demography

Question 1

1. Births

Answer 1

Birth rate - the number of live births per thousand of the population per year- long term decline of births since 1900- 28.7 in 1900, 12.2 in 2014- baby booms

Question 2

Total fertility rate TFR

Answer 2

• proportion of women of child bearing age / how fertile they are - TFR = average number of children women will have during their fertile years - risen in recent years from 1.63 in 2001

Question 3

Reasons for the decline in birth rate - changes in women’s position

Answer 3

• legal rights - education - easier access to divorce - birth control and abortion - change in attitude - educated women are more likely to use family planning and see other possibilities

Question 4

Reasons for the decline in birth rate - decline in infant mortality rate

Answer 4

• IMR = the number of infants who die before their first birthday, per thousand babies born alive per year - HARPER said the fall in IMR leads to fall in birth rate/1900 IMR in the UK was 15.4, in 2018 it was 3.8 per 1000

Question 5

During the first half of the 20th century the UK IMR began to fall due to…

Answer 5

• improved housing - better nutrition - better health care - better knowledge of hygiene - fall in number of married women working - improved services, antenatal and postnatal

Question 6

Decline in IMR cont.

Answer 6

• pro mid 20th century medical factors probably had little effect on IMR - from 1950s things such as mass immunisation, use of antibiotics and improved midwifery contributed to fall - BRASS and KABIR said the trend to smaller families began not in rural areas, where the IMR originally began to fall, but in urban areas, where the IMR remained higher for longer

Question 7

Reasons for the decline in birth rate - children are now an economic liability

Answer 7

Until the late 19th century children were an economic asset - laws banning child labour, compulsory schooling and raising school leaving age, children are dependent on parents for longer - changing norms is what children have the right to expect, parents therefore feel less able or willing to have a large family

Question 8

Reasons for the decline in birth rate - childcenteredness

Answer 8

• links to childhood topic - childhood is now socially constructed as an uniquely important period in the individuals life, encouraged a shift from quantity to quality

Question 9

The effects of changes in fertility - the family

Answer 9

Smaller families mean women are more likely to be free to go to work, creating the dual earner couple but family size is only one factor - eg better off couple are able to have large families and still afford childcare allows them both to work

Question 10

The effects of changes in fertility - the dependancy ratio

Answer 10

Relationship between working (independent) and non working (dependant) parts of the population. Less children means ‘reduces the burden of dependancy’ but in the long term there will be a smaller working population and the burden of dependancy may begin to increase again

Question 11

Vanishing children

Answer 11

Childhood may become lonelier, more childless adults might mean less voices speaking up for them or childhood might become more valued

Question 12

The effects of changes in fertility - public services and policies

Answer 12

Fewer schools, child health and maternity services needed. Affects to maternity and paternity leave and the types of home built but many of these are political decisions - eg instead of reducing the number of schools the government could decide to have smaller classes - ageing population is rising because women are having fewer babies, the average age is the population rising. This will have an effect on the type of services needed

Question 13

2. Deaths

Answer 13

The death rate is the number of deaths per thousand of the population per year. In 1900, the death rate stood at 19 whereas by 2012 it had more than halved to 8.9 - the death rate had already began falling from about 1870 and continued to do so until 1930 - it rose slightly during the 1930s and the 1940s, the period of the Great Depression, followed by WW2 but since the 1950s it has slightly declined

Question 14

Reasons for the decline in death rate - improved nutrition

Answer 14

• MCKEOWN argues that improved nutrition accounted for up to half the reduction in death rates and was particularly important in reducing the number of deaths from TB. Better nutrition increases resistance to infection and increased survival chances of those who do become infected - however, he does not explain why females who receive small share of the family food supply have survived longer than men and why deaths for some diseases rose at a time of improving nutrition

Question 15

Reasons for the decline in death rate - medical improvements

Answer 15

After the 1950s, improved medical knowledge, techniques and organisation did help to reduce death rates- introduction of antibiotics/ immunisation - blood transfusion - improved maternity services / nhsMore recently, improved medication, bypass surgery and other developments have reduced deaths from heart disease by 1/3

