FAMILIES & HOUSEHOLDS - DEMOGRAPHY- BIRTH RATES

Have a birth rate increased or decreased in modern society?

Decreased - increase divorce rates single with no kids, ageing population people look after their elders so no chance to have children, sexualization in (sex before marriage) passing down religion, waiting longer to have a child to biological clock, women are out no longer financing dependent on men

Increased - abortion bans, increase children more people are cohabiting and having kids don't wait until marriage, remarried couples may want to start a family blended and reconstituted families

What is demography?

The study of populations and their characteristics

Define birth rates

Birth rate measures the number of live births in a population over a specific period usually express 1000 people per year

Define fertility rates

It measures the average number of children. A woman is expected to have drawn a lifetime between the ages of 15 and 44, which is expected to be when women are most fertile

Define mortality rate/death rate

Measures the number of deaths in a population over a specific period usually express per 1000 people per year

Define infant mortality rate

Measure the number of deaths of an infants/babies under one years old (so before our first birthday), per 1000 live in a given year

Define migration

The movement of people, from one place to another with the intention of settling temporarily or permanently in the new location

Define immigration

The active moving into a country or region from another country with the intention of living their temporarily or permanently

Define emmigration

The act of leaving one's own country to live in another

Define net migration

The difference between the number of people coming into a country and the number of people leaving a country over a specific Period

What is the most up-to-date statistic of birth rates?

In 2024 594,677 live births in England and Wales.

This is 1.41 children per woman which is around 10 births per 1000 people

What are some reasons that sociologists have identified the cause of the birth rates being declined since the 1900?

Social, economic, cultural, legal political, and technological factors

Examples of economic

Inflation which means children are more expensive

Also leads to increased crimes as it is a necessity for some people

Examples of social

People like their freedom and childcare is expensive so choose not to have children

Less pressure to start a family

Examples of political

Stopped benefit caps for parents with a specific number of children

New Right offer tax relief to nuclear families

Examples of cultural

One child policy

Tax relief for one child, families and contraception became cheaper

Abstinence

Example of legal

The abortion ban in the US

Examples of technological

Advances in birth control

Different surgeries people can have to not have a child

AI dating - leads to no children

Social media and online relationships - serial monogamy + Giddens “pure relationships”

What was the UK population in 2024?

67.9 million

In the past, what was the main reason for growth of the population?

There being more births than deaths

However, since the 1980s, what is the main reason for the growth of the population?

Immigration being higher than emigration

What are some examples of changes in regard to the position of women?

• legal equality with men, including the right to vote

• increased educational opportunities

• girls now do better than boys in school

• more women in paid employment

• laws, outlawing unequal pay and discrimination

• changes in attitudes to family life, and women’s roles

• easier access to divorce

• access to abortion and reliable contraception, giving women more control over their fertility

Why do you think this is?

For so long women didn't have the option so now it is available, women want to prove it

Women may feel overlooked so they work harder so they can be recognized in a patriarchal society

The Education Reform Act which made education compulsory for boys and girls

Why were women unequally paid in the past?

Due to women needing time off work for maternity leave and childcare

Which states specifically in America ban abortions?

Southern states in America

What did Sarah artery explain about the education of women?

The education of women is the most important reason for the long-term fall in birth and fertility rates (as women are now more career focused)

What are women now, more likely to do?

Family planning - men and women can plan, through the use of contraception

Does Harper believe that small or big families have become the norm?

Smaller families

What does she say large families are viewed as?

Deviant or less acceptable

Why is this? (Agreeing/disagreeing theorists)

• women are focused on their careers - becomes the norm in the families

• New Right - Charles Murray argues that they would be reliant on the welfare state

• functionalists - the more children - the less time to socialize them - more likely to turn to crime - due to wanting attention

• Marxists - contribute to capitalism

• Unit of consumption- as well as providing more workers

• feminists - bigger families means more work for the mother

What other factors could have caused the birth rates to fall?

• Beck - risk society - people are fearful of bringing a child into an unsafe world

• less pressure to have kids

• same sex marriages are legal - adopt children

• choosing to stay single

• children are expensive - an economic liability

• serial monogamy

• secularisation - (sex before marriage)

What does IMR mean?

Infant mortality rate

What does IMR measure?

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

Why do people use the number 1,000?

Measurable - easily see what needs changing eg. Government spend more o healthcare

What does Harper ague a falling IMR mean for birth rates?

As IMR falls, birth rates fall

Why is this?

This is because many infants die then parents have more children to replace those that they have lost which then increases the birth rate

What was the IMR is the UK in 1900?

154 - this means that 15% of babies died within the first year

Why did so many children die around the 1900s?

• children played on the streets - around sewage and dead animals - touched their baby siblings (had no/weak immune systems)

• poor healthcare - limited access to medicines

• no access to clean water/dirty living conditions

• malnutrition

Why did the IMR rated fall in the first half of the 20th century?

• improved housing/sanitation

• flushing toilets

• clean drinking water

• reduction in infectious diseases

• better knowledge of hygenie

• improved services for mothers

In the past what type of things were prescribed for pregnant women?

• doctors prescribed alcohol and smoking to cure morning sickness

So now mothers are education and can make healthier choices for their babies

Until the 19th century, what were children seen as?

An economic asset to their parents

Why is this?

The parents could send their children out to work to earn an income for the family (from the age of 5)

(Eg, mining, chimney sweepers, wool mills, mines)

Why has this changed?

Laws - banning child labour as well as school being compulsory

This means children are reliant on their parents

What would Marxists blame?

Capitalism and false needs

Does this lead to smaller or larger families?

Smaller

What are "false needs"?

Wanting things that you don't actually need

Were children seen as special in the 1900s? How has this changed?

Children were not seen as special, more of a help to the family and an economic asset

Now this has changed, as children are seen as special

Why are children now seen as special?

• in the 1900s - there was no contraception - so now people are choosing to - children become more special

• child murderers

• laws introduced around child abuse

• after WW1 and WW2, people started to value others more

Example of a child murderers?

Jamie Bulger case - his mum left him outside a shop (this was normalized), he was then taken away and killed

What is a reason that people have fewer children?

So they can give them a good childhood