Demography (Unit 7) Flashcards
What is Demography ?
The study of populations, their characteristics and how they change.
Factors that influence sizes of populations:
Birth rate - Number of live births per 1000 of the population per year.
Fertility rate - Average number of children that women are having.
Infant mortality rate - Number of children’s death before turning 1 per 1000 live births a year.
Mortality rate - Number of deaths per 100 of the population per year.
Net migration - Number of people moving into the country minus the number of people moving out.
Life expectancy - Average length of time someone is expected to live.
Has birth rates increased or decreased ?
Birth rates has started to decline.1900= fertility rate 3.5 / 2020= 1.98
Reasons:
-Women having fewer children and focusing on their careers more .
-Children are now an economic liability and not an asset.
-Contraception.
-Rising cost of having children ( Aviva 2011- average cost of having a child till 21 years old - £271, 000 )
-A geographically mobile labour force (easier to move around the country with smaller families)
Effects:
-Declining fertility rates and a reduced burden of childcare have made it easier for women to stay in employment and progress their careers.
-Smaller families means that parents can focus on each children leading to them having better socialisation.
-increase in the dependency ratio = the ratio of those who are not of working age to those of working age.
-Low birth rates leads to an ageing population of people not being able to work.
Has infant mortality rate and mortality rate increased or decreased?
Infant mortality rate and mortality rate has decreased.
Stats: 1900: Males = 50yrs / Females = 57yrs.
2020: Males = 79yrs / Females = 83yrs.
In 1902 the death rate stood at 18 per 1000, by 2012 this had fallen to 9.
In 1902, the IMR was at 142 per 1000, by 2012 this had also fallen to 4.1.
Reasons:
-Improved hygiene, sanitation and medicine. 75% of the fall in the death rate between 1850s-1970s were due to a fall in deaths from
diseases.
-Higher wages, better food, better appliances at home, better housing conditions
-Public health and welfare (NHS)
-Improved working conditions.
Low mortality and longer life expectancy has led to an ageing population meaning more:
-More beanpole families
-More extended families
-More neo-conventional families
-More lone-person households
-This means that more women having to leave work to look
after the elderly
-More women going to work as grandparents can go and provide childcare.
-More work for women Triple shift and dual burden.
Functionalist perspectives on ageing population:
Cumming and Henry (1961) = marginalisation of old people is actually
functional for society
Disengagement (withdrawal) of people from social roles was necessary and beneficial for society
As people age = lose vitality, can’t perform same roles / paid jobs = need to make way for younger generation!
If not = harmful effect for society = elderly fatigue and suffer, youngsters won’t adapt to society + society in turn will suffer!
Marxist view on ageing population:
Phillipson (1982) = the old are no longer of use to capitalism as they
are no longer productive.
= state is unwilling to support them – family has to – usually the
woman!
Postmodernist view on ageing population:
Blaikie (1999) = in a PM culture, old age need not be a time of dependency and decline, but instead a time of increased choice + opportunity
What is Net migration ?
Immigration = refers to the movement into society
Emigration = refers to the movement out of society
Net migration = the difference between the numbers of immigrants and the number of emigrants, and is expressed as a net increase or net decrease due to migration.
Reasons for people leaving the country:
-Famine
-Effects of War
-Persecution
-Lack of Freedom
-Legislation and border controls
Reason for people moving into a country:
-Jobs
-Education
-Family
-Legislation and border controls
-Ease of travel –globalisation
How has migration affected families / gender
roles?
-Immigration from south-east Asia might have increased the number of families where women perform traditional, domestic roles (or at least slowed down the speed of change towards more symmetrical
families).
EVAL A03: Much of this immigration took place after the Second World War and there are now second and third generation families where there is some evidence of less traditional gender roles emerging. Asian girls are increasingly aspiring towards careers, for example.
-Led to the increase in matrifocal families, migrating from the Caribbean. African-Caribbean families are, statistically, much more likely to be lone-parent families than those from other ethnic backgrounds, but are also generally more likely to have a dominant female figure and a woman as the “head of the household”.
EVAL A03: However, African-Caribbean families are a small minority of families in the UK, and those of them that are matrifocal lone-parent families are a very small minority of such families in the UK, so really African-Caribbean immigration has probably not had a very significant impact on gender roles in UK families overall.
Globalisation and migration:
Globalisation is the idea that barriers between societies are disappearing and people are becoming increasingly
interconnected across national boundaries
A key change is increased international migration – the movement of people across borders.