Question 16

Reasons for the decline in death rate - smoking and diet

Answer 16

According to HARPER, the greatest fall in death rates in recent decades has been from a reduction in smokers - in 1971 the Public Cigarette Smoking Act made it illegal for tobacco companies to advertise cigs anywhere, in 2007 it became illegal to smoke in any pub, restaurant, club, vehicles - obesity increased and has replaced smoking as the lifestyle epidemic - deaths from obesity have been kept low as a result of drug therapies

Question 17

Reasons for the decline in death rate - public health measures

Answer 17

• improved housing - purer drinking water - laws to combat the adulteration of food and drink - the pasturation of milk - improved sewage disposal methods - clean air acts reduced air pollution such as the smog that led to 4000 deaths in 5 days in 1952

Question 18

Other social changes

Answer 18

1. Decline in dangerous manual occupations such as mining 2. Smaller families reduced the rate of transmission of infection 3. Greater public knowledge of the cause of illness 4. Lifestyle changes, especially the reduction in the number of men who smoke 5. Higher incomes, allowing for a healthier lifestyle

Question 19

Class, gender and regional differences

Answer 19

Eg women usually live longer than men however this gap has narrowed due to changes in employment and in lifestyle - people living in northern England and Scotland have a lower life expectancy then those in the south, while WC men in unskilled or routine jobs are nearly 3x more as likely to die before they are 65 compared with men in professional jobs

Question 20

Life expectancy

Answer 20

Refers to how long on average a person born in a specific year is expected to live. As death rates have fallen, the life expectancy has increased - over the past 2 decades, life expectancy has increased by about 2 years per decade - one reason for lower average life expectancy in 1900 was the fact that so many infants and children did not survive beyond the early years of life. A new born baby today has a better chance of reaching its 56th birthday than a baby in 1900 had of reaching its 1st

Question 21

3. The ageing population

Answer 21

The average age of the UK population is rising. In 1971 it was 34.1 and in 2021 it stood at 41.7. There are fewer young people and more old people. As of 2021 in the UK, the amount of people 65 and over is more than the amount of people 15 and under, whereas in 2014 there was an equal number - age pyramids shows how older age groups are growing as a proportion of the population while younger groups are decreasing

Question 22

Causes for ageing population

Answer 22

1. Increasing life expectancy - people living longer into old age 2. Decline infant mortality rate - less children dying before 1st birthday 3. Declining fertility rate - fewer young people being born in relation to the older people in population

Question 23

Public services

Answer 23

Older people consume a larger proportion of services such as heath and social care than other age group, however many people remain in relatively good health well into old age - the prevalence of long term health conditions increases with age

Question 24

One person pensioner households

Answer 24

The number of over 65s living alone in the UK has already risen by 15% in the last decade from 3.4 million in 2008 to 3.9 million in 2018. As a result, the percentage of single person UK households that are aged 65+ has increased from 45% to 48% over the same period. Most of these are female, both because women generally live longer than men and because they are usually younger than their husbands - among the over 75s there are twice as many women as men

Question 25

The dependancy ratio

Answer 25

Further fiscal pressure is also likely to result from a decline in the working population relative to the number of pensioners - a lower proportion of people in work means lower tax revenues and higher public expenditure

Question 26

Age structure

Answer 26

Immigration lowers the average age of the population both directly and indirectly

Question 27

Age structure - directly

Answer 27

Immigrants are generally younger

Question 28

Age structure - indirectly

Answer 28

Being younger, immigrants are more fertile and produce more babies

Question 29

The dependancy ratio - immigration has 3 effects…

Answer 29

1. Immigrants are more likely to be of working age and this helps lower the dependancy ration - many old migrants return to their country of origin to retire 2. Because they are younger, they have more children increasing the ratio - overtime these kids will join the labour force and help lower the ration again 3. The longer a group is settled in the country, the closer their fertility rate comes to the national average, reducing their overall impact on the dependancy ratio

