do changes in birth and fertility rates reflect?

A
  • More women are remaining childless
  • Women are postponing having children - the average age is now 30 years.
  • Fertility rates for women in their 30s and 40s are on the increase.
  • Older women may be less fertile and fewer fertile years remaining - they produce less children
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9
Q

What are the reasons for the decline in birth rates?

A
  • Changes in the position of women
  • Decline in the infant mortality rate
  • Children becoming an economic liability
  • Child centeredness
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10
Q

How might changes in the position of women impact on the decline in birth rates? (Give at least 2 reasons)

A
  • Women have more legal equality with men - the right to vote.
  • Increased educational opportunities - women now do better than men in school.
  • More women are in paid employment
  • Laws to protect women against unequal pay
  • Changes in attitudes towards the role of women in the family
  • Women now have easier access to divorce
  • More access to abortion and contraception - gives women more control over their fertility.
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11
Q

How might the decline in infant mortality rates impact on the decline in birth rates?

A
  • Couples are wanting to have less children - likely-hood of their existing children dying as infant is less.
  • Parents want to invest more time for their existing children so don’t want as many.
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12
Q

How might children becoming an economic liability impact on the decline in birth rates?

A
  • Until late 19th Century - children were economic assets because they could earn and income.
  • Since late 19th Century - children have become economic liabilities because of laws such banning child labour, compulsory education and higher school leaving age etc.
  • Being an economic liability for longer - costs of raising children has risen - people may therefore choose to have fewer children.
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13
Q

How might child centeredness impact on the decline in birth rates?

A
  • Parents are having fewer children but wanting to spend more time with the ones they do have.
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14
Q

What does the infant mortality rate measure?

A

The number of infants who die before their first birthday, per thousand of alive babies born each year.

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15
Q

What was the infant mortality rate for the UK in 1900?

A

154 - meaning over 15% of babies died within their first year of life.

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16
Q

What were the reasons for the fall in the infant mortality rate for the UK, in the 1st half of the 20th Century?
Give at least three examples

A
  • Improved housing and better sanitation - reduced amount of infectious diseases
  • Better nutrition for mother and child - children were healthier and more likely to survive
  • Better knowledge of hygiene, child health and welfare - often spread via women’s magazines.
  • A fall in the number of women working - may have improved both the health of the mother and baby.
  • Improved services for mothers and children - antenatal and postnatal classes
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17
Q

What medical changes impacted on the decrease of the infant mortality rate from the 1950s onwards?

A
  • Mass immunisations against childhood diseases such as whooping cough and measles.
  • Use of antibiotics - fight infection
  • Improved midwifery and ultrasound techniques
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18
Q

What was the result of medical changes on the infant mortality rate?

A
  • UK IMR had fallen to 30 - and by 2012 had fallen to 4.
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19
Q

What are the future trends in UK birth rates?

A
  • Immigration has caused:
    1) Families to be smaller
    2) Birth and fertility rates to decrease
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20
Q

What are the effects of changes in fertility?

A

1) Smaller families
2) The dependency ratio
3) Public services and policies

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21
Q

How has the effects of changes in fertility resulted in smaller families?

A
  • Women are more likely to be free to work and create a dual earner family.
  • More wealthy couples may be able to afford the costs of childcare - needed to allow parents to work full time and still have a large family.
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22
Q

What is the dependency ratio?

A
  • Relationship between the size of the working/productive part of the population, and the non-working/dependent part of the population.
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23
Q

How does changes in fertility impact on the dependency ratio?

A
  • Fall in the number of dependent children reduces the ‘burden of dependency’ on the working population.
  • Long term - fewer babies being born means a smaller working population - dependency ratio could increase again.
  • Childhood may become a lonelier experience - fewer children have siblings.
  • Non working old are economically dependent - fewer babies means the working population able to provide for the old will be smaller.
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24
Q

How would a fall in birth rates impact on public services and policies?

A
  • Fewer schools, maternity and child health services may be needed.
  • Impact on the cost of maternity and paternity leave.
  • Impact on types of houses that need to be built.
  • The government could decide to reduce school class sizes, instead of reducing the number of schools.
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25
Q

What is the definition for death rate?

A

Number of deaths per thousand of the population per year

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26
Q

What are the patterns and trends in death rates?

