demography

Question 1

what is demography?

Answer 1

the study of population, including factors affecting its size and growth, whether a population is growing, declining or stable depends on four factors:

births and immigration (increase population)
deaths and emigration (decrease population)

natural change is number of births minus deaths, net migration is number of immigrants minus emigrants

Question 2

how has UK population changed?

Answer 2

grew from 37m in 1901 to 67m in 2022 and projected to be 71m in 2031

growth has been mostly due to natural change rather than net migration

Question 3

what is birth rate?

Answer 3

number of live births per 1000 of the population per year

there has been a long-term decline in the birth rate, 29 in 1900 and 12 in 2014

but there have been fluctuations, three ‘baby booms’; after two world wars (returning servicemen starts families they had postponed during war) and in 1960s

Question 4

what is total fertility rate?

Answer 4

average number of children a women will have during her fertile years

1960s baby boom it reached average of 2.95 per women, declining to all-time low in 2001 of 1.63, rose to 1.83 in 2014

total fertility rate affects family and household size, the more children a woman has the bigger the family

Question 5

what are important trends in fertility and birth rates?

Answer 5

more women are remaining childless than in the past

women are having children later, average age is now over 30 and fertility rates for women in 30s and 40s are on the increase

Question 6

what are reasons for the fall in birth rates?

Answer 6

changes in women’s position
decline in infant mortality rate
children are now an economic liability
child centredness

Question 7

how does changes in women position cause fall in birth rate?

Answer 7

increased educational opportunities (girls do better at school than boys), change in mindset

more women in paid work, laws outlawing unequal pay and sex discrimination

access to abortion and reliable contraception give women more control over their fertility

Question 8

how does decline in infant mortality rate cause fall in birth rate?

Answer 8

infant morality rate is number of infants who die before their first birthday per 1000 babies per year, it has greatly fallen in the last century, 154 in 1900 and 4 in 2016

if many infants die, parents have more children to replace those they have lost, if they survive, parents will have fewer

reasons for fall in IMR include improved housing, nutrition and health services (including that of mothers), mass immunisation, antibiotics

Question 9

how do children as an economic liability cause fall in birth rate?

Answer 9

until late 19th century, children were an economic asset because they went to work from an early age

laws banning child labour and introducing compulsory schooling mean they remain economically dependent for longer

changing norms about children’s right to a high standard of living raises their cost

so parents may be unable to afford to have a large family

Question 10

how does child centredness cause fall in birth rate?

Answer 10

childhood is now socially constructed as a uniquely important period, led to a shift from ‘quantity’ to ‘quality’, parents now have fewer children and lavish more attention and resources on these few

Question 11

what are the effects of a falling birth rate?

Answer 11

the family: women are freer to go out to work, creating dual earner couple

dependency ratio: relationship between size of working population and dependent, non-working population, fewer children reduces ‘burden of dependency’ on working population (long term, smaller working population and increased burden of dependency)

public services: fewer schools and child health services needed, less spent b maternity and paternity leave, but these are political decisions as government can choose to reduce number of schools or to have smaller class sizes

Question 12

death statistics

Answer 12

number of deaths: stable since 1900 (600,000 a year), fluctuations including two world wars and 1918 flu epidemic

death rate: number of deaths per thousand per year, halved from 19 in 1900 to 8.9 in 2012

Question 13

reasons for decline in death rate

Answer 13

improved nutrition
medical improvements
public health improvements
other social changes

Question 14

how does improved nutrition cause decline in death rate?

Answer 14

McKeown said better diet accounted for half the reduction in death rate, by increasing peoples resistance to infection

but doesn’t explain why females who received a smaller share of family food supply, lived longer than males

Question 15

how does public health improvements cause decline in death rate?

Answer 15

more effective government with the power to pass and enforce laws led to improved public health e.g. better housing, purer drinking water and cleaner air

Question 16

how do other social changes cause decline in death rate?

Answer 16

decline of dangerous manual occupations e.g. mining
smaller families reduced transmission of infection
greater public knowledge of causes of illness

Question 17

age population statistics

Answer 17

1971 average age was 34 years, now nearly 40, reach 42 by 2031, number of over-65s equalled under-15s for first time ever in 2014, reasons for ageing:

increasing life expectancy - people are living longer
low infant mortality - babies no longer die in large numbers
declining fertility - fewer young people are being born

Question 18

what are the effects of an ageing population?

