Topic 4 - Demography

What is the definition of birth rate?

The number of live births per thousand of population per year

What is total fertility rate?

The average number of children a woman will have during her fertile years ( age 15-44)

How do changes in fertility impact the family?

Women have more control over their pregnancy so they may have smaller families and occur later on in life

What is the dependency ratio?

The number of people in a country that are working (productive) vs not working (dependent)

How does a fall in the number of children impact the dependency ratio?

There will be a smaller working population so the burden of dependency will increase

How does a fall in fertility rates impact childhood?

There will be more lonely childhoods due to less siblings

What is the impact of falling fertility rates have on public policies?

There will be fewer schools fewer services needed and fewer jobs

What are birth rates declining in general since the 1990s?

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

How do changes in women’s position lead to a decline in birth rates?

More women are in paid employment

Easier access to divorce

Access to abortion and contraception

increased education opportunities

In 2012 what fraction of women age 45 were childless?

In 2012, 1/5 women age 45 were childless, double the number from 25 years before

What are the reasons for a decline in the birth rate?

Changes in women’s position

Decline in the infant mortality rate

Children are now an economic liability

Child centredness

Future trends in birth rates

What does Sarah Harper argue?

Harper argues that education of women is the most important reason for long term fall in birth and fertility rates. A change in mindset among women, transmit new norms and values of smaller/delayed childbirth

What is the infant mortality rate?

Measures the number of infants who die before the age of 1, per thousand babies born alive, per year

What does Harper argue about the IMR?

A fall in the IMR leads to a fall in the birth rate. This is because if more infants die, more need to be born to replace them but if more survive, more do not need to be reproduced as a replacement

In 1900, what was the IMR in the UK?

154

What is the highest estimated IMR in the world in 2014?

117 in Afghanistan

When did the UK’s IMR start to fall?

The 20th century

Why did the UK’s IMR start to fall in the 20th century?

Improved housing and sanitation

Better nutrition

Better knowledge of hygiene, welfare

When did medical factors begin to contribute to a fall in the IMR?

The 1950s

How did medical factors lead to a fall in the IMR?

Mass immunisation against childhood diseases like whooping cough, measles and diptheria

What was the IMR in the 1950s in the UK?

30

What was the IMR in 2012 in the UK?

4

How were children viewed in the early 1900s?

An economic asset- this is because they could be sent out to work and earn income for the family

How were children viewed in the late 1900s?

They are now viewed as an economic liability due to

Laws- raising school leaving age and rights to work

Changing norms- Children have a right to expect material needs from their parents. cost of raising children has risen

How has child centredness affected birth rates?

There has been a shift from ‘quantity’ to ‘quality’ regarding families and children. Childhood is now socially constructed as an important period in someones life

How have birth rates changed since 2001?

There have been a slight increase in birth rates since 2001

Why has there been a slight increase in birth rates since 2001?

An increase in immigration. Mothers outside the UK have a higher fertility rate than mothers born in the UK

What percentage of babies born in the UK were from mothers originally born outside the UK?

Babies born to mothers from outside the UK accounted for 25% of all births in 2011

What is the expected number of births upto 2041?

800,000 per year

What are the effects of changing fertility?

The family

The dependency ratio

Public services and policies

How is the family effected from changes in fertility?

Smaller families mean women can go out and work, creating a dual earner couple evident in most professional families.

HOWEVER, better off couples may still be able to afford to have big families whilst also working full time

How is the dependency ratio effected by changes in fertility rates?

Fewer babies being born will mean fewer young adults and a smaller working population, so the burden of dependency will begin to increase

What is an alternative view of the dependency ratio being effected by changes in fertility?

Children make up a large part of the dependent population, so a fall in the number of children reduces the ‘burden of dependency’ on the working population

How does a lower birth rate affect public policies?

Fewer schools, maternity and child health services may be needed. Also we will have an ageing population

What is the death rate?

The number of deaths per thousand of the population per year

What was the death rate in 1900 vs 2012?

In 1900 the death rate stood at 19 whereas in 2012 it reached 8.9

What is the general trend of death rates?

Decrease

What does Tranter argue?

Over ¾ of the decline in death rates is due to the fall in the number of deaths from infections diseases like TB and diptheria

By the 1950s, what diseases where replacing infectious diseases?

‘diseases of affluence’ like cancer and heart disease

What reasons have led to a decline in the death rate?

Improved nutrition

Medical improvements

Smoking and diet

Public health measures

The birth rate across Europe has been on the decline since 1912. Explain WHY the birth rate has declined in relation to ‘Children becoming economiic liabilities’.

The birth rate has been decline because there have been laws that were introduced that banned child labour and introduced compulsory schooling. This meant that children could no longer be used for labour and resulted in people having less children, since they were no longer bringing any economic value to the family. Children are no longer an economic asset due to the introduction of such laws and policies.

