DEMOGRAPHY

Question 1

Why are demographics important?

Answer 1

Because the changes in population has an impact on the governments social policies e.g. benefits housing stocks, the number of schools to b maintained, funding in the NHS and pensions.

Question 2

What is the definition of total fertility rate?

Answer 2

The average number of children women will have during their fertile years(defined as 15-44)

Question 3

What is the Birth rate?

Answer 3

The number of live births per thousand of the population per year.

Question 4

What factors affect the birth rate?

Answer 4

1) The number of women of child bearing age (15-44)

2) How many children those women have

Question 5

What is the current fertility rate?

Answer 5

The rate has risen since 2001, but has fallen overall since the start of the century:
1964 :3 kids
2001: 1.6 kids
2014: 1.84 kids

Question 6

What are the 4 reasons for the decline in the birth rate?

Answer 6

1) changes in the position of women
2) Decline in the infant mortality rate
3) Children have become an economic liability
4) Child-centredness

Question 7

What are the changes in the position of women?

Answer 7

1) Legal equality with men
2) increased educational opportunities
3) More women in paid work, having babies later or not at all.
4) access to abortion and reliable contraception
5) changes in attitudes to family life
6) Easier access to divorce

Question 8

Why is there a decline in the infant mortality rate?

Answer 8

In 1900. 15% of all babies born died before their first birthdays. Today the figure is less than 1%.

• Advancements in medicine, including pre-natal and anti-natal care.
• Mass immunisation programmes and the use of antibiotics
• Better services for women and children
• Better nutrition and diet,and a better understanding of the importance of diet
• Better sanitation
• if less babies die parents have fewer of them

Question 9

Why have children become an economic liability?

Answer 9

• Laws banning child labour mean parents now ave to financially support them
• Compulsory education and minimum school leaving age
• Changing expectations about what material things children have a right to expect from their parents.

Question 10

What is child-centredness?

Answer 10

• Parents spend more time with their children
• People are increasingly involved in the school lives of their children
• There are now whole industries devoted to children and children’s needs and material wishes

Question 11

What are the effects of the declining fertility rate?

Answer 11

• Ageing population
• Effects on the family: fewer children means women may work more, creating more dual income families and a rise in the families and a rise in the average standard of living.
• Effects on public services and social policies:fewer schools, nurseries and child care services will be needed. Less maternity and paternity eave may be needed. Housing stock will need to change to reflect smaller families.
• Effects on the dependency ratio- in the short term, fewer children reduces the burden of dependency. However, in the long run there will be fewer young adults working and paying into pensions and social services to support the retired generation.

Question 12

What does life expectancy refer to as?

Answer 12

Refers to how long on average a person born in a given year can expect to live.

Question 13

Life expectancy has increased because of what reasons?

Answer 13

1) Survival rate: In 1900 many infants and children did not survive beyond the early ears of life. Nowadays a new born baby today has a better chance reaching its 68th birthday, compared in 1900 where it has less chance reaching it s 1st birthday.
2) Gender: Women generally live longer than men, although the gap has narrowed due to changes in employment and in lifestyle (e.g. more women smoking)
3) Regional differences: People living in the North and Scotland have a lower life expectancy than those in the South.
4) Class:Working class men in unskilled or routine jobs are nearly 3x as likely to die before they are 65 compared to men in managerial/professional jobs.

Question 14

What are the reasons for the decline in the death rate?

Answer 14

1) Medical improvements
2) Decline in smoking and other social changes
3) improved nutrition
4) public health measure and environmental improvements.

Question 15

What sociologist talks about medical improvements?

Answer 15

NL Tranter 1996-

3/4 of the fall in the death rate from 1850-1970 was from the fall in deaths from TB, small pox …

Question 16

What is meant by public health measures and environmental improvements?

Answer 16

Improvements in housing, drinking water, sanitation, pasteurisation of milk and laws about food safety.

Question 17

Why is there a improved nutrition and diet?

Answer 17

Mckeown: better understanding of diet and nutrition explains up to half of the decline in death rates. Higher incomes, healthier lifestyles and mass availability of healthy food.

