Demography Flashcards
Births
- more women are remaining childless
- Women are postponing having children until later on, avg age to have a baby is now 30
The total fertility rate
TFR is the avg number of children women will have during their fertile years.
Its risen recently but still much lower then in the past.
2001 - 1.63
2014- 1.83
1964- 2.95
The changes in the birth rate and TFR just reiterate that women are remainig childless until later on
Reasons for decline in birth rate
Changes in womens positions
- Legal equality with men
- INcreased educational opp
- More women in paid employment more equal pay ect
- Easier access to divorce
- Access to abortion
Sarah Harper argues educational equality is the main reason for a fall in birth rate. Mindsets have changed and they see other possibilities in life now.
Reasons for decline in birth rate
Decline in infant morality rate
Number of babies who die before their 1st bday
Harper argues a higher IMR means a higher BR as parents have more babies to replace the ones lost.
- Improved housing
- Better sanitation
- Better nutrition
Reasons for decline in birth rate
Children are now economic liabilities
- Laws banning child labour, introducing school and compulsory ages to leave meaning kids depend on parents longer
- Changing norms about what children have a right to expect from parents.
- Parents feel less willing to have kids
Reasons for decline in birth rate
Child centeredness
Parents have fewer children who they shower with resources and love.
Future trends in BR
There has been a slight increase in BR since 2001, due to immigrant mothers who have a higher fertility rate then those born in the UK. Babies born to immigrant mothers in 2011 accounted for 25%
Effects of changes in fertility
The family
The family sizes become smaller meaning that women are more likely to go out to work, and be dual-earner homes
However better off families are able to have more kids and still afford childcare.
Effects of changes in fertility
The dependency ratio
Effects of changes in fertility
The dependency ratio
The earnings, savings and taxes of the working population are what support the dependent population, which children make up a majority of, meaning the less children born, the decreased burden of dependancy
However in the long term, that means less young adults to work and save and earn meaning that there is a chance of increased burden of dependancy occuring again.
Vanishing children
Means less children being born, childhood is lonlier, the less adults with children means less people speaking up for rights of children.
Effects of changes in fertility
Public services and policies
Lower birth rate has consequences on public services. It also affects cost of mat/paternity and housing thats needed. These are however, political decisions so they may decide to have smaller class sizes then to have less schools
Effects of changes in fertility
Public services and policies
Lower birth rate has consequences on public services. It also affects cost of mat/paternity and housing thats needed. These are however, political decisions so they may decide to have smaller class sizes then to have less schools
Reasons for decline in the death rate
Improved nutrition
Mckeown argues that an improvement in diet accounted for upto half the reduction in death rate, and was paticularly important in reducing number of deaths from TB.
Howver he fails to exomlain why females, who has smaller shares of food actually lived longer then men and why sme diseases such as measles and infant diaorrhea increased in a time of improving nutrition.
Reasons for decline in the death rate
Medical improvements
After the 50s medical knowledge began improving and we saw death rates drop
- Antibiotics
- blood transfusion
- Improved maternity services
- Setting up of NHS in 48.
- Improved med development has reduced heart disease deaths by a third.
Reasons for decline in the death rate
Smoking and diet
Harper - The drop in death rate has come not from medical improvements but from a reduction in smoking, however this epidemic has been replaced by obesity now. In 2012 a quarter of UK adults were obese.
However deaths from obesity are low as a result of drug therapy.
Reasons for decline in the death rate
Public health measures
More laws passed and enforced leading to an imporvement in health and quality of environment
- Better housing
- Pasteurisation of milk
- Clean air acts
- Purer drinking water
- Improved sewage disposal
Reasons for decline in the death rate
Other social changes
- Decline of dangerous manual occupations
- Smaller families less rate of transmission of sickness
- Greater public knowledge of sickness
- Lifestyle changes, less smokers
- Higher incomes, healther lifestyles
Life expectancy
Death rates have fallen, life expectanc y has increased.
- Males born in Eng in 1900 could live until 50 (W57)
- Males born in Eng in 2013 can expect to live to 90.7(W94)
Past 2 centuries its gone up 2 years per decade
-Lower in 1900 due to high infant mortality rates, baby now more likely or reach 65 then a baby in 1900 was to reach 1.
We can expect to have greater longetivity and radical longetivity with more centurians then ever before.
Class gender and regional differences
- Women usually live longer then men however the gap has narrowed recently due to more women in employment and changes to womens life style such as them smoking
- Working class men in unskilled or routine jobs are near;y 3x more likely to die before theyre 65 compared to those in professional jobs
- Walker 2011 those living in the poorer areas of england are die on avg 7 years earlier then ppl in nicer areas
What 3 factors is the ageing of the population based on?
- Increasing life expectancy
- Declining infant mortality
- Declining fertility
Effects of an ageing population
Public services
Older people consume more health and social care, usually more common in those over 75. However, we must not over generalise as many old people retain good health.
Effects of an ageing population
One-person pensioner households
Number of pensioners living alone has increased, now one person pensioner households account for 1/8 of all households. Most are female as its more common for a woman to live longer then a man.