Give at least two examples

A

At least two from:

  • 1900 - death rate at 19 but by 2012 - 8.9 (more than halved)
  • Begun to fall about 1970 - continued until 1930.
  • Rose slightly in 1930s and 40s
  • Declined slightly since 1950s
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27
Q

What are the reasons for the decline in death rate?

A

1) Changes in health
2) Improved nutrition
3) Medical improvements
4) Smoking and diet
5) Public health measures
6) Other social changes

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28
Q

How have changes in health impacted on the decline in death rate?

A
  • By the 1950s, diseases affluence replaced infectious diseases.
  • Cancer usually affects old/middle aged people.
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29
Q

What are some examples of ‘diseases of affluence’?

Give two examples

A
  • Heart disease

- Cancer

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30
Q

What is one possible reason for the decline in death rate due to ill health?

A

At least one from:

  • Natural resistance to diseases
  • The diseases have become less powerful
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31
Q

How have medical improvements impacted on the decline in death rate?

A
  • Before 1950s - medical improvements played no part in the reduction of deaths caused by infectious diseases.
  • After the 1950s - improved medical knowledge and techniques helped reduce death rate.
  • Recently - improved medication, by-pass surgery/other developments - reduced number of deaths caused by heart disease by 1/3.
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32
Q

Give at least three examples of medical improvements that have impacted on the decline in death rate

A

At least three from:

1) Introduction of antibiotics
2) Immunisation
3) Blood transfusion
4) Improved maternity services
5) Introduction of NHS - 1948

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33
Q

How have public health measures impacted on the decline in death rate?

Give at least two examples of the laws passed.

A

An improved government (20th Century) had the power to pass new laws, including (at least two of following):

1) Housing - drier, better ventilated and less overcrowded
2) Purer drinking water
3) Combat adulteration of food
4) Milk pasteurisation
5) Improved sewage disposal methods

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34
Q

What are examples of other social changes that impacted on the decline in death rate?
Give at least three examples

A

At least three from:

1) Decline in dangerous occupations, such as mining
2) Smaller families - reduced infection transmission rate
3) Greater public knowledges of the causes of illness
4) Lifestyle changes inc. the reduction in the amount of men who smoke.
5) Higher incomes to allow healthier lifestyles

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35
Q

What is the definition for life expectancy?

A
  • How long, on average, a person born in a given year can expect to live.
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36
Q

How has life expectancy increased?

Give at least two examples

A

1) Males born in England in 1900 could expect to live until 50 years.
2) Females born in England in 1900 could expect to live until 57 years.
3) Males born in England in 2013 can now expect to live for 90.7 years.
4) Females born in England in 2013 can now expect to live for 94 years.

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37
Q

Over the past century, how has life expectancy increased?

A

By about two years per decade

38
Q

What is one possible reason for the lower average life expectancy in 1900?

A
  • The fact that so many infants and children didn’t survive beyond early years of life.
39
Q

What factors are important in comparing life expectancy?

A

1) Class differences
2) Gender differences
3) Regional differences

40
Q

Who Is likely to live longer, men or women?

A

Women

41
Q

How has that gap in life expectancy between men and women changed, and what is the reason for this?

A
  • It has narrowed

Reason - changes in employment and lifestyle (more women are now smoking more)

42
Q

Depending on the location that people live, who is likely to have a lower life expectancy?

A

Those living in Scotland or the North of England

43
Q

Depending on job type, who is likely to have a lower life expectancy?

A

Working class men in unskilled or routine jobs (likely to die before the age of 65 years)

44
Q

What are the patterns and trends in the average age of the UK population?

Give at least two examples.

A
  • The average age of the UK population is rising.
  • In 1971, it was 34.1 years, by 2013 it stood at 40.3 and by 2037 is predicted to be 42.8.
  • There are now fewer young people and more older people.
  • The number of people aged 65 or over equalled the number of people aged 15 years or under for the first time ever in 2014.
45
Q

What to do age pyramids show?

A
  • How the proportion of older members of the population is growing, whilst younger groups shrinking
46
Q

What factors cause the ageing population?

Give at least two examples

A

At least two from:

  • Increasing life expectancy - people are living longer into old age.
  • Declining infant mortality - nowadays hardly anyone dies in early life
  • Declining fertility - fewer young people are being born in relation to the number of older people in the population
47
Q

What are the effects of an ageing population?

A

1) Increased pressure on public services
2) One person pensioner households
3) The growth of ageism
4) Modern society and old age
5) Postmodern society and old age
6) Inequality among the old

48
Q

What is the reason why public services are in more demand due to an ageing population?