Question 18

Explain smoking and other social changes?

Answer 18

Harper argue that the decline in smoking has affected death rate.

• decline in dangerous jobs such as mining
• Laws regarding health and safety at work

Question 19

What is causing the ageing population?

Answer 19

1) Declining fertility
2) Declining infant mortality
3) Increasing life expectancy

Question 20

What are the effects of an ageing population?

Answer 20

1) Increasing costs of state pensions as more people ass retirement age. The mandatory age of retirement will probably have to rise.
2) The dependency ratio will increase as there are fewer workers to meet the cost of paying out for pensions, the NHS, and other services. Taxes may rise.
3) Increasing drain on the resources of the NHS and social services.
4) Increasing need for retirement homes or single person dwellings
5) Donald Hirsch- social policy ad social attitudes towards old age needs to change. old age is a social construct.

Question 21

What are the effects of an ageing population?

Answer 21

1) Ageism:negative stereotyping and unequal treatment of people on the basis of age.
2) Discrimination in employment
3) unequal treatment in healthcare
4) social perceptions of the elderly as a burden or a problem.

Question 22

What do Marxist think about ageism?

Answer 22

They argue that capitalism has no use for old people, as they are no longer productive. However, others argue that the old have become a huge market for ‘rejuvenation’ and ‘body maintenance’ products.
-The state does not support them, so the burden falls on the family especially women.

Question 23

What is the definition of immigration?

Answer 23

Refers to movement into a society

Question 24

What is the definition of emigration?

Answer 24

Refers to movement out

Question 25

What is the definition of net migration?

Answer 25

Is the difference between the numbers of immigrants and the numbers of emigrants, and is expressed as a net increase or a net decrease due to migration.

Question 26

What are the push factors for why people migrate?

Answer 26

• economic reasons-no jobs
• natural disasters
• poverty/famine
• political persecution

Question 27

What are the pull factors for why people migrate?

Answer 27

• jobs offers
• better opportunities
• family
• to study
• safety ad freedom of expression

Question 28

What are the 3 impacts of migration on the UK population structure?

Answer 28

1) the UK population
2) age structure
3) dependency ratio

Question 29

How is the UK population growing?

Answer 29

• Net migration is high. More people are arriving than leaving.
• Non-UK born mothers have more children than UK born mothers.
• The low-fertility rate of the British women means the population is not able to replace itself. It not for net migration, the UK population would be declining since 1980.

Question 30

Explain the age structure?

Answer 30

• Immigration keeps the average age of the UK residents lower than it would be
• Immigrants are usually young rather than older. They are likely to marry and have children.

Question 31

What is the dependency ratio?

Answer 31

• Immigrants are likely to be of working age
• immigrants have more children, which temporarily rises the dependency ratio. However, those children become necessary future workers, which helps the future dependency ratio.

Question 32

What is globalisation?

Answer 32

Barriers between societies are disappearing as people are becoming increasingly interconnected.
-globalisation is the result of global markets,improved communication through the internet and the mass media.

Question 33

What are the effects of globalisation on migration?

Answer 33

1)Acceleration-there has been a speeding up of the rate of migration
2)differentiation- there are different type of migrants (refugees, temporary worker, asylum seekers, students)
And there is a difference of countries of origin (British colonies)And class differences in migrants
3)the feminisation of migration-globalisation of the gender division of labour- Arlie Hoschild studies how in western countries women are increasingly in care work, domestic and sex work.

Question 34

(class differences in migrants) what is the definition of denizens?

Answer 34

privileged foreign nationals or very wealthy people

Question 35

(class differences in migrants) what is the definition of citizens?

Answer 35

ordinary middle class or working class migrants

Question 36

(class differences in migrants) what is the definition of helots?

Answer 36

very poor and sometime illegal migrants often badly exploited in poorly bad manual jobs.

Question 37

What are the two policy approaches to immigration?

Answer 37

1) Assimilation 1950’s-1960’s-sought to encourage immigrants to adopt the language,norms and values of the host culture
2) Multiculturalism 1960’s onward- a belief that Britain is enriched by having may cultural norms and traditions kept alive by immigrant groups.