Demography Flashcards
What is demography?
Demography is the study of populations and their characteristics. This includes the study of their size and the age structure.
What is the birth rate?
The birth rate is the number of births per thousand per year
Has the birth rate increased or decreased and what are the reasons for this trend?
this has been declining because of:
Changes in the position of women - there is easier access to divorce, changes to attitudes regarding the role of women, girls now having the same educational opportunities as men.
Decline in the IMR - infant mortality rate - the number of infants who die before their first birthday, per thousand babies born alive, per year.
Children becoming an economic liability - children can no longer work and have to go to school (The education act 1944)
Child centeredness - there has been a shift from quantity to quality
What is the total fertility rate?
The total fertility rate is the average number of children women will have their fertile years
What is the death rate?
number of deaths per thousand of the population per year
Has the death rate increased or decreased and what are the reasons for this trend?
The death rate has fallen because:
AO2 - McKeown - improved nutrition accounts for up to half the reduction of death rates - particularly deaths from TB.
Medical improvements such as the NHS founded in 1948 improved medical knowledge and played a big role in the decline. Antibiotics, immunisations, blood transfusion etc. also had a part to play.
AO2 - Harper - less people smoke now due to knowing its dangers however in the 21st century, obesity has become the next health epidemic
Laws have improved the quality of housing and the environment
What is the life expectancy?
how long an average person born in a given year can expect to live.
What factors are causing the ageing population?
Increasing life expectancy
Declining infant mortality
Declining fertility
What are the effects of an ageing population?
Public services - older people consume larger proportion of health and service care
Number of pensioners living has increased to take up 12.5% / 1 in 8 households
Dependency ratio - the non working old are dependent on those working through taxes to pay for healthcare, pensions, bus passes, fuel allowances
AO2 - Hirsch - social policies will need to change to meet needs of an ageing population
Ageism - when elderly people appear in the media, they tend to appear grumpy, mentally challenged, dependent, burden or enjoying a second childhood.
What is emigration?
people moving out of a country. Until the 1980s, more people emigrated to live elsewhere than came to settle in the UK. The main reason for this has been economic.
What is immigration?
the movement of people into a country.
What is globalisation and who are the four sociologists who speak about globalisation and what do they say?
barriers between society are disappearing and people are becoming increasingly interconnected across borders.
AO2 - Cohen - three types of migrant: citizens, denizens (Billionaires ‘Oligarchs), helots (literally slaves)
AO2 - Vertovec - Globalisation has led to superdiversity.
AO2 - Ehrenreich and Hochschild - domestic work, sex work and care work increasingly done by women from poor countries.
AO2 - Castles - assimilation policies are counterproductive because they mark out minority groups as ‘other’ leading to minority groups emphasising their differences and breeds further marginalisation.
