Demography

Question 1

what is demography

Answer 1

This refers to the size of the population and how that directly impacts the family.

Question 2

TFR

Answer 2

1.58 2021

Question 3

reasons for declining birth rate

Answer 3

1. Changes in womens position
2. Decline in Infant Mortality Rate
3. Children are now an economic liability

Question 4

changes in womens position

Answer 4

Major changes in the position of women occurred during the 20th century, these includes legal equality, increased educational opportunities, more women in paid employment, changes in attitudes, easier access to divorce, and access to abortion and contraception which gives women more control over fertility, According to Harper, the education of women is the most important reason for the long term decline in birth and fertility rates. It has led to a change in mindset among women, educated women are more likely to use family planning, they see other possibilities in life apart from the traditional expressive role, and many choose to delay childbearing or not have children in order to pursue a career. All of which has led to fewer children eg in 2015, one in 5 women aged 45 were childless

Question 5

decline in IMR

Answer 5

IMR refers to the number of infants who die before their first birthday, per 1000 births a year. Harper argues that a fall in IMR leads to a fall in the birth rate because if many infants die, parents have more children to replace those they have lost, which increases birth-rate, if infants survive parents will have fewer of them. UK IMR 2022 - 3.4 deaths per 1000 live births. which is a huge fall from 30 in the 1950s ad this is due to several reasons.

Question 6

reasons for fall in IMR

Answer 6

1. Improved housing and better sanitation such as clean drinking water reduced infections, which has made infants less susceptible to infections due to their weak immune system
2. Better nutrition

Question 7

children are now an economic liability

Answer 7

Until the late 19th century, children were economic assets to their parents because they could be sent out to work from an early age to earn income. However, since the late 19th century due to laws and changing norms, children have gradually become an economic liability. As a result of these financial pressures, parents now feel less able or willing than in the past to have a large family.

Question 8

effects of changes in fertility

Answer 8

1. Impact on the family
2. The dependency ratio
3. Vanishing Childhood
4. Public services

Question 9

impact on the family

Answer 9

Smaller families are more likely to be dual-earner as women will be more free to go to work. However, family size is only more factor, wealthier families would be able to have more kids due to childcare access.

Question 10

dependency ratio

Answer 10

DR is the relationship between the size of the working population and the size of the non-working dependent part of the population. Less children means there will be less dependency on families however the dependency ratio may begin to increase again as fewer babies being born mean fewer adults and a smaller working population to pay taxes

Question 11

vanishing childhood

Answer 11

Falling fertility rates means fewer children, childhood may become lonely due to fewer siblings

Question 12

public services

Answer 12

a lower birth rate has consequences for public services. For example, less schools and childcare facilities will be needed. Smaller housing will be built, this will cause the elderly to depend more on public services like the NHS as there will be more older people

Question 13

death rate

Answer 13

9/1000 recently - fallen

Question 14

reasons for the decline in the death rate

Answer 14

1. Improved Nutrition
2. Medical Improvements
3. Smoking and Diet
4. Public health measures

Question 15

improved nutrition

Answer 15

Mckeown argues that improved nutrition accounted for up to half the reduction in death rates and was particularly important in reducing the number of death as better nutrition increased resistance to infection and increased survival chances of those who did become infected. However, Mckeown doesnt explain why women who received a smaller share of the family food lived longer, also death from infections decreased like measles actually rose at the time of improving nutrition

Question 16

medical improvements

Answer 16

From 1950s onwards, improved medical knowledge, techniques and organisation help to reduce death rates. Advances include the introduction of antibiotics, immunisation, blood transfusion, improved maternity services and the setting up of the NHS in 1948. More recent improved medications like bypass surgery have reduced the death rate by heart disease by a third.

Question 17

smoking and diet

Answer 17

According to Harper, the reduction in smoking has made the death rate fall greatly. However, obesity has now replaced smoking as the new lifestyle epidemic. 1/4th of all UK adults were obese 2012, yet although Obesity has increased, deaths from it has been kept low due to drug therapy

Question 18

public health measures

Answer 18

More effective governments have emerged that pass and enforce laws that have led to a range of improvements in public health and the quality of the environment. These include, improvements in housing, better drinking water, food regulation laws and improved waste disposal. The Clean Airs Act reduced air pollution such as smog which was responsible for 4000 deaths in 1952

Question 19

other social changes that have played a part in reducing the death rate

Answer 19

Decline in dangerous manual work like mining, smaller families which reduces the rate of transmission of infections, greater public knowledge of causes of illnesss, lifestyle changes, high income allowing for a healthier lifestyle

Question 20

class, gender and regional differences in death rate

Answer 20

Despite overall reduction in the death rate, there are still important differences. For example, women generally live longer than men. Similarly, those living in the North and Scotland have a lower life expectancy than those in the South. WC men in unskilled labour are nearly 3 times as likely to die before they are 65, compared to MC men in professional jobs

Question 21

the ageing population

Answer 21

THe declining birthrate coupled with the declining deathrate creates an ageing population. This means that the average age of the population is increasing overtime. The average age of people in the UK is now 40, 18% of the population are aged 65 or over and we have more people aged 65 and over than under 16

Question 22

effects of an ageing population

Answer 22

1. Public Services
2. One person pensioner households
3. Dependency ratio

Question 23

public services - AG

Answer 23

Older people consume a larger proportion of services such as health and social care than other age groups. In addition to increased expenditure on healthcare, an ageing population may also mean changes to policies and the provision of housing transport or other services

Question 24

one-person pensioner households

Answer 24

One person pensioner households now account for about 15% or one in seven households, with most of these being female-headed as women live longer than men, Among those over 75, there are twice as many women as men - ‘the feminisation of later life’

