Demography

What is the birth rate?

the number of live births per year per 1000. 

What are some trends of the birth rate?

a long-term decline in birth rate. However, there were 3 ‘baby booms’ after WW1, WW2 and during the 1960’s.

4 reasons for the decline in birth rate?

1. Changes in the position of women - Increased educational opportunities, more women in paid work, change in attitude towards family life and the women's role, wider access to abortion and contraception.

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2. Fall in infant mortality rate - improved housing, sanitation, nutrition, knowledge of hygiene and child health, improved technology, antibiotics.

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3. Children as an economic liability - Laws banning child labour coupled with the introduction of compulsory schooling has meant children remain economically dependent for longer, changing norms about children's right to a high standard of living raises their cost.

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4. Child centredness - childhood is now socially constructed and uniquely important period of life, parents focus on quality not quantity, meaning they have fewer children but lavish more attention and resources on them.​

What is the impact of a declining birth rate?

The dependency ratio increases - the relationship between the size of the working population and the non-working (dependent) population.

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The working population’s earnings support the dependent population through tax.

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Women are having fewer children because this reduces the ‘burden of dependency’.

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Public services - fewer schools, child health services etc.

What is the death rate?

The number of deaths per 1000 a year

What are the trends of the death rate?

declining. With the exception of fluctuations in WW1, WW2 and the 1918 flu epidemic.

What are the reasons for a declining death rate?

Improved nutrition ​

Medical improvements (vaccinations, antibiotics, NHS)

Public health improvements (better housing, clean water, clean air)

Social change (decline in manual labour, greater knowledge of disease)

What are the reasons for having an ageing population?

The average age in the UK is increasing because of:

• Increased life expectancy

• Low infant mortality rate

• Declining fertility

What are the impacts of an ageing population?

• Increased strain on public services

• More one-person households

• The rising dependency ratio

• Ageism

Marxist sociologist on ageing population

Phillipson - The old are of no use to capitalism because they are no longer productive and an economically dependent group, adding to the dependency ratio.

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Postmodernist sociologist on ageing population

Hunt - We can choose our identity no matter what our age is: our age no longer determines who we are. As a result of this, the elderly become a market for body maintenance and rejuvenation services and goods, such as cosmetic surgery, gym membership and anti-ageing products.  

Define immigration and emigration

Immigration - Movement into a society

Emigration - Movement put of a society

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Reasons for migration

Push factors - unemployment and economic recession

Pull factors - higher wages and better opportunities

What are the chanes in the position of women?

Increased educational educational opportunities
~More women working
~Changes in attitudes to family life and women's role
~Easier access to divorce
~Access to abortion and contraception

What it is the infant mortality rate (IMR)

The number of infants who die before their first birthday, per 1,000 babies born alive, per year.

Why are children now an economic liability?

Until the late 19th century, children were an economic asset because they went to work at an early age. Now they are an economic liability:
~Laws banning child labour and introducing compulsory schooling mean they remain economically dependent for longer.
~Changing norms about children's rights to a high standard of living raises their cost.

Who discusses improved nutrition

McKeown - better diet accounted for half the reduction in the death rate, by increasing people's resistance to infection.

Medical improvements

Before the 1950s, medical improvements played almost no part in reducing deaths from infection. From the 1950s, the death rate fell due partly to medical factors such as vaccination, antibiotics, blood transfusion, better maternity services and the creation of the NHS (1949).

Other social changes that reduced the death rate include:

The decline of more dangerous manual occupations, e.g. mining; smaller families reduced the transmission of infection, greater public knowledge of the causes of illness and higher incomes.

Life expectancy has greatly increased since 1900:

-For babies born in 1900 it was 50 years for males, 57 for females.
-For babies born in 2005 it was 77 years for males, 81 for females.

What are the 3 reasons for the ageing population?

-Increasing life expectancy, people are living longer.
~Low infant mortality, babies no longer die in large numbers.
~Declining fertility, fewer young people are being born

What are several social and economic effects of the ageing population?

~Public services
~More one-person pensioner households
~The rising dependency ratio
~Ageism

How are the public services affected by the ageing population?

Older people consumer more health and social care services.

How is ageism affected by the ageing population?

Age statuses are socially constructed. Old age is socially constructed as a problem. Negative stereotyping often portrays the old as incompetent and a burden. (Contrast this with traditional societies, here ageing brings higher status, not lower.)