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Family and households: demographics - Coggle Diagram
Family and households: demographics
Births
'3 Baby booms' in the 20th century. Came after the 2 wars and then again in the 1960s
Total fertility rate:
the average number of children women will have during their fertile years
The UKs TFR fluctuates from year to year but over the long term, it has declined. Since 1973, it has remained consistently below 2.0 children per woman and it fell to a low 1.58 in 2020
Shows that:
-More women are remaing childless than in the past
-Women are postponing having children:the average age for giving birth is now 30.7 years and fertility rates for women in their 40s are now on the increase But older women may be less fertile and they have fewer fertile years remains and so they'll produce fewer children
Reasons for the decline in birth rates:
Changes in women's position:
Major changes in the position of women's during the 20th century including: legal equality with men, including the right to vote, increased educational opportunities- girls now do better than boys at school, easier access to divorce.
Sarah Harper (2012)
The educational of women is the most important reason for the long-term fall in birth and fertility rates. It has led to a change in mindset among women, resulting in fewer children.
Decline in infant mortality rate
Harper
the fall in the IMR leads to a fall in the birth rate. This is because if many infants die, parents have more children to replace those that they've lost, therefore increasing the birth rate. By contrast, if infants survive, parents will have less children
Children are now an economic liability
Laws
banning child.labourz introducing compulsory school and rasing the schools leaving age mean that children remain more economically dependent on their parents for longer
Changing norms
about what children have a right to expect from their parents in material terms mean that the cost of bringing them up has risen.
Deaths
No of deaths per thousand of the population per year
General decline
Reasons for the decline in death rate
Improved nutrition
Thomas Mckeown (1972)
argues that improved nutrition accounted for up to half the reduction in death rates, and was particularly important in reducing the number of deaths related to TB. Better nutrition increased resistance to infection and increased survival chances.
Criticisms
Mckeown does not explain why females, who received a smaller share of the food supply, lived longer than males.
Similarly, he failed to explain why deaths from some serious infections such a measles rose at the same time of improving nutrition.
Medical improvements
After 1950s, improved Medical knowledge, techniques and organisations did help reduce death rates:
-antibiotics
-immunisation
-blood transfusion
-improves maternity
-NHS 1948
-medication, by-pass surgery and other developments have reduced hearts disease deaths by a ⅓
Smoking and diet
Harper
the fall in death rates was due to the reduction in Smoking. However, in the 21st century, obesity has replaced smoking as the new lifestyle epidemic. 2012: ¼ of all adults in the UK were classed as a obese
The ageing population
Linked to three factors:
-increasing life expectancy
-declining infant mortality
-declining fertility
Effects of an ageing population
Public services
Older people consume a large proportion if services such as health and social care than other age groups. However, we should beware if over-generalising, since many old people remain relatively in good health well into old age
Government policies:
There will be increased state responsibility to provide suitable housing for older people. The housing will need to be adaptive to accommodate people’s changing needs as they grow older.
Since there will be an increasing part of the population working from home, the quality of such housing will have to be better.
The government will have to create new/larger communities for older residents to socialise and access services.
To combat this, the government will make changes to the taxation and pension system meaning that taxes will have to rise and the retirement age will increase
Migration