Sociology-Families and Households-Demography Flashcards
What is the trend of birth rates?
Long term decline since 1990 where birth rate went from 28.7 to 12.2 in 2014
What fluctuations in birth rate have happened?
Three baby booms in the 20th century. First two after the two world wars (1914-18 and 1939-45) as servicemen and partners postponed starting families until war was over
when was the third baby boom?
In the 1960s, after which the birth rate sharply fell in the 1970s. It rose again in the 1980s and fell after 1990s then slightly increased again in 2001
What are two main factors that affect birth rate?
Proportion of women who are of childbearing age and how many children they have
What is birth rate?
Number of live births per thousand of the population per year
What is total fertility rate?
The average number of children women will have during childbearing years
How has the total fertility rate changed in the UK?
Risen in recent years but is much lower than in past. Lowest is 1.63 in 2001, but rose to 1.83 in 2014. Highest was 2.95 in 1964 during the 1960s baby boom
What do the changes in fertility and birth rates reflect?
More women remain childless than in past, and women postpone having children as the average age is now 30 and older women may be less fertile and have less fertile years remaining so may have less children
What are the different reasons for decline in birth rates?
Changes in women’s position, decline in infant mortality rate, children are now an economic liability and child centeredness
What were some of the major changes in the position of women during the 20th century?
Legal equality with men (eg right to vote), increased educational opportunities (girls do better than boys now), more women in paid employment (laws eg sex discrimination act 1975 for equal pay), changes in attitudes to family life and women’s role, easier access to divorce, and access to abortion/reliable contraception giving women more control
What does Harper 2012 argue?
The education of women is the most important reason for the long term fall in birth and fertility rates as it led to a change in mindset, seeing other possibilities apart from traditional role of housewife and mother
What is a statistic given for postponing children?
In 2012, 1 in 5 women aged 45 were childless, double the number of 25 years ago
What does Harper argue about long term fertility rates?
Once a pattern of low fertility lasts for more than one generation, cultural norms about family size changed. Smaller families become the norm and large ones come to be seen as deviant or less acceptable
What is infant mortality rate?
The number of infants who die before their first birthday, per thousand babies born alive, per year
What does Harper argue about infant mortality rates?
Fall in IMR leads to fall in birth rate as parents don’t have to replace the children they’ve lost
How have the infant mortality rates changed?
In 1990 in the UK it was 154 (over 15% of babies died in the first year-higher than in less developed countries today) by 1950s it fell to 30 and by 2012 it was 4
What are several reasons for why the UKs IMR began to fall in the first half of the 20th century?
Improved housing/better sanitation, better nutrition, better knowledge of hygiene/children’s health/welfare, fall in number of married women working may have improved their/their babies health, and improved services for mothers and children such as antenatal and postnatal clinics
How have medical changes affected IMR?
Before mid 20th century it was doubtful how much it had affected IMR though they had an indirect affect through campaigns to improve public health, but in 1950s medical factors placed a greater role eg mass immunisation against childhood diseases
What do Brass and Kabir 1978 argue?
Argue that the trend to smaller families began not in rural areas, where IMR first began to fall, but in urban areas where IMR remained higher for longer
How have the economic status of children changed?
Until late 19th century children were economic assets to parents as they could work from early age but since lat 19th century they have gradually become economic liabilities
How have children become an economic liability?
Through changing laws (banning child labour/compulsory schooling/raising leaving age) and norms (children rights to expect from parents in material terms/rising cost of raising children)
Why would birth rates decrease if children became an economic liability?
Because of the financial pressures, parents may feel less willing or less able n the past to have a large family
Why would increasing child centredness cause birth rates to decline?
Childhood is now socially constructed as a uniquely important period in the individual’s life, encouraging a shift from ‘quantity’ to ‘quality’ so parents have fewer children to give them more attention and resources
What are future trends for birth rates?
Increased immigration may increase birth rate as mothers outside the UK have a higher fertility rate and they accounted for 25% of all births in 2011, however the projection for up to 2041 expects the annual number of births to be fairly constant at around 800,000 per year
What is effected by changing fertility/birth rates?