Question 30

Globalisation and migration

Answer 30

Globalisation is the idea that barriers between societies are disappearing and people are becoming increasingly interconnected across national boundaries - is the result of many processes, including the growth of communication systems and global media, the creation of global market, the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the expansion of the European Union - many see globalisation as producing rapid social changes. One such changed is increased international migration - the movement of people across borders

Question 31

Acceleration

Answer 31

There has been a speeding up of the rate of migration

Question 32

Differentiation

Answer 32

There are many types of migrant. These include permanent settlers, temporary workers, spouses, and forced migrants such as refugees and asylum seekers. Some may have legal entitlement while others enter without permission. Globalisation is increasing the diversity of types of migrant

Question 33

Super diversity

Answer 33

Migrants now come from a much wider range of countries. Even within a single ethnic group, individuals differ in terms of their legal staus

Question 34

Class differences among migrants

Answer 34

Citizens with full citizenship rights Denizens are privileged foreign nationals welcomed by the stateHelots are the most exploited group, states and employers regard them as ‘disposable units of labour power’

Question 35

The feminisation of migration

Answer 35

In the past, most migrants were men. Today, however almost half of all global migrants are female. This has been called the globalisation of the gender division of labour, where female migrants find that they are fitted into patriarchal stereotypes about women’s roles as careers or providers of sexual services

Question 36

EHRENREICH and HOCHSCHILD observe that care work, domestic work and sex work in western countries like the UK and USA is increasingly done by women from poor countries. This is a result of…

Answer 36

1. The expansion of service occupations in western countries has led to an increasing demand for female labour 2. Western women have joined the labour force and are less willing or able to perform domestic labour 3. Western men remain unwilling to perform domestic labour 4. The failure of the state to provide adequate childcare

Question 37

Migrant identities

Answer 37

Their country of origin may provide an additional or alternative source of identity. They may develop hybrid identities made up of two or more different sources. Those with hybrid identities may find that others challenge their identity claims or accuse them of not ‘fitting in’

Question 38

Transnational identities

Answer 38

Globalisation has created more diverse migration patterns, with back and forth movements of people through networks rather than permanent settlement in another country - migrants are less likely to see themselves as belonging completely to one cultural area, culture or country, instead they may develop transnational ‘neither/nor’ identities and loyalties - modern technology also makes it possible to sustain global ties without having to travel

Question 39

Globalised economy

Answer 39

Means that migrants may have more links to other migrants around the world than to either their country of origin or of settlement -eg ERIKSEN describes Chinese migrants in Rome who found Mandarin more useful in everyday life than Halian because Mandarin was important for their global connections with Chinese in other countries around the world. Migrants in a globalised world are less likely to desire assimilation into the host culture

Question 40

The politicisation of migration

Answer 40

Migration has become an important political issue - states now have policies that seek to control immigration, absorb migrants into society and deal with increased ethnic and cultural diversity. More recently immigration policies have also become linked to national security and anti terrorism policies

Question 41

Assimilationism

Answer 41

The first state policy approach to immigration. It aimed to encourage immigrants to adopt the language, values and customs of the host culture to make them ‘like us’ - assimilationist policies face problem that transnational migrants with hybrid identities may not be willing to abandon their culture or to see themselves as belonging to just one nation state

Question 42

Multiculturalism

Answer 42

Accepted migrants may wish to retain a separate cultural identity. In practise, this acceptance may be limited to more superficial aspects of cultural diversity - eg ERIKSEN distinguishes between ‘shallow diversity’ and ‘deep diversity’ - shallow diversity, eg regarding tikka masala as a British dish is acceptable to the state - deep diversity, eg arranged marriages is not acceptable by the state

Question 43

Multicultural education policies

Answer 43

Celebrate shallow diversity - superficial cultural differences, such as ‘samosas, saris and steel bands’ while failing to address deeper problems facing children from migrant backgrounds, such as racism

Question 44

A divided working class

Answer 44

Assimilationist ideas may also encourage workers to blame migrants for social problems such as unemployment, resulting in racist scapegoating. According to CASTLES and KOSACK this benefits capitalism by creating a racially divided WC and preventing united action in defence of their interests