Demography

Demography

Birth Rate
1. The number of live births per 1000 of the population per year
2. There has been a steady decline in the number of births in England and Wales since 1900
3. In the UK, the TFR has risen since 2001, but it is still much lower than in the past
4. Reasons for the declining birth rate
  1. Change in position of women
    1. Women's attitudes to child-bearing underwent significant change in the later part of the 20th century. Wilkinson coined the phrase 'genderquake' to describe the 'radical' difference in attitudes towards family life, child-bearing, education and careers
  2. Decline in the infant mortality rate
    1. Babies born today are more likely to survive into adulthood- women are having fewer children. In 1900, the UK IMR was 154 (15.4% of babies died before they reached 12 months). In 2022 the IMR was. in 2022 there are 3.422 deaths per 1000 live births
  3. Children are now an economic liability
    1. Laws banning child labour, introduction of compulsory schooling and raising the leaving age means that children are economically dependent on their parents for longer
  4. Child centredness
    1. Golden age of childhood’- this has encouraged parents to have fewer children, choosing quality over quantity
5. Effects of changes in fertility
  1. The family- smaller size, women can go out and work, become more child centred as less children to focus on
  2. The dependency ratio- If there is a higher number of the population who are dependent compared with the working population then there could be said to be a ‘burden of dependency’
  3. Public services and policies- e.g. fewer schools, maternity and child services may be needed, cost of maternity and paternity leave and the types of houses that need to be built.
Death Rates
1. The number of deaths per thousand of the population per year.
2. The death rate in the UK has fallen from 19 in 1900 to 8.9 in 2012
3. Reasons for the declining death rate
  1. Improved nutrition
    1. McKeown- better nutrition increased resistance to infection and increased the survival chances of those who become infected
  2. Medical
    1. After the 1950s improved medical knowledge technologies and organisations helped to reduce the death rates e.g. antibiotics, blood transfusions, maternity services and the NHS 1948
  3. Smoking & diet
    1. Harper- the greatest fall in death rates is simply due to the reduction in the number of people smoking. The UK may be moving to an american style health culture of unhealthy lifestyles accompanied by a lifespan of using costly medications
  4. Public health measures
    1. Improvements to housing, purer drinking water, laws to combat the adulteration of food and drink
4. Consequences
  1. More one person households due to death of a partner
  2. Dependency ratio- more burden on the working population as more people 7 retire
  3. Loneliness and isolation- move pressure on families (may result in a return to classic extended family)
  4. People work for longer to pay for retirement- taking jobs away from young people
  5. Poverty- inadequate wages, pensions and savings
Life Expectancy
1. How long on average a person born in a given year can expect to live
2. Professor Mayhew- the gap between males & females has reduced in recent decades
  1. Decrease in males involved in manual works
  2. Decrease in alcohol/smoking amongst men
  3. Better healthcare for disease that are more likely to affect men e.g. heart disease
3. Women- generally live longer than men (gap is narrowing)
4. North England & Scotland- lower life expectancy than in the South
5. Working class men- unskilled jobs are 3x more likely to die before 65
6. Class- middle class have better pensions (private)
The Ageing Population
1. Increasing life expectancy - people are living longer into old age
2. Declining infant mortality- in today's society few people die early in life
3. Declining fertility fewer young people are being born in relation to the number of people getting older in the population
4. Advantages
  1. Boosting the economy- Lawton- economy is supported by the grey pound e.g. travel & leisure- have time to do so
  2. Community involvement- Taking Part Survey- 4.9 mil 65+ participated in volunteer work, civil engagement activities
  3. Family support- grandparents performed household & childcare tasks- positively effect childhood, family life & economy
5. Disadvantages
  1. Shift in the dependency ratio- increase in the number of people retiring & relying on pensions
  2. More poverty and family hardship- Marxists- taking a pension over paid employment- substantial drop in income
  3. Pensioner one person households- 1/8 of all households. "Feminisation of later life" so women generally live longer than men, housing shortage so younger people struggle to get on the property ladder
6. Ageism- growing negative stigma towards the old as well as unequal treatment of individuals on the basis of their age