The family, the dependency ratio, and public services/policies
How is the family affected by the changes in fertility?
Smaller families mean women are more likely to go back to work, creating dual earner couples though better off couples may be able to have larger families and still afford childcare allowing them to both work full time
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 dependant part of the population
How does the changes in fertility affect the dependancy ratio?
Earnings/savings/taxes of working population support the dependent population. Children make up large part of dependent population, so less reduces the ‘burden of dependency’ on working population. However less babies means less young adults to become the working population, so the burden of dependency may then increase
How does the changes in fertility affect public services and policies?
Lower birth rate means fewer schools and maternity and child health services may b needed. Also affects cost of maternity and paternity leave, and the types of housing that need to be built, however many of these are political decisions, eg instead of reducing number of schools, government could decide to have smaller class sizes
What is an ageing population?
One effect of women having fewer babies is that the average age of the population is rising: there are more old people relative to young people. This ageing population has a number of important effects
What is death rate?
Number of deaths per thousand of the population per year
How has the death rate in the UK changed?
In 1990 it was 19 but in 2012 it over halved to 8.9. It began falling from 1870 but rose slightly during economic depression and war, but then continued to decrease
What did Tranter 1996 argue?
Over 3/4 of decline in death rate from 1850 to 1970 was due to fall in number of deaths from infectious diseases such as smallpox and tuberculosis, which used to be most common cause of death among infants, children and young adults
What social factors affected the decrease in infectious diseases and decline in death rate?
Improved nutrition, medical improvements, smoking/diet, public health measures and other social changes
What does McKeown 1972 argue?
Argues that improved nutrition accounted for up to half the reduction in death rates and deaths by TB. It increased resistance to infection and increased survival chances of those who still became infected
What does McKeown however fail to explain?
Why deaths from some infectious diseases actually rose at times of improved nutrition, eg measles
How have medical improvements decreased death rates?
After 1950s, improved medical knowledge, techniques and organisation helped reduce death rates. Advances include the introduction of antibiotics, immunisation, blood transfusion, improved maternity services and the NHS in 1948
What does Harper argue about the decline in death rates?
Greatest fall in death rates in recent decades isn’t from medical improvements, but from a reduction in the number of people smoking and we have moved to an ‘American” health culture where lifestyles and diets are unhealthy, but long lifespan is achieved by use of costly medication
How have public health measures decreased death rates?
In 20th century, more effective central/local government with necessary power to pass and enforce laws led to a range of improvements in public health and quality of environment, including improvements in housing, purer drinking water, laws to combat adulteration of food and drink, pasteurisation of milk, and improved sewage disposal methods (clean air acts reduced air pollution that led to 4000 deaths in five days in 1952)
What are other social changes that played a part in reducing death rate?
Decline of dangerous manual occupations such as mining, smaller families reducing rate of transmission of infection, greater public knowledge of causes of illness, lifestyle changes eg reduction of smoking, and higher incomes that allow healthier lifestyles
What is life expectancy?
How long on average a person born in a given year can expect to live
How has life expectancy changed (UK)?
Born in 1900 life expectancy was 50 for males and 57 for females, Born in 2013 life expectancy is 90.7 for males and 94 for females
What is a reason for lower average life expectancy in 1900?
The fact that so many infants and children didn’t survive beyond early years of life, eg a baby born today has a better chance of reaching its 65th birthday than a baby born in 1900 had of reaching its first birthday
What does Harper predict if the trend to greater longevity continues?
We will soon achieve ‘radical longevity’ with many more centenarians
What are gender differences in life expectancy?
Women generally live longer, though the gap has narrowed due to changes in employment and lifestyle
What does Walker 2011 argue about life expectancy?
Those living in the poorest areas of England die on average seven years earlier than those in the richest areas, while the average difference in disability-fee life expectancy is 17 years
How has the average age of the UK population changed?
in 1971 it was 34.1, in 2013 it was 40.3 and by 2037 it is projected to be 42.8
What does Hirsch 2005 note?
Notes that the traditional age pyramid is disappearing and being replaced by more or less equal-sized blocks representing the different age groups-eg by 2041 there will be equal amounts of 5 and 78 year olds
