Demography (B,AP,M,G+M)

Question 1

Births (Summary)

Answer 1

1. Total Fertility Rate
2. Reasons for the decline
3. Future trends in birth rates
4. Effects of changes in fertility

Question 2

Reasons for the decline

Answer 2

1. Changes in women’s position
2. Decline in the infant mortality rate
3. Children are now an economic liability
4. Child centredness

Question 3

Changes in women’s position

Answer 3

• Legal equality with men (right to vote)
• Educational opportunities (girls do better than boys)
• More women in paid employment (laws outlawing unequal pay and sex discrimination)
• Changes in attitudes to family life and women’s role
• Easier access to divorce
• Access to abortion and reliable contraception, giving women more control over their fertility.
• 2012: 1/5 women aged 45 was childless (double the number of 25 years earlier)

Question 4

Harper (2012)

Answer 4

Education of women is the most important reason for the long-term fall in birth and fertility rates.

• Led to a change in mindset among women
• Education women are more likely to use family planning and see other possibilities in life apart from the traditional role of housewife and mother.

Question 5

Decline in the infant mortality rate

Answer 5

• Harper: A fall in the IMR leads to a fall in the birth rate.
• Many infants die, parents have more children to replace those they have lost.
• Brass and Kabir (1978): argue that the IMR began to fall in urban areas as opposed to rural areas.

Question 6

The infant mortality rate

Answer 6

measures the number of infants who die before their first birthday, per thousand babies.

Question 7

United Kingdom

Answer 7

• 1900: 154. (+15% of babies died within their first year.)
• 1950s: 30
• 2012: 4 (Barely one 40th of the 1900 figure)

Question 8

Reasons for decline in IMR

Answer 8

• Improved housing and better sanitation. (clean drinking water reduced infectious disease)
• Better nutrition.
• Better knowledge of hygiene, child health and welfare (Often spread through women’s magazines)

Question 9

Children are now an economic liability

Answer 9

• Until the late 19th century, children were economic assets to their parents (sent out to work from an early age)
• Children have gradually become an economic liability.

Question 10

Why are children an economic liability?

Answer 10

• Laws: banning child labour, introducing compulsory schooling and raising the school leaving age mean that children remain economically dependent on their parents for longer and longer.
• Changing norms: about why children have a right to expect from their