birth rate

• reasons for decline in birth rate

  changes in position of women

  decline in IMR

  children becoming economic liability

  child centredness
• changes in position of women and declining birth rate

  major changes

  • legal equality with men
  • increased education opportunities
  • more women in paid employment
  • changes in attitudes to family life and womens roles
  • easier divorce
  • access to abortion / reliable contraception
• changes in position of women and declining birth rate - HARPER


  education of women most important factor as led to mindset change
• changes in position of women and declining birth rate - SHARPE


  changes in focuses of girls in 1970's to 1990's to careers over family and marriage
• 2012


  1 in 5 women over 45 were childless
• decline in IMR and declining birth rate - HARPER

  fall in IMR leads to fall in birth rate as if baby dies parents have replacement babies
• decline in IMR and declining birth rate - 20th century reasons


  fell from 154 to 3.4 (1900 to 2022)

  • improved housing / sanitation
  • better nutrition
  • better knowledge of hygiene / child health and welfare
  • decline in working women = improved health
  • improved services for mothers and children
• decline in IMR and declining birth rate - 1950's onwards reasons


  medical factors = great influence

  • mass immunisation
  • use of antibiotics
  • improved midwifery
• children becoming economic liability and declining birth rate

  children = economic assets until late 19th century

  laws banning child labour and introduction of compulsory education for longer = children economically dependent for longer

  changing norms about what children have right to expect from parents in material terms = rise in costs

  parents less willing / able to have larger families

  2024 - cost of raising child up to 18 = £220,000
• child centredness and declining birth rate


  increasing child centredness in both family and society means childhood constructed as uniquely important period

  encouraged shift from quantity to quality