Demography

• Demography


  The study of populations and their characteristics
• Family and population are closely linked

  New members of the population are mostly born into and raised in families, while the kind of care they receive from their family affects their chances of survival
• When people migrate from country to country or from region to region

  They often rely on kin to facilitate their move
• Characteristics of populations


  • Size
  • Age structure
• Factors affecting the size of a country's population

  • Births
  • Deaths
  • Immigration
  • Emigration
• Britain in 1801 had a population of 10.5 million. By 1901, this stood at 37 million. The current population of the UK is approximately 65 million and one projection is that it will rise to 71 million by 2031
• Until the 1980s, UK population growth was largely the product of natural change-that is, the result of there being more births than deaths. However, since the 1980 most of the growth has come from net migration-that is more immigration than emigration
• Birth rate


  The number of live births per thousand of the population per year
• There has been a long-term decline in the number of births since 1900. In that year, England and Wales had a birth rate of 28.7, but by 2014 it had fallen to an estimated 12.2
• There have been three 'baby booms' in the 20 century. The first two came after the two world wars (1914-18 and 1939-45), as returning servicemen and their partners started families that they had postponed during the war years. There was a third baby boom in the 1960s, after which the birth rate fell sharply during the 1970s
• Total fertility rate (TFR)


  The average number of children women will have during their fertile years
• The UK'S TFR has risen in recent years, but it is still much lower than in the past. From an all-time low of 1.63 children per woman in 2001, it rose to 1.83 by 2014. However, this is still far lower than the peak of 2.95 children per woman reached in 1964 during the 1960s baby boom
• Reasons for the decline in the birth rate


  • Changes in women's position
  • Decline in the infant mortality rate
  • Children are now an economic liability
  • Child centredness
• Changes in women's position

  • Legal equality with men, including the right to vote
  • Increased educational opportunities - girls now do better at school than boys
  • More women in paid employment, plus laws outlawing unequal pay and sex discrimination
  • Changes in attitudes to family life and women's role
  • Easier access to divorce
  • Access to abortion and reliable contraception, giving women more control over their fertility
• The education of women is the most important reason for the long-term fall in birth and fertility rates. It has led to a change in mind-set among women, resulting in fewer children
• Infant mortality rate (IMR)

  The number of infants who die before their first birthday, per thousand babies born alive, per year
• In 1900, the IMR for the UK was 154. In other words, over 15% of babies died within their first year
• Reasons for the decline in the IMR

  • Improved housing and better sanitation
  • Better nutrition, including that of mothers
  • Better knowledge of hygiene, child health and welfare
  • A fall in the number of married women working
  • Improved services for mothers and children
• As a result of all the above developments, by 1950 the UK'S IMR had fallen to 30 and by 2012 it stood at 4-barely one fortieth of its 1900 figure
• While many sociologists claim that the falling IMR led to a fall in birth rates, Brass and Kabir (1978) argue that the trend to smaller families began not in rural areas, where the IMR first began to fall, but in urban areas, where the IMR remained higher for longer
• Dependency ratio


  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
• Falling fertility rates mean fewer children. As a result, childhood may become a lonelier experience as fewer children will have siblings, and more childless adults may mean fewer voices speaking up in support of children's interests
• A lower birth rate has consequences for public services. For example, fewer schools and maternity and child health services may be needed
• Death rate


  The number of deaths per thousand of the population per year
• Reasons for the decline in the death rate

  • Improved nutrition
  • Medical improvements
  • Smoking and diet
• Over three-quarters of the decline in the death rate from about 1850 to 1970 was due to a fall in the number of deaths from infectious diseases such as diphtheria, measles, smallpox, typhoid and above all tuberculosis (TB)
• By the 1950s, so-called 'diseases of affluence' (wealth) such as heart disease and cancers had replaced infectious diseases as the main cause of death
• The greatest fall in death rates in recent decades has come not from medical improvements, but simply from a reduction in the number of people smoking
• Harper fails to explain why females, who receive a smaller share of the family food supply, lived longer than males. Similarly, he fails to explain why deaths from some infectious diseases, such as measles and infant diarrhoea, actually rose at a time of improving nutrition.
• Medical improvements before the 1950s

  Played almost no part in the reduction of deaths from infectious disease
• Medical improvements after the 1950s

  Helped to reduce death rates. Advances included the introduction of antibiotics, immunisation, blood transfusion, improved maternity services, and the setting up of the National Health Service in 1948. More recently, improved medication, bypass surgery and other developments have reduced deaths from heart disease by one-third
• Smoking and diet


  The greatest fall in death rates in recent decades has come not from medical improvements, but simply from a reduction in the number of people smoking. However, in the 21st century, obesity has replaced smoking as the new lifestyle epidemic.
• In 2012, one quarter of all UK adults were obese.
• Deaths from obesity have been kept low as a result of drug therapies.
• Harper suggests that we may be moving to an 'American health culture' where lifestyles are unhealthy but where a long lifespan is achieved by use of costly medication.
• Public health measures in the 20th century

  • More effective central and local government with the necessary power to pass and enforce laws led to a range of improvements in public health and the quality of the environment, including improvements in housing, purer drinking water, laws to combat the adulteration of food and drink, the pasteurisation of milk, improved sewage disposal methods, and the Clean Air Acts which reduced air pollution.
• Other social changes that played a part in reducing the death rate during the 20th century

  • The decline of dangerous manual occupations such as mining
  • Smaller families reduced the rate of transmission of infection
  • Greater public knowledge of the causes of illness
  • Lifestyle changes, especially the reduction in the number of men who smoke
  • Higher incomes, allowing for a healthier lifestyle
• Life expectancy


  How long on average a person born in a given year can expect to live
• For example, males born in England in 2013 can expect to live for 90.7 years (94 for females).
• Over the past two centuries, life expectancy has increased by about two years per decade.