Demography Flashcards
What is meant by birth rate?
Number of live births per thousands of the population per year
What is meant by total fertility rate?
Average number of children women will have during their fertile years
What are the 4 reasons for the decline in birth rates
- changes in women’s position
- children are now an economic liability
- child centredness
- decline in the infant mortality rate
How has women’s position changed?
- legal equality with men including right to vote
- increased educational opportunities. Girls do better in school than boys
- more women in paid work, plus law out lawing unequal pay and sex discrimination
- changes in attitude to family life and women’s role
- easier access to divorce
- access to abortion and reliable contraception giving women more control over their fertility
How are children now economic liabilities?
Until the 19th century, children were economic assets to their parents as they could be sent to work
- laws banning child labour, introducing compulsory schooling and raising the school leaving age means that children remain economically dependant on their parents for longer and longer
- changing norms about what children have a right to expect from their parents in material terms that the cost of bringing up children has risen
How has there been a decline in infant mortality?
IMR decreased meaning less children are being had or lost due to:
- improving housing and better sanitation such as flush toilets and clean drinking water, reduced infection because of their less developed immune system
- better nutrition, including that of mothers
- better knowledge of hygiene, child health and welfare often spread via women’s magazines
- a fall in the number of married women working may have improved their health and that of their babies
- improved services for mothers and children such as antenatal and postnatal clinics
How has child centredness meant a decline in birth rate?
The increasing child centredness both of the family and of society as a whole means that childhood is now socially constructed as a uniquely important period in the individuals life. In terms of family size, this has encouraged a shift from ‘quantity’ to ‘quality’ - parents now have fewer children and lavish more attention and resources on these few
What are the future trends in birth rate?
-birth rates has increased since 2001
This increase could be due to immigration because on average mothers from outside the U.K. Have a higher fertility rate than those born in the U.K. Babies born to mothers born outside the UK accounted for 20% of all births in 2011. It is expected however that the number of births per year will remain fairly constant at around 800,000 per year.
What is the dependency ratio?
The relationship 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
What is meant by death rate?
The number of deaths per thousand of the population per year
What is meant by infant mortality rate?
Measures the number of infants who die before their first birthday, per thousand babies born alive, per year
What are the 5 reasons for the decline in death rate and IMR?
- improved nutrition
- other social changes
- smoking &diet
- medical improvements
- public health measures
How has improved nutrition meant a decline in death rate and IMR?
Thomas Mckeown (1972) 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 increased resistance to infection and increased the survival chance of those who did become infected. However, Mckeown does not explain why females, who receive a smaller share of the family food supply, lived longer than males. Similarly, he fails to explain why some infectious diseases rose at the time
How has smoking and diet meant in a decline in death rate and IMR?
According to Harper, the greatest fall in death rates in recent decades has come not from medical improvements but simply from a reduction in the number of people smoking. However in the 21st century, obesity has replaced smoking as the new lifestyle epidemic.
Yet, although obesity has increased dramatically, deaths from obesity have been kept low as a result of drug therapies. Harper claims we may be moving to the ‘american’ health culture.
How has public health measures meant in a decline in death rate and IMR?
In the 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.
These included improvements in housing, purer drinking water, laws to combat the adulteration of food and drinks the pasteurisation of milk, and improved sewage disposal. Similarly, the clean air acts reduced air pollution, such as smog that lead to 4,000 deaths in 5 days in 1952