Question 25

dependency ratio - AG

Answer 25

Non-working old people are an economically dependent group who need to be provided for by those of working age, through taxation to pay for pensioners and healthcare. As the number of retired people arises, the dependency ratio increases. There were 3.5 people of working age for every pensioner - 2022. However, old doesnt always equal economically dependent. In 2020, the age at which pensioners could access their pension rose from 65 to 66 and will rise further to 68 following recent laws

Question 26

consequences of the ageing population

Answer 26

One consequence of the ageing population is the growth of ageism which is the negative stereotyping and unequal treatment of people on the basis of their age. Ageism shows itself in many ways such as discrimination in employment, unequal treatment in healthcare, negative speech and terminology used to describe the elderly. Old people are seen as a problem, for example, in terms of the cost of pensions. Sociologists argue that ageism is the result of structured dependency. The old are largely excluded from paid work, which leaves them economically dependent on their families or the state. Since our identities in modern societies are largely determined by our role in production, those excluded from production become stigmatised, dependent and powerless.

Question 27

Marxists - consequences of the ageing population

Answer 27

According to Phillipson, the elderly are of no use to capitalism because they are no longer productive. As a result, the state is unwilling to support or care for them which then places care pressure on the family usually the woman. The elderly have become a reserve army of labour used as a free source of childcare for families

Question 28

postmodernism and consequences of the ageing population

Answer 28

PMs argue that in todays PM society, the fixed orderly stages of the life course have become broken down. Old people’s identities are not fixed. The elderly are free to choose their own identities and roles as the boundaries between different life stages have become blurred, and we, therefore, have greater choice over our lifestyle at whatever age. Hunt argues that in a postmodern world, we are defined by consumption, not employment, the old has become a market for a vast range of products aimed at body maintenance and anti-ageing. Hunt argues that this has helped break down the ageist stereotypes that existed in modern societies

Question 29

eval of PM

Answer 29

Pilcher argues that while the orderly stage of life may have been broken down. Inequalities such as class, and gender remain important. Class - the MC have better occupational pensions and can afford a youthful lifestyle while poorer WC old people cannot and they have a shorter life expectancy as a result
Gender - Women have lower pensions due to lower earnings and career breaks. They are also subject to sexist as well as ageist stereotypes for example being described as old hags.
PM understate these inequalities which are related to the structure of wider society and they play a major part in shaping the exp of old age and restricting their freedom to choose an identity through consumption

Question 30

what else apart from natural changes like births and deaths has affected population

Answer 30

Migration

Question 31

key terms associated with migration

Answer 31

Migration
Immigration
Emigration
Net Migration

Question 32

immigration

Answer 32

During the 1950s, black immigrants from the carribean began arriving followed by South Asian and East Africans in the 60s and 70s

Question 33

emigration

Answer 33

The UK was almost always a net exporter of people, more emigrated than more came to settle. Emigrants have gone to the USA, canada, Aus, NZ mainly for economic reasons

Question 34

impact of migration of UK population structure

Answer 34

1. Population Size
2. Age structure
3. Dependency Ratio

Question 35

population size - migration

Answer 35

Population size is currently growing as a result of migration. In 2019 - 671,000 immigrants, there is also a natural increase as births to non-uk mothers are higher and account for about 28% of all births

Question 36

age structure - migration

Answer 36

Immigration lowers the average age of the population directly and indirectly. Directly - immigrants are generally younger. In 2019, 19% of UK-Born population were aged 65 and older, with just 11% of immigrants, 48% of UK born were aged 2-24, migrants 70%. Indirectly - being younger, migrants are more fertile and may produce more babies

Question 37

dependency ratio - migration

Answer 37

Immigrants are more likely to be of working age and this helps to lower the dependency ratio
Immigrants are younger and tend to have more children - increase DR those children join the workforce - decreases DR
The longer the group settles in a country, the closer their fertility rate comes to the national average, reducing their overall impact on the DR

Question 38

TFR for non-uk mothers

Answer 38

1.98 - 2020

Question 39

differentiation - migration

Answer 39

There are many types of migrants, permanent settlers, temporary workers, spouses refugees, asylum seekers. It is suggested that globalisation has increased the diversity of migration. For example, students are now a major group of migrants. Before the 1990s immigrants came from a narrow range of british colonies now in 2020 35% of international students are from china. Vertovec argues that globalisation has led to super-diversity - migrants come from a wider range of countries and ethnic, religous, cultural background. There are also differences among migrants cohen identified 3 types

Question 40

types of migrants

Answer 40

Citizens with full citizenship rights such as voting rights
Denizens - privileged people welcomed by the state such as billionaire oligarchs or highly paid employees of trans-national companies
Helots - states regarded them a disposable units of labour power, a reserve army of labour. They are found in unskilled poorly paid work and include illegally trafficked workers and those legally tied to a particular employer such as domestic servants

Question 41

the feminisation of migration

Answer 41

Majority of migrants tend to be women which reinforces patriarchal stereotypes and has been called the globalisation of gender division of labour. Ehrenreich and Hochschild argue that care work, domestic work and sex work in the UK are increasingly done by women from poorer countries this is due to several trends, the expansion of service occupations which traditionally employ women in western countries has led to an increasing demand for female labour. Western women have joined the labour force and are unwilling to perform domestic labour, western men are also unwilling and the state refuses to provide childcare - 40% of UK nurses are female migrants

Question 42

migrant identities

Answer 42

According to Eriksen, globalisation has created a more diverse migration pattern with back and forth movements of people through networks rather than permanent settlement in another country. As a result, migrants no longer identify with one nationality but they develop transnational identities where instead they identify with a range of places they may have lived in. For example, Eade found that second generation Bangladeshi muslims in the UK created hierarchical identities they were muslim first then bengali then british