Answer 18

public services: older people consumer more health and social care services

more one-pensioner households: now account for 1 in 7 households

rising dependency ratio: non-working old need to be provided for by those of working age e.g. through taxation to pay for pensions and health care, as number of retired people rises, dependency ration increases (offset by declining number of dependent children)

ageism: age statuses are socially constructed, old age is often constructed as a problem, negative stereotyping often portrays the old as incompetent and a burden

Question 19

policy implications of an ageing population

Answer 19

Hirsch argues that we will need new policies to finance a longer old age, this could be done either by paying more in taxes or by raising the retirement age e.g. increase in women’s pensionable age from 60 to 65

housing policy may need to change to encourage older people to ‘trade down’ into smaller accommodation, releasing wealth to improve their standard of living

Question 20

old age in modern society

Answer 20

life is structured into fixed age stages and age-related identities e.g. pupil, worker, pensioner

old are excluded from paid work so economically dependent, identity and status determined by rule in production, old excluded from production so dependent status and stigmatised stigmatised identity

Question 21

old age in postmodern society

Answer 21

postmodernists argue that fixed stages of life course have broken down, giving individuals a greater choice of lifestyle, whatever their age

consumption not production becomes the key tour identities

the old become a market for a vast range of ‘body maintenance’ goods and services e.g. gym memberships and anti-ageing products

Question 22

inequality among the old

Answer 22

class: middle class have bigger pensions and savings and a longer life expectancy
gender: women’s lower earnings and role as carers mean lower pensions, subject to sexist as well as ageist stereotyping

(use to criticise postmodernists as there are still structural inequalities among the old)

Question 23

what is migration?

Answer 23

migration is the movement of people, affects the size and age structure of the population

until 1980s more people left the UK than entered it

Question 24

immigration

Answer 24

from 1900 to 1940s largest immigrant groups in the UK were the Irish, European jews and people of British descent from Canada and USA, few non-white

during 1950s-70s, non-white immigrants began to come from the carribean, Africa and South Asia, 2011 minority ethic groups account 14%

immigration and nationality acts from 1962 to 1990 placed severe restrictions of non-white immigrants, by 1980s non-whites were a quarter of immigrants and mainly white countries of EU became main source of immigrants

Question 25

emigration

Answer 25

since 1900, most emigrants have gone to USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the main reasons have been economic:

push factor: unemployment and economic recession
pull factor: higher wages or better opportunities

contrast with reasons for migration of other groups e.g. religious, political or racial persecution

Question 26

what is the impact of migration on UK population structure?

Answer 26

population size: uk population growing, partly due to immigration, net migration is high but also a natural increase

age structure: immigration lowers average age of population, directly as immigrants are generally younger, indirectly as younger so more fertile

dependency ratio: immigrants likely of working age so lower dependency ration, but have more children thereby increasing ratio

Question 27

how does globalisation affect migration?

Answer 27

acceleration: globalisation producing increasing migration e.g. between 2000 and 2013 migration increased by 33%

differentiation

feminisation of migration: half of all global migrants are female, resulted in globalisation of gender divisions of labour, female migrants given stereotyped roles as carers of providers of sexual services

migrant identities

Question 28

what is differentiation?

Answer 28

there are many types of migrant: permanent settlers, temporary workers, spouses, refugees and asylum seekers, some may have legal entitlement while others enter without permission

super-diversity: before 1990s, UK immigrants mainly came from a few British ex-colonies, now come from many more countries and a given ethnic group may also be divided by culture or religion

Cohen identifies class differences among migrants:
citizens - full rights e.g. voting rights
denizens - privileged foreign nationals e.g. billionaire oligarchs
helots - disposable labour power found in unskilled, poorly paid work

Question 29

migrant identies

Answer 29

migrants may develop hybrid identities from two or more different sources, accused of not ‘fitting in’

transnational identities: Erickson notes that globalisation creates back and forth movements of people through networks, rather than permanent settlement in another country

rather than seeing themselves as belonging to one country, migrants may develop transnational identities, modern technology makes it possible to sustain global ties without having to travel

Question 30

the politicisation of migration

Answer 30

states have policies to control immigration and deal with cultural diversity, linked to national security and anti-terrorism

assimilationsim: first policy approach to immigration, aims to encourage immigrants to adopt the language, values and customs of the host culture
multiculturalism: accepts migrants may wish to retain a separate cultural identity, in practice acceptance limited to superficial differences e.g. food (shallow diversity) not fundamental ones e.g. veiling of women (deep diversity)

divided working class: assimilationist ideas encourage workers to blame migrants for problems such as unemployment (racist scapegoating), benefits capitalism by dividing working class

Question 30

the politicisation of migration

Answer 30

states have policies to control immigration and deal with cultural diversity, linked to national security and anti-terrorism

assimilationsim: first policy approach to immigration, aims to encourage immigrants to adopt the language, values and customs of the host culture
multiculturalism: accepts migrants may wish to retain a separate cultural identity, in practice acceptance limited to superficial differences e.g. food (shallow diversity) not fundamental ones e.g. veiling of women (deep diversity)

divided working class: assimilationist ideas encourage workers to blame migrants for problems such as unemployment (racist scapegoating), benefits capitalism by dividing working class