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Answer
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Hint
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Migration
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Changing the country of usual residence for a period of at least a year, so that the country of destination effectively becomes the country of usual residence.
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Beck & Beck-Gernsheim (1995)
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These postmodernist sociologists suggest that in late capitalist society, there are simply more choices available to young women and that they are choosing freedom and independence rather than restricting themselves to child-bearing and parenthood.
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Immigration
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Entering another country for a period of at least a year, so that country becomes the one of usual residence.
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2020 Births
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There were 613,936 births in England and Wales that year, a decrease of 4.1% from the year before.
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1901 Births
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There were 1,093,000 births in the UK that year.
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CEBR (Centre of Economic and Business Research, 2014)
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This organisation found that the average cost of raising a child until the age of 21 in the UK was £227,000, and that parents spend 28% of their income on their offspring.
Therefore, this may suggest that parents today may choose to have fewer children for financial reasons. |
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Net Migration
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The difference between immigration and emigration, and therefore whether the population of a country or area has gone up or gone down when both emigration and immigration are taken into account. This is usually expressed in terms of a net gain or increase (+) or a net loss or decrease (-) of population.
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Emigration
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Leaving the usual country of residence for another country for a period of at least a year, so that the country of destination becomes the one of usual residence.
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Infant Mortality Rate
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This is the number of children dying at birth or in their first year of life per 1000 births. This has majorly declined within the past 100 years, as a direct result of improvements in public health services, provision of services such as sanitation and clean water supplies, improved knowledge and education about hygiene, and improvements in living standards (especially diet and nutrition). |
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Helen Wilkinson (1994)
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This sociologist coined the phrase 'genderquake' to describe the radical difference in attitudes towards family life, childbearing, education and careers between the generation of young women brought up since the 1980s and previous generations of women.
One consequence of this, is that women no longer automatically see childbearing as a priority. This could be down to: -The feminisation of the economy and workforce in the 1960s and 1970s - likely leading to young women becoming more career-orientating and postponing marriage, childbearing and family life. -Feminist ideas about the roles of women that challenged traditional and patriarchal ideas about marriage, childbearing and the sanctity of family life, becoming very popular in the 1970s. -Feminist ideas, particularly those based on academic research, had a great deal of influence on social policymakers - led to 1970 Equal Pay Act, 2010 Equality Act, introduction of more female-friendly teaching practices in schools (in turn led to significant rise in number of females entering university), the contraceptive pill becoming more widely available on the NHS. |
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General Fertility Rate
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This is the number of live births per 1,000 women of child-bearing age (15-44) per year.
In 1900, this was 115. In 1999, this was 57. In 2010, this was 64. |
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Fertility Rate
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This is a general term which is used to describe either the general fertility rate or the total fertility rate.
There are 2 main reasons why this fell towards the end of the 20th century: 1. Reliable Birth control: the contraceptive pill became widely available through the NHS in 1961. Between 1962 and 1969, the number of women using the pill rose from an estimated 50,000 to around 1 million. In 1974, the Government gave family planning clinics permission to prescribe the pill for single women. In 2014, approximately 2 million women were using the pill, and it is estimated that at least 70% of women have used it at some stage in their lives. 2. The Feminisation of the Economy: Some women are choosing to have children at a much later period in their lives and to have fewer of them, because they are prioritising careers and economic independence. The evidence clearly shows that women are having children at an older age than they were 40 years ago.
The rates have increased for women aged 30 and above, whilst declining for women aged below 30: -Babies born to women aged 24 years and under = 47% of all births in 1971, only 23% by 2012. -Babies born to women aged over 30 = 21% of all births in 1971, but 49% by 2012.
Explanations for the small rise of this in recent years has mainly been credited to the increase in the number of immigrants coming to live in the UK: -Proportion of births to mothers born outside the UK has increased every year since 1990 when it was only 11.6%. -Babies born to mothers from overseas - Poland, Pakistan and India were the 3 most common countries of birth - accounted for 26.5% of all births in 2013. -The Total Fertility Rate for women born outside the UK was 2.19 in 2013, compared with 1.79 for women born in the UK. -This suggests that the families of women born outside the UK are larger than those of British-born women. |
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Birth Rate
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This is the number of live births per 1,000 of the population each year.
This has been in decline for some time. This has been due to: -Major decline in infant mortality rate However, there have been 'baby booms': -Immediately after First and Second World Wars -1957-1966 -1986-1992 |
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Effects
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In other words, these are the consequences on society and the family due to changes in birth and fertility rates. The Family: -Smaller families are more geographically mobile. -Smaller families may be more affluent (wealthier). -There are more beanpole families.
Couples and Gender Roles: -Smaller families mean that women are more likely to go out to work. -This changes the structure of families into dual earner families. This means there are more symmetrical families. -There is an increase in women's general involvement in the labour market. -This all leads to more equal decision making and power relationships and joint conjugal roles.
Children: -There is more child-centredness - quality rather than quantity. -However, in effect, there are a lack of siblings.
Public Services and Policies: -There are less schools, maternity services and child health services. -This affects costs of maternity and paternity services. -This affects range and type of housing needed. -Government money shifts away from young people to services for older people - but then what happens if the birth rate increases? |
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Total Fertility Rate
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This is the average number of children women will have during their child-bearing years. The number of births in any society depends on both the fertility rates of women (how many children they have) and the number of women of child-bearing age. The UK Government has preferred to use this as a way of looking at fertility since 2009.
In 1900, there were 3.5 children per woman. In 1961, there were 2.8 children per woman. In 2001, there were 1.63 children per woman. In 2020, there were 1.58 children per woman. |