The birth rate across Europe has been on the decline since 1912. Explain WHY the birth rate has declined in relation to ‘Child centredness’.

The decline in birth rate has been caused due to an increase in child centredness, as childhood is a social construct that is deemed to be an important segment in a persons life. This has made a move from the quantity of children that people have, to the quality of childhood that the children have. This is because, with having more children, it would be more expensive for parents to give those children a good childhood and up-bringing, and so people have resorted to having less children in order to give the fewer children a better quality childhood.

The birth rate across Europe has been on the decline since 1912. Explain WHY the birth rate has declined in relation to ‘Changes in the position of women’.

Increased educational opportunities for women has lead to girls doing better than boys in education and women focusing more on their careers. As a result of women shifting their focus to careers instead of motherhood, women are either choosing to not have children at all, or are delaying their motherhood (which would likely mean that they would have less children than they would have had if they decided to have children at an earlier age due to menopause). Women also have better access to divorce which also leads to people having less children.

The birth rate across Europe has been on the decline since 1912. Explain WHY trends in the birth rate in relation to ‘Future trends in birth rates’.

There has been a decline in the Infant Mortality Rate. The fall in the Infant Mortality Rate leads to a fall in births. This is because if the the Infant Mortality Rate has decreased, this means that means less infants are dying, which means that parents do not have to continue having more children to replace the children that had died, and so the birth rate reduces as less children need to be replaced. In 1900 - the IMR was 154, which meant that 25% of babies died in their first year of life. In the 2md half of the 20th century, the IMR started to fall, this is due to better housing and hygiene, and a fall in the number of married women.

The birth rate across Europe has been on the decline since 1912. Explain the EFFECT of a declining birth rate in relation to ‘The Dependency Ratio’.

The dependency ratio is the relationship between the size of the working or productive part of the population and the size of the non-working or dependent part of the population. Children make up a large proportion of the dependent population. This means that because the birth rate is declining, the dependency ratio will improve as less children means there is a smaller dependent part of the population. However, fewer births now mean that in the future, there will be less young adults that will take over from the older adults who are retiring or dead, as as a result there will be a smaller working part of the population in the future.

The birth rate across Europe has been on the decline since 1912. Explain the EFFECT of a declining birth rate in relation to ‘Public Services’.

Because of the fact that the birth rate is on the decline, in the future, this will mean that there will be fewer schools and ’maternity and child health’ services as there will be less mothers and children who require such services. Women having fewer children will also mean that the average age of the population is rising. Therefore there will be more older people than younger people. The result of that will be that there will be less young people to help keep public services running.

The birth rate across Europe has been on the decline since 1912. Explain the EFFECT of a declining birth rate in relation to ‘Effects on the Family’.

The fact that the birth rate is declining means that families will have more available money. This means that parents will be able to spend more money on the children that they already have and can spend more time with their children. The decline in birth rate will mean that women will be able to go out and work which then creates a ‘dual-earner income’ for the family. Average family sizes will be smaller and theoretically, families should be better off.

Define the Death Rate.

The number of deaths per 1000 of the population per year.

Define ‘Life Expec

The number of years an individual is expected live.

Define ‘Ageism’.

The discrimination of people based on their age.

The death rate has been on the decline. Explain WHY the death rate has declined in relation to ‘Smoking and Diet’.

The decline in death rate has been caused due to people less people smoking, according to Harper. However, in the 21st century, obesity has replaced smoking as the new lifestyle epidemic. Harper has suggested that we are now moving towards a more ‘American’ lifestyle, of consuming large amounts of food.

The death rate has been on the decline. Explain WHY the death rate has declined, in relation to ‘Public Health Measures’.

The death rate has been on the decline due to better housing, purer drinking water, laws being introduced to combat the adulteration of food and drink, pasteurisation of milk, and improved sewage systems.

The death rate has been on the decline. Explain WHY the death rate has declined in realtion to ‘Improved Nutrition’.

McKeown argues that improved nutrition accounted for up to half the reduction in death rates. Better nutrition increased resistance to infection and increased survival chances for those who become infected.

However, this does not explain why women live longer than men despite women having less of the family food supply.

The death rate has been on the decline. Explain WHY the death rate has declined in relation to ‘Medical Improvements’.

The death rate has declined due to important innovations such as the introduction of antibiotics, immunisation, and blood transfusions. Also, the foundation of the NHS had also helped to decrease the death rate as many people were able to access health care for free.

The death rate has been on the decline. Explain WHY the death rate has declined in relation to ‘Other Social Changes’.

The death rate has fallen due to the decline of dangerous manual labour jobs such as mining. Smaller family sizes have reduced the rate of transmission of infectious diseases and illnesses. There is also greater public knowledge of the causes of illnesses so people know how to not contract the illness. There are more people on higher incomes which means that they can afford better quality health care.