7. Structured dependency- made to be economically dependent
  1. Phillipson (marxist)- the elderly are no use to capitalism- no longer productive, so the state is unwilling to support them
8. Postmodernism
  1. Hunt- consumption not production now defines us
  2. ‘’Body maintenance’ and ‘rejuvenation’ where people can recreate their identities
  3. Policy implications- Hirsch- social policy must change in order to tackle the social problems arising due to the ageing population. People must be persuaded not to retire early and indeed continue working after the age of retirement
Migration
1. The movement of people from place to place, between areas or societies, internally or internationally
2. Immigration is the movement of people into an area/ society, whereas emigration refers to movement of people out of an area/ society
3. Emigration
  1. Pull factors- such as higher wages or better opportunities abroad
  2. Push factors- such as economic recession and unemployment at home
4. Immigration
  1. From 1900- WWII (1939-45), the largest immigrant group to the UK were the Irish (economic) followed by Eastern and Central European Jews (refugees) and people of British descent from Canada and the USA- very few immigrants were non-white.
  2. 1950s- Black immigrants from the Caribbean began to arrive in the UK
  3. 1960s & 1970s by South Asian immigrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and by East African Asians from Kenya and Uganda
5. Impact of migration
  1. Population size- increases during immigration, decreases during emigration
  2. Age structure- immigration lowers the average age of the population both directly (immigrants are generally younger) and indirectly (immigrants are younger, therefore they’re more fertile and produce more babies)
  3. Dependency ratio- migrants are mainly of working age reduces the dependency ratio
    1. However, immigrant women tend to have higher fertility rates, which in the short term contributes to a higher dependency ratio by adding more children to the population
      1. However, this also reduces the average age of the population and in due course produces more workers, thereby lowering the dependency ratio as these children grow up and reach working age
  4. Globalisation of migration
    1. Barriers between societies are disappearing and people are becoming increasingly interconnected. Globalisation is the result of factors e.g. the growth of communication & global media, the creation of a global market, developments in technologies, and the fall of communism in Eastern Europe
    2. Acceleration: a speeding up of the rate of migration.Between 2000-2013 international migration increased by 33% reaching 232 million (3.2% of the population)
    3. Differentiation: globalisation is increasing the diversity of the types of migrants. There are a variety of migrants e.g. permanent settlers, temporary workers, spouses, or refugees/asylum seekers (forced migrants)
      1. Vertovec- Super-diversity- migrants come from a wide range of countries and not just former colonies
    4. Cohen
      1. Citizens- with full rights e.g. voting and access to benefits
      2. Denizens- privileged foreign nationals welcomed by the state, e.g. billionaires or highly paid employees of multinational companies
      3. Helots- most exploited group- states and employers see them as a disposable unit of power, a reserve army of labour
6. Feminisation of migration
  1. Female migrants are fitting into patriarchal stereotypes about women’s roles as carers or providers of sexual service
  2. Ehrenrich and Horchschild observed in western culture migrant women provided care work, domestic work, and sex work
    1. Expansion of service occupations such as healthcare
    2. Western women have joined the workforce making them less willing to perform domestic labour
    3. Western men remain unwilling to perform domestic labour
    4. Failure from the state to provide adequate child care
7. Migrant identity
  1. Hybrid identity- made up of two or more different sources
  2. Second generation Bangladesh Muslims in Britain create a hierarchical identity- viewed themselves as Muslim 1st, Bengali 2nd, and British 3rd
  3. Eriksen- globalisation has created more diverse migrant patterns, back and forth movement rather than permanent settlement- transnational identity migrants are less likely to see themselves as belonging to one culture or country
8. Politicisation of migration
  1. Multicultural policies
    1. 2010 Equality Act was implemented in law to prevent discrimination against 9 protected characteristics including race and ethnicity
    2. Castle- argued assimilation policies are counter- productive as they mark out minority groups as culturally ‘backwards’ or ‘othered’
9. Divided working class- assimilation encourages workers to blame migrants for social problems e.g. unemployment resulting in racist scapegoating

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	Created by Holly Smith almost 2 years ago