Ageism, modernity and postmodernity
One consequence is the growth of ageism, negative stereotyping of the old
Ageism, modernity and postmodernity
Modern society and old age
Many sociologists argue that ageism is mainly dependant on the old being largely excluded from paid work therefore depending on the state. In modern society our role is largely dependant on our role in production
Marxist Phillipson argues old are no longer of use to capitalism due to them no longer being productive.
Ageism, modernity and postmodernity
Postmodern society and age
- No longer fixed orderly stages of line, seen through trends such as children dressing like adults and later marriage.
- Production is no longer the key to our personalities, its now consumption
- The old have become a market for a vast range of body rejuvenation products - such as gym, and surgery and filler.
Centrality of the media shows old in a positive light
Emphasis on surface features means the old can change by using anti-aging products
Ageism, modernity and postmodernity
Inequality amongst the old
class - The rich old have higher pensions from their professional jobs therefore can enjoy retirement. Poorer old ppl die sooner and find it hard to maintain a youthful self identity (infirmity)
gender - Women get paid less so have a lower pension and also are more subject to being sterotyped negatively such as being called an old hag.
Ageism, modernity and postmodernity
Policy implications
Hirsch argues a number of important social policies to change to tackle the ageing population and the main issue is how to finance a longer life, this will be by either paying more while working or working longer.
Housing policy will need to change to encourage old people to trade down into smaller housing when they dont need the room.
We need a cultural change regarding the old - its not biologival just socially constructed.
definition Immigration
movement into a society
definiton Emigration
Movement out of a society
definition Net Migration
Diff between number of immigrants and emigrants
Migration
Immigration
From 1900 to WW2 the main group of immigrants were irish, mainly for economic reasons followed by eastern and central jews - very few were nonwhite.
During 1950s, black immigrants from carribean, 1960/70 south asians.
One consequence is a more ethnically diverse society - has led to more diverse family patterns however from 1962 to 1990 immigration and nationality acts put restrictions on non white immigrants
Migration
Emigration
- Push factors are economic recession and unemployment at home
- Pull factors higher wages or better opportunity
Impact of migration on UK population structure
Population size - is growing partly due to immigration, netg migration is high and there is also a natural growth due to more births then deaths, they are still low tho so it is migration stopping UK population from shrinking
Age structure - Immigration lowers avg age of population both directly and directly as immigrants are younger and also indirectly as they are fertile
Immigration on the dependency ratio
- Immigrants more likely to be of working age
- They have more children tho, increasing the ratio
- The longer a group settles the more their fertility rate becomes similar to the country avg
Globalisation and migration
Globalisation is the idea barriers between societies are disappearing and people are becoming more interconnected
Many see globalisation as producing rapid social change, one such change is increased migration - movement of ppl across borders. p
Globalisation and migration
Acceleration
There has been a speeding up of the rate of migration eg according to the UN (2013) between 2000-2013 increased by 33% to make 232 million of the worlds population. in 2013 860000 people either left or entered the UK
Globalisation and migration
Differentiation
Many types of migrant. Including permanent settlers, temp workers, spouses. Some may be here legally while others are illegal. Globalisation is increasing the diversity types of migrant, eg the students are now a major group of migrant.
SUPERDIVERSITY Vertovec calls this migrants come from a wider range of backgrounds and even within one ethic group there are different legal statuses such as spouse or student.
Cohen 3 types of migrant
- citizens with full citizenship rights. since 70s UK state has made it harder for immigrants to get these rights
- denizens are priveleged foreign nationals welcomed by the state such as highly paid individuals of a high status company
- Helots are the most exploited group used for cheap labour found in unskilled work.
Globalisation and migration
Feminisation of migration
Before most migrants were men however now over half are women, this is called the globalisation of the gender divide of labour
Ehreneich and Hochchild find that women from poor countries are more likely to occupy care work domestic work and sex work. This is a result of several trends
- Western women have joined the workforce and therefore cant occupy domestic work
- Failure of state to provide adequate childcare
Mail order brides
Women from poorer countries enter western countries as brides, this reflects gendered and racialised stereotypes eg migrant women as subuservient
What percentage of adult nurses are migrants
40
Migrant identities
Multiple sources of identity - friends family neighbourhood ethnicity
For migrants their country might be an additonal form of identity.
Migrants may form hybrid identities as seen by Eade in second gen bengali muslim.
Transnational identities
Eriksen - globalisation has created more diverse migration patterns and back and forth movement rather then settlement in one country
Migrants are therefore less likely to identify with one country and modern tech also make it possible to have global ties without travellling
The globalised economy
MIgrants may have more links to other migrants
Eriksen found Mandarin speaking migrants found speaking mandarin more useful then speaking italian as it was more important for their global connections.
The politicisation of migration
- Assimilation came first and made us enc ourage immigrants to develop our culture and language in order to make them more ‘like us’.
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Multiculturalism accepts migrants may have different idenities but may/may not accept
Eg Shallow diversity is accepting the states national dish as chicken tikka
Deep diversity is thm not accepting arranged marriage or veiling
A divided working class Assimilation may encourage workers to hate on migrants for social problems eg unemployment