The death rate has been on the decline. Explain the EFFECT of a declining birth rate in relation to ‘One Person Households’.

The declining death rate has meant that the number of pensioners living alone has increased and one person pensioner households now account for 12.5%, or 1 in 8, of all households. Most of these one person households are female, due to women living longer and because they are usually younger than their husbands. Among people over 75, there are twoce as many women as there are men. This is called, the ‘feminisation of later life’.

The death rate has been on the decline. Explain the EFFECT of a declining death rate in relation to ‘An increase in Ageism’.

The decline in death rate has caused an increase in the negative stereotyping and unequal treatment of people on the basis of their age. This unequal treatment towards older people can be seen in things such as discrimination in employment. The way of speaking and thinking about old age is that it is spoken like a problem.

The death rate has been on the decline. Explain the EFFECT of a declining death rate in relation to ‘Public Services’.

The decline in the death rate has meant that older people consume a larger proportion of services such as health and social care than any other age groups, especially for those aged 75+. An ageing population may mean that changes to policies and provision of housing and transport will be needed.

The death rate has been on the decline. Explain the EFFECT of a declining death rate in relation to ‘The Dependency Ratio’.

The non-working old people are an economically dependent group who need to be provided for by those of working age. E.g. through taxation. As the number of retired people rises, this increases the dependency ratio. However, ‘old’ does not necessarily mean economically dependent as there still some old people who work.

What is meant by the term, ‘Structured dependency’?.

This is when old people are largely excluded from paid work, leaving them economically dependent on their families or the state.

How do Marxists view old age in capitalist society?

Phillipson (1982) argued that the old are of no use to capitalism because they are no longer productive. As a result, the state is unwilling to support them so the family often helps them.

How might a persons previous occupational position affect them when they are older and retired? Refer to gender and class.

1. Class - middle class have better occupation pensions and greater savings due to having higher salaries. Poor people have a shorter life expectancy.

2. Gender - Women have lower earnings that men which means they have lower valued pensions. They may also experiences sexism and ageism.

Explain the trend in Gloablisastion and Migration in relation to ‘The Feminisation of Migration.’

In the past, most migrants were men. However, today, half of all global migrants are female.Barbara and Arlie found that carework, domestic work and sex work in western countries like the UK and the USA is increasinly being done by women from poorer countries. This is a result of several trends such as:

• Western women remain unwilling to perform domestic labour

• The failure of the state to provide adequate childcare.

Isabel stated that 40% of adult care nurses in the UK are migrants, most of which are female.

Explain the trend in Globalisation and Migration in relation to ‘The Politicisation of Migration’.

Due to the increased flow of migrants, migration has become more of a political issue. Immigration has become linked to national security and anti-terrorism policies. Some of the policies that were aimed at migration and migrants were

1. Assimilation policies - these were the first state policies that were aimed at immigration. They aimed to encourage immigrants to adopt the language, values and customs of the host country

2. Multiculturalism - these policies acknowledge that migrants may wish to retain separate cultures and identities.

Give a criticism of Multiculturalism in ‘The Politicisation of Migration.

A criticism is that multiculturalism may be limited to more superficial aspect of cultural diversity. Shallow diversoty is things such as regarding cultural dishes as ‘Britain’s dishes’. This is accepted by the state. However, deep diversity may be things such as the veiling of women, which is not accepted by the state. This issue is that multicultural education policies only celebrate shallow diversity, yet fails to address deeper problems facing children of migrant backgrounds, such as racism.

Explain the trend in Globalisation and Migration in relation to ‘Differentiation’.

Globalisation has led to diversity in the types of migrant. Some have legal entitlement and some enter the UK without permission.

In 2014, there were more Chinese born post graduates than UK born. 26% Chines, and 23% UK born.

Before the 1990’s, immigration in the UK came from a small number of former British colonies. They formed small, geographically concentrated ethnic groups.

Since the 1990’s, globalisation has lead to what Steven calls, ‘Super-Diversity’. Migrants are now from a wider range of countries.

Cohen (2006) stated that there are 3 types of migrant.

1. Citizens - with full citizenship rights

2. Denizens - privileged foreign nationals who are welcomed by the state, usually high paid employees.

3. Helots - the most exploited group and employers see them as disposable units of labour power. They are found in unskilled and poorly paid jobs.

Explain the trend in Globalisation and Migration in relation to ‘Migrant identities’.

Everyone has multiple sources of identity, these are family, friends, ethnicity, religion. However, for migrants, their country of origin may provide a source of identity. Many migrants have developed hybrid identities. John eade found second generation Bangladeshi Muslims in Britain created hierarchal identities. They saw themselves as muslims, then Bangladeshi, then British.

According to Eriksen, globalisation has created more diverse migration patterns through back and forth movements rather than settling in one country. As a result, migrants are less likely to see themselves belonging to one culture, so they may develop ‘transational identities’.