A

Older people consume a larger portion of services such as health and social care than other groups of people.

49
Q

What has happened to the number of one person pensioner households?

Give the percentage figure for one person pensioner households, if possible.

A

It has increased

One person pensioner households account for 12.5% of all households.

50
Q

Why is it that most people living in one person pensioner households are women?

A
  • Because women live longer

- Because women are usually younger than their male partners.

51
Q

What is the trend in age patterns among people aged 75 years or over, and what is this idea referred to as?

A
  • There are twice as many women as men.

Described as the ‘feminisation of later life’

52
Q

What does the idea of ‘the growth of ageism refer to?

A
  • The negative stereotyping and unequal treatment of people on the basis of their age.
53
Q

How does ageism towards older people show itself?

A
  • Discrimination in employment

- Unequal treatment in healthcare

54
Q

How does the fact that older people are largely excluded from paid work, have an impact?

A
  • It means that they are more likely to be economically dependent on their families or the state.
55
Q

In modern society, how is a person’s identity and status largely determined?

A
  • By their role in production
56
Q

How does the fact that in modern society, identity and status is usually determined by their role in production, impact on older people?

A
  • People who are excluded from production via compulsory retirement have a dependent status and stigmatised identity.
57
Q

How is age important in role allocation?

A

As it allows for the creation of:

  • Fixed life stages
  • Age related identities such as worker or pensioner.
58
Q

What does the fact that the elderly are excluded from the labour force do?

A
  • Make them powerless and dependent
59
Q

What would postmodernists argue about fixed life stages?

A

That they have been broken down because:

  • Children are dressing more like adults
  • Later marriage and early retirement has resulted in the boundaries between life stages being blurred.
  • This gives people are greater choice of lifestyle regardless of their age.
60
Q

How does the fact that older people are subject to discrimination impact their life, and what evidence is there for this?

A
  • It limits their lifestyle choices.

Evidence:
- Age Concern (2004) found that more people (29%) reported suffering from age discrimination, than discrimination of any other form.

61
Q

What is the definition for migration?

A
  • The movement of people from place to place. It can be internal, within the society, or international.
62
Q

What are the three types of migration?

A
  • Immigration
  • Emigration
  • Net migration
63
Q

What is the definition for immigration?

A
  • Where someone moves into another country or society.
64
Q

What is the definition of emigration?

A
  • Where someone moves out of the country or society.
65
Q

What is the definition for net migration?

A
  • The difference between the number of immigrants and the number of emigrants.
66
Q

What are the patterns and trends in UK migration?

Give at least 4 examples.

A

At least four examples from:

1) For most of the 20th century until the 1980s, there were fewer immigrants than emigrants.
2) From 1900 until the Second World War, the largest Immigrant group whether Irish, mainly for economic reasons, followed by Eastern and Central European Jews who were often fleeing persecution, and people of British descent from Canada and USA.
3) Very few immigrants were non-white.
4) 1950s - black immigrants from the Caribbean started to arrive in UK.
5) Black immigrants of the 1950s were closely followed by South Asian immigrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
6) East African Asians from Kenya and Uganda came to the UK in the 1960s and 70s.
7) More people left the UK than entered, and most immigrants were white.
8) Since 1900, emigrants have gone to the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

67
Q

What have the main reasons for emigration been?

A
  • Economic
68
Q

What are ‘push’ factors?

A
  • Something that makes people want to leave a place or escape from a particular situation.
69
Q

What are ‘pull’ factors?

A
  • Something that attracts people to go and live in a particular place.
  • They are responsible for the dictating where migrants end up.
70
Q

What are possible examples of ‘push’ factors for migration?

A
  • An economic recession and unemployment in their home country.
71
Q

What are possible examples of ‘pull’ factors for migration?

A
  • Higher wages/better opportunities abroad.
72
Q

What are the consequences of migration?

A
  • UK now has a more ethnically diverse society. By 2011, ethnic minority groups accounted for 14% of the population.
  • Greater diversity in terms of family types.
73
Q

What is the impact of migration on the structure of the UK population?

A

1) Population size
2) Age structure
3) Dependency ratio

74
Q

In what state is the net migration figure? Give an example

A

High - 260,000 in the UK in 2014

75
Q

What were the trends in migration in 2014? Give at least two examples

A
  • 47% of immigrants were non-EU citizens
  • 33% of immigrants were EU citizens - came from mainly Eastern Europe.
  • 14% of immigrants were British citizens returning to the UK.
76
Q

What is likely to happen to the UK population size if migration levels fall?

