demography Flashcards
what are the reasons for the declining death rate?
- medical developoment
- better standard of living than before- overcrowded + damp
- improved sanitation
- better public health
- free healthcare
- work is less physically straining due to rise in office jobs
- healthier lifestyle choices
- people are more medically informed
- lower air pollution
- better water quality
- factory work is safer and more regulated
- generally better nutrition, knowledge and distribution
- more work/life balance nowadays
what is the curent average life expectancy in the UK?
79- men
82- women
81- avg
age-standardised mortality rates (ASMRs)
allows accounting for elderly population who die more often
what kinds of factors should be considered when studying trends?
- social- eg improved healthcare
- cultural- eg less stress and pyschologcial ‘wear and tear’, smoking is stigmatised
- economic- eg decline of heavy industry, improved living standards
- environmental- eg air quality
what is demography?
- the study of populations and their characteristics
definitions: birth rate
live births per year per 1000 or population
definitions: total fertility rate
avg number of children women will have during their fertile years
definitions: death rate
number of deaths per year per 1000 of the population
definitions: infant mortality rate
number of babies who die per 1000 live births during the 1st year of life (under 2 years old)
definitions: life expectancy
the number of years a person can expect to live
definitions: ageing population
a population in which the proportion of older people is increasing compared to the younger population
definitions: the dependency ratio
the proportion of the population that is dependent on the welfare state compared to those who are in employment
definitions: ageism
a prejudice against people based on their age
definitions: structural dependency (Townsend 2006)
retirement, poverty, institutionalism and restriction of domestic and community roles later in life have contrivuted to artificially structuring the dependency of older people
what are some reasons for the decline in birth rate
- change in the position of women
- decline in infant mortality
- children have become an ‘economic liability’
- child centredness
The ‘baby boom’
- Jane Falkingham and Tony Champion (2016) note that population growth has been uneven over the last 50 years
- post ww1(1914-1918) to make up for the loss in population
- post ww2 (1939-45) makes up for the loss in population
- potentially in 2021/22 due to the 2020 lockdown, more time spent at home and boredom
why have total fertility rates decreased since the 1960s?
- increase in number of infertile women- there are more transgender women than in the 1960s, they may also be unrecognised by statistics
- having less children has become a norm for women
- more women are choosing to be childless (postmodernism= choice and individualisation)
- women are postponing having children due to careers and education, whichleaves fewer fertile years left to have children
- impact of feminism on the independence of women and the impact of women’s position in the workplace
- secularisation, marriage is later, suggesting that it doesn’t matter to as many people
the long-term decline in fertility rates- demographic transitions
Nicoletta Balbo, Francesco Billari and Melinda Mills (2012) identify three types of factors which are important in explaining the decline in fertility rates:
1. contraceptive and reproductive technologies
2. economic factors
3. cultural factors
the theory of demographic transition
- in the 1920s it was argued that demography was changed when coutnries transformed from less developed and poor to industrial and affluent societies, for example
- preindustrial societies- women tend to have a large number of children because there is a high infant mortality rate made it likely that many would not survive and grow up
what has been the impact of globalisation on the family?
- impacted society culturally, politically and has alo impacted the family by increasing geographical mobility, family diversity
- impacted trade, technology and travel
- in 2012, nearly 150,000 UK nationals left the UK to work overseas
- the largest sectors for employment in the UK according to ONS are retail, social work and administrative, highlighting a feminisation of the workforce
- cultural differences in family structure due to globalisation have led to more family diversity in the UK because individuals from different cultures have entered our society
- increase in lone person households due to students and economic migrating towards the UK
What are the effects of an ageing population?
Pensions
- more people reach retirement age and stop working= dependency ratio increases
- the burden of pensions increases for the state and private pension schemes
- governments have increased the age at which people recieve state pensions
- revenue from income tax falls as more people withdraw from working
- financial strain on both private and public schemes have increased contributions and/or reduced benefits payable to future pensioners
What are the effects of an ageing population?
Public services
- ageing population= increasing strain on public funding for social care costs
- Evandrou, Falkingham and Vlachantoni (2016) note that restrictions on public spending reduce spending on social care costs for the elderly who cannot care for themselves
- this creates a strain on charities and families who fill the gap left by inadequate public funding
- the elderly are sometimes unable to leave hospital due to the strain on the NHS, this reduces their ability to care for other people
- Wesley Key (2016)- avg annual costs for hospital and community care are 3x greater for those aged 85+ than 65-74y/o, this puts extra strain on an already overstreched NHS
What are the effects of an ageing population?
Housing
- Key (2016)- ageing population= increase in single-person households as a result of widowhood
- pressure on the housig stock has been created by a shortage of housing and rising house prices
- places in care homes have not expanded fast enough to keep up with the increasing elderly population
- an expansion of housing suitable for retired individuals would ease housing shortages for younger age groups because some older people live alone but occupy large houses which could capacitate the younger families in need of them
What are the positive effects of an ageing population?
- volunteering army
- they have wealth to spend, putting money back into the economy
- less grieving because less death
- childcare
- emotional support/ wisdom and experience
- stable and reliable voting population
- religious stability
- heritage, ability to trace family trees
- inheritance
- longevity of cultural memory- links to the past are maintained
definitions: pivot generation
adult children who take care of their elderly or older parents
Rapoport and rapoport (1983)
- society has a plurality of norms which are recognised as legitimate and desirable
- 5 types of diversity: organisational, cultural (ethnic), class, life course, cohort/generational
organisational diversity
different types of family structure
cultural (ethni) diversity
society has become more ethnically diverse and therefore their family structures too
class diversity
inequalities in lifestyle such as wealth and income affect the type of housing and its size, this has inc since the 80s
life course analysis- Hareven (1978)
- the life course of individuals can vary greatly
- this can reflect the choice or circumstance
cohort/generational diversity
cohort (those born in same year or band of years). such individuals may have a shared experience of historical events that impacts family choices
CLOGS acronym
Cultural diversity
Life course analysis
Organisational diversity
Generational diversity
Social class diversity
Chester- the neo conventional family (func)
- family diversity is not a problem, as suggested by the NR
- a new type of nuclear family has increased and the traditional nuclear family has declined
- due to our life cycle, people will still be a part of a nuclear family at some point in their life
- most people still mary and have kids who are raised by their birth parents, most divorcees remarry and most marriages still last till death
