Demography

• What is demography?

  The study of population and its characteristics
• Birth Rate


  The number of live births per 1000 per year

  > decline in Uk births since 1900 (29) is now (12)

  > ‘spikes‘ - WW1+2 “baby booms”
• Fertility Rate


  The average number of kids a woman has in her fertile years (15-44)

  > declined from 2.95 in 1964 to 1.56 in 2021
• why has the birth rate fallen?


  > change in attitudes to women's role (Harper - education)

  > contraception

  > fall in infant mortality rate

  > kids economic liabilities (child centeredness, childlessness increasing)
• Effects of fallen birth rate


  > dual earner couples due to small families

  > dependency ratio - savings/taxes of workers support dependent

  > effect on public services - fewer schools needed

  > ageing population
• Death rate


  Number of deaths per 1000

  > trend over the past 100 years is a substantial fall

  (1900 = 16)(2000 = 10)
• Why has the death rate fallen?


  > Tranter - fall in infectious diseases - now ‘diseases of affluence’ (obesity)

  > Medical improvements

  > NHS 1948

  > improved nutrition = half of the fall (Mckeown)

  > lifestyle change (smoking, poverty, less overcrowd)

  > public health measures (housing, sanitation, sewage)

  > higher incomes
• Life expectancy


  average age to which one is expected to live

  > rising (1971 = 34.1) (2022 = 40.7)

  > result of decline in birth rate and decline in death rate
• Ageing population

  2041 - as many 78 year olds as 5 year olds

  Effects: pressure on ps, policy implications, increased one person pensioner households

  > people live longer, have more sexual partners (STI rise in elderly)

  > help with childcare, in home, volunteer
• Dependency ratio


  the proportion of workers who pay tax for services (NHS and pensions) in relation to those dependent on such (elderly, children, the sick)
• Ageism and modernity


  ageism as a result of ‘structured dependency’ - those excluded from work by retirement = dependent and stigmatised identity

  > Marxists - old are no use to capitalism, no productivity

  > Pilcher - inequalities in elderly remain

  > Hirsch - social policy change needed(financing longer, housing for elderly smaller, ‘grey vote)

  > media how more positives
• migration definitions


  Emigration - movement OUT of an area

  Immigration - movement INTO an area

  Net Migration - difference between numbers immigrating and emigrating
• push and pull factors


  push - reasons to leave

  Pull - reasons to draw you to a new place
• Emigration


  until 1980, more people migrating than immigrating

  reasons : (recession, better opportunities, labour shortages in destination countries, assisted passage schemes
• Internal migration 


  Within UK

  > industrial revolution - people moved north

  > 20th century - people moved south - industry growth

  > recently - people move to london + south east to service industry
• Immigration


  1994-2004 - immigration rose annually to UK

  Reasons: expansion of EU, study/work

  Effects: population increase, age of population increase, decrease burden on dependency ratio on working population
• Immigration and dependency ratio


  > migrants mainly working age - decrease burden on working population - more workers!

  > immigrant workers have higher fertility rates - Increase burden on working population and dependent - more care needed!

  > longer immigrants settle, closer fertility rate to national average - decrease burden on working population - more workers

  >overall reduces burden on workers by increasing amount
• what is globalisation?


  growing inter connectedness of the world (travel, media, internet, news, transport)
• effects of globalisation on migration


  > acceleration of migration (easier to travel)

  > differentiation: increase in diversity and types of migrants (temporary workers, students)

  > Vertovec = ‘super diversity’

  > feminisation of migration

  > migrant identities formed
• feminisation of migration


  Ehrenreich and Hochschild

  > past=men migrated more, now=almost 50% women

  > more women now migrate for work

  > increase in poorer women migrating to work as carers, sex workers and domestic workers
• migrant identities


  > Hybrid identities - develop 2+ sources of identity

  > Eriksen - continual movement, don’t feel like they belong to any one culture, instead develop transnational ‘neither/nor’ identities
• politicisation of migration


  > assimilation - encourage migrants to speak language + adopt values + culture of host society

  CRITICISM- Castles: marginalise minority cultures

  > Multiculturalism - accept migrants wishes to retain separate cultural identity

  > Eriksen - gov only accepts superficial aspects of diversity

  > shallow diversity - chicken tikka masala as British dish

  > deep diversity - accept veiling of women and arranged marriage