A
  • It would shrink
77
Q

In what ways has the population size increased as a result of natural cause?

A
  • When the numbers of births exceed the number of deaths.
  • Births to UK mothers are low
                                    BUT
  • Births to non-UK mothers are higher
    (account for 25% of all births)
78
Q

How does immigration impact on the age structure of the UK?

A
  • Lowers the age of the population (directly and indirectly)
79
Q

How does immigration directly impact on the age structure of the UK?
Give an example

A
  • Immigrants are generally younger.

Example - in 2011 the average age of UK passport holders was 41 where as that of non-UK passport holders living in the UK was 31 years.

80
Q

How does immigration indirectly impact on the age structure of the UK?

A
  • Immigrants are younger - more fertile and produce more babies.
81
Q

How does immigration effect the dependency ratio?

Give at least two examples

A

At least two from the following:

  • Immigrants are more likely to be of working age - helps lower the dependency ratio.
  • Many older migrants may return to their home country to retire.
  • Immigrants are generally younger - they have more children - increases the ratio.
  • However as these children grow up and join the labour force they help to lower the ratio once again.
  • The longer a group is settled in the country, the closer their fertility rate comes to the national average, reducing their impact on the dependency ratio.
82
Q

What is globalisation?

A
  • The idea that barriers between societies are disappearing and that people are becoming Increasingly interconnected.
83
Q

What is globalisation result of?

Give at least two examples.

A

At least two from the following:

  • The growth of communication systems and global media.
  • The creation of a global markets.
  • The fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the expansion of the European Union.
84
Q

What has happened to the rate of migration?

Give an example.

A
  • It has sped up.

Example:

  • Between 2003 and 2013 international migration increased by 33% - according to the United Nations 2013.
  • In the same year 862,000 people either entered or left the UK.
85
Q

What are the different types of migrant?

Give at least two examples

A

At least two examples from:

  • Permanent settlers
  • Temporary workers
  • Spouses (husbands or wives of people)
  • Forced migrants (i.e. refugees or asylum seekers)
86
Q

What is an asylum seeker?

A
  • Someone who has left their home country as a political refugee and is now seeking asylum into another.
87
Q

How is globalisation creating diversity?

A
  • More types of migration:

Example:

  • Students now a major group of migrants.
  • UK 2014 - more Chinese born postgraduate students than UK postgraduate students.
  • Before the 1990s, immigration to the UK came from a fairly narrow range from British colonies. Most of these migrants had the right to settle and become citizens.
88
Q

How are individuals different, even from within the same ethnic group?

A
  • Individuals differ in legal status.

- A given ethnic group may also be divided by culture or religion and be widely dispersed throughout the UK

89
Q

What is the feminist view of migration?

A

They believe that:

  • In the past, most migrants were men.
  • However, today, almost half of all global migrants are women.
  • Increase in female migrants - caused by the globalisation of the gender division of labour, where female migrants find they are fitted into patriarchal stereotypes about women’s roles as carers or providers of sex.
90
Q

How did migrant identities differ?

A
  • Migrants and their descendents from the country of origin may provide a source of identity additional to family, friends, ethnicity and religion for example.
  • Migrants may develop hybrid identities which are made up of two or more sources.
  • People with hybrid identities may find that people challenge their identity and accuse them of not fitting in.
91
Q

What has migration become an important political issue?

Give at least three examples

A

At least three from the following:

  • States now have policies that seek control of immigration, absorb migrants into society and deal with increased cultural diversity and ethnic diversity.
  • Policies have become linked to national security and anti-terrorism policies.
  • Assimilationism was the first state policy implemented in order to do with immigration. It aimed to encourage immigrants to adopt the language, values and customs of the host culture to make them ‘like us’.
  • Assimilationalist policies face the problem that transnational migrants with hybrid identities may not be willing to abandon their culture or see themselves as just belonging to one country.
  • Multiculturalism accepts that migrants may wish to retain a separate culture identity.
  • In practise, acceptance may be limited to more superficial aspects of cultural diversity.
  • Critics argue that multicultural educational policies celebrate shallow diversity such as diverse food rather than deep diversity examples such as the racism that migrants face.

Sociology - Family (14 decks)

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