Statistics for Sociology: Demography - Birth & Fertility Rates

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

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).

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.

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.

In 1900, this was 115.

In 1999, this was 57.

In 2010, this was 64.

Therefore, this may suggest that parents today may choose to have fewer children for financial reasons.

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.

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?