Demography

Question 1

What is the birth rate?

Answer 1

The number of lives births per 1000 of the population per year

Question 2

Trend of babies in the 20th century

Answer 2

Major fluctuations in births, with 3 baby booms’ in the 20th Century

Question 3

When were the 3 baby booms?

Answer 3

the first 2 came after the 2 world wars (1914-18 and 1939-45) as returning servicemen and their partners started families that they had postponed during the war years

the 3rd baby boom in the 1960s after which the birth rate fell sharply during the 19780s. The rate rose during the 1980s, before failing again the early 1990s, with a recent increase since 2001

Question 4

TFR

Answer 4

total fertility rate
is the average number of children women will gave during their fertile years

Question 5

What are the 2 factors determining the birth rate?

Answer 5

1-
the proportion of women who are of childbearing age (usually taken to be aged 15-44)

2-
how fertile they are that is how many children they have

Question 6

UK’s TFR ?

Answer 6

has risen since 2001, but still much lower than in the past

Question 7

Changes in fertility and birth rate reflect that:

Answer 7

• more women are remaining childless than in the past

-women are postponing having children

Question 8

AVerage age for giving birth is now…

Answer 8

29.6

Question 9

Older women and their fertile years

Answer 9

have fewer fertile years remaining so produce fewer children

Question 10

Sociologists have identified the long term decline in the birth rate since…?

Answer 10

1900

Question 11

What reasons have sociologists identified for the decline in birth rates?

Answer 11

Changes in the position of women
decline in mortality rate ?
children becoming economic liability
child centredness

Social
Economic
Cultural
Legal
Political
Technological Factors

SELCTP

Question 12

Changes in the position of women

Answer 12

major changes during 20th Century
These include:

-Legal equality- right to vote, sex discrimination act
-more women in paid employment
-easier access to divorce
-easier access to abortion, contraception

Question 13

Result of changes in the position of women

Answer 13

women now see other possibilities in life apart from the traditional role of housewife and mother

may are delaying childbirth or not to have children in order to pursue a career

Question 14

Childless statistics

Answer 14

in 2006

1 in 5 women aged 45 were childless- double the number of 20 years earlier

Question 15

IMR

Answer 15

infant mortality rate

measure the no. of infants who die before their first birthday, per thousand babies born alive

Question 16

Decline in the infant mortality rate

Answer 16

many sociologists argue that a fall in the IMR leads to a rise in birth rate

-this is because, parents have more children to replace those who they have lost, thereby increasing the birth rate

-by contrast if babies survive., parents will have fewer of them

Question 17

What happened to the UK’s IMR in the first half of the 20th century ?

Answer 17

Began to fall

Question 18

For what reasons did the, UK’s IMR in the first half of the 20th century decrease?

Answer 18

-improved housing and better sanitation
-fall in no. of women working=better health
-improved services for mothers and children

Question 19

How can improved housing lead to a fall in IMR?

Answer 19

Improved housing and better sanitation, such as flush toilets and clean drinking water, reduced infectious disease

Question 20

How can fall in number of women working lead to a fall in IMR?

Answer 20

Fall in no. of women working may have improved their health and that of their babies

Question 21

How can improved services for mothers lead to a fall in IMR?

Answer 21

Improved services for mothers and children,

such as:

-antenatal
-postnatal clinics

Question 22

Which sociologists reject the view that the decline in IMR leads to rise in Birth rates?

Answer 22

many sociologists such as
Brass and Kabir

Question 23

Brass and Kabir

Answer 23

Argue that the trend to smaller families began not in rural areas, where the IMR first began to fall, but in urban areas, where the IMR remained higher for longer.

Question 24

What were children in the late 19th century ?

Answer 24

until late 19th century

children were economic assets to their parents because they could be sent out to work from an early age to earn an income

Question 25

Children becoming an economic liability

Answer 25

since late 19th century
children have gradually become an economic liability

Question 26

How have children become an economic liability?

Answer 26

-laws banning child labour, introducing compulsory schooling and raising the school leave age meant that children remain economically dependent on their parent for longer

Question 27

Child centredness

Answer 27

increasing child centredness
-both the family and society as a whole encouraged a shift from ‘quantity to ‘quality’ - parents now have fewer children and lavish more attention and resources on these few

Question 28

Effects of changes in fertility
what factors do they effect?

Answer 28

changes in the number of babied born affect several aspects of society.

These include the family, dependency ratio, public services and policies .

Question 29

Effects of changes in fertility:
On the family

Answer 29

Smaller families mean that women are more likely to be free to go out to work, thus creating the dual couple typical of many professional families

HOWEVER
family size is only one factor
E.G- better off couples may be able to have larger families and still afford childcare that allows them both to work full-time

Question 30

The dependency ratio

Answer 30

The RS between the size of the working or productive part of the population and the size of the non-working or dependent part of the population

Earnings, savings and taxes of the working population must support the dependet population

Question 31

Effects of changes in fertility:
The dependency ratio

Answer 31

Children take up a large part of the dependent ratio, so a fall in the number of children reduces the ‘burden of dependency’ on the working population

Question 32

Longer term effect of changes in fertility on dependency ratio?

Answer 32

in longer term, fewer babies being born will mean fewer adults and a smaller working population, and so the ‘burden of dependency’ may begin to increase again

Question 33

Effects of changes in fertility:
Public services and Policies

Answer 33

-lower birth rate means fewer schools and maternity and child health services may be needed

-it also has implications for the cost of maternity and paternity leave, or the types of housing that need to be built

Question 34

What should one keep in mind when thinking about the effect of changes in fertility on the affect of public services policies ?

Answer 34

These are political decisions

E.g
instead of reducing the number of schools, the government may decide to have smaller class sizes instead

Question 35

Death rate

Answer 35

The death rate is the number of deaths per thousand of the population per years.

Question 36

Where did the death rate stand in 1900?

Answer 36

1900 the death rate stood at 19

2007 is had almost halved to 10

Question 37

Reasons for the decline in the death rate ?

Answer 37

-improved nutrition
-medical improvement
-public health measures and environmental improvements

Question 38

Reason for the decline in the death rate:
Improved nutrition
-who can you talk about?

Answer 38

Thomas McKeown (1972)
argues that improved nutrition account for up to half the reduction in death rates, and was particularly important in reducing the number of deaths from TB
-better nutrition increased resistance to infection and increased survival chance of those who did become infected

Question 39

Criticisms for Thomas McKeown (1972)

Answer 39

others have challenged McKeown’s explanation

e.g
it does not explain why females who receive a smaller share of the family food supply, lived longer than males, nor why deaths from some infectious diseases, such as measles and infant diarrhoea, actually rose at a time of improving nutrition

Question 40

Reason for the decline in the death:
Medical improvements

Answer 40

after the 1950s, improved medical knowledge, technique and organization did help to reduce death rates
-more recently, improved medication, bypass surgery and other developments gave reduced heart disease by one third

Question 41

Reason for the decline in the death:
Public health measures and environmental improvements

Answer 41

in 20th century, more effective central and local government with the necessary power to pass and enforce laws led to a range of improvements in public health and the quality of the environment

Question 42

What did some of the Public health measures and environmental improvements consist of ?

Answer 42

improvements in housing (producing drier, better ventilated, less overcrowded accommodation)

-purerer drinking water and laws to combat the adulteration of food and drink

Question 43

Other social changes that also played a part in reducing the death rate during the 20th century

Answer 43

-decline of more dangerous manual occupation such as mining
-smaller families reduced the rate of transmission of infection
-greater public knowledge of the causes of illness
-high incomes, allowing for a healthier lifestyle

Question 44

Average age of UK population is …

Answer 44

rising

there are fewer young people and more old people in the population,

Question 45

Ageing population average in 1971 and by 2007?

Answer 45

34.1

2007-39.6

projected to reach 42.6
projected to have more people aged over 65 than the number of under-16s for first time in 2014

Question 46

The effects of an ageing population effect who or what ?

Answer 46

-public services
-one-pensioner households
-dependency ratio

Question 47

Effects of an ageing population effect on :
Public services

Answer 47

older people consumer a larger proportion of services such as health and social care than other age groups

-mainly true for ‘old, old’= 75+
as against the ‘young, old’= 65-74

Question 48

What should you remain aware of when thinking about the largest consumer of public services ?

Answer 48

overgeneralising, since many people remain in relatively good health well into old age

Question 49

Increased expenditure on ageing population may lead to …?

Answer 49

changes to policies and provision of housing, transport or other services

Question 50

Effects of an ageing population effect on :
One-person pensioner households

Answer 50

number of of pensioners living alone has increased and one-person pensioner households now account for about 14% of all households

Question 51

Why are most one pensioner households female?

Answer 51

women generally tend to live longer than men because they are generally younger than their husbands

Question 52

Effects of an ageing population effect on :
The dependency ratio

Answer 52

-like the non-working young, the non-working old are an economically dependent group who need to be provided for by those of working age

for example:
-through taxation to pay for pensions and healthcare

Question 53

As the number of retired people rises…

Answer 53

this increases the dependency ratio and the burden on the working population

Question 54

Why would it be wrong to to assume that ‘old’ necessarily equals economically dependent?

Answer 54

the age at which people retire can vary- about 1 in 10 men in their SOs is no longer working, while recent changes mean that women will soon have to wait until they are 65 to access the state pension

Question 55

While an increase in the no. of old people raises…

Answer 55

the dependency ratio in an ageing population this is offset by a declining number of dependent children

Question 56

Is age status socially constructed?

Answer 56

Yes
this applies to old age much discussion about old age and ageing is negative and has constructed it as ‘problem’

Question 57

Ageing and old age constructed as a ‘problem’ for two reasons:

Answer 57

-Griffiths Report (1988)

-recently there have been more concern about the ‘pensions time bomb’

Question 58

-Griffiths Report (1988)

Answer 58

on the care of the elderly saw society as facing the problem of meeting the escalating costs of health and social care for the growing number of old people

Question 59

‘Pensions time bomb’

Answer 59

fears about how society will meet the costs of providing pensions for the elderly

Question 60

Ageism

Answer 60

the negative stereotyping of people on the basis of their age- often portrays the old as vulnerable, incompetent or irrational and as a burden to society

Question 61

Contrast to ageism

Answer 61

This contrasts with the view of the elderly found in traditional societies- in these cultures, the old are revered and respected; ageing is associated with a rising status

Question 62

Peter Townsend (1981)

Answer 62

one reason for negative attitudes to the elderly in our society is that old age has been socially constructed as a period of dependency by creating a statutory retirement age at which most people are expected or required to stop working are are forced to rely on inadequate benefits that many push into poverty

Question 63

How has old age been socially constructed as a period of dependency ?

Answer 63

by creating a statutory retirement age at which most people are expected or required to stop working are are forced to rely on inadequate benefits that many push into poverty

Question 64

Which sociologist argues that the main problem of an ageing population will be how to finance a longer period of old age ?

Answer 64

Hirsch

Question 65

Hirsch

Answer 65

the main problem of an ageing population will be how to finance a longer period of old age

this can either be done by paying more from our savings and taxes while we are working, or by continuing to work for longer, or combination of both

Question 66

Hirsch’s solution

Answer 66

we need to reverse the current trend towards earlier retirement

one way of doing this is by redistributing educational resources towards older people is that they can retrain and improve their skills and so continue earning

Question 67

Hirsh’s solution
One way to reverse the current trend towards earlier retirement

Answer 67

one way of doing this is by redistributing educational resources towards older people is that they can retrain and improve their skills and so continue earning

Question 68

Hirsh’s solution
second way to reverse the current trend towards earlier retirement

Answer 68

may need to be changes in housing policy to encourage older people (who are more likely to be living in larger house than they need) to ‘trade down in to smaller retirement homes and smaller accommodation

Question 69

What would encouraging older people to ‘trade down in to smaller retirement homes and smaller accommodation do?

Answer 69

this would release wealth to improve their standard of living and free up housing resources